CT Blue

Today, the New London Day, exercising its usual bad judgment, gave front page prominence to this article, in which we are told that an outraged John Scott, speaking out in his role as the chair of the Groton Republican Town Committee (now dominated by right wing loonies), has demanded the resignation of Democratic Town Councilor Aundre Bumgardner:

Republicans are calling for Democratic Town Councilor Aundré Bumgardner to apologize and resign over social media comments he posted after President Donald Trump said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” during last week’s presidential debate.

Bumgardner posted on Twitter and Facebook that: “Trump says, ‘Proud boys, stand back and stand by.’ He fails to condemn white supremacists. He is a racist, and he doesn’t even care to hide it. If you vote for him, so are you.”

The news release, issued by Republican Town Committee Chairman John Scott, alleges that Bumgardner’s “post stated quite clearly that all Republicans, especially those who support President Trump are racists.” Bumgardner said he did not say “all Republicans.”

Before going on, I should disclose that this humble blog has dealt with Mr. Scott before, even going so far as to contemplate a lawsuit against him for plagiarizing one of my posts.

So, lets deconstruct this a bit. Nowhere does Scott deny that Trump is a racist. His argument, to the extent it is clear, is that one can vote for a racist, whose campaign has focused on inciting racial division (“stand back and stand by”, “Biden (read-black people) will destroy the suburbs, etc.), one of whose closest advisers (that would be Stephen Miller, may he rot in hell) is an out and proud racist, whose judicial picks have sanctioned voter suppression aimed at black people, without actually being a racist. The list of racist practices and policies is longer, but why belabor the point?

Why it’s a bit like-yes I’m going to go there- a German in 1932 saying he wasn’t an anti-Semite just because he was voting for Adolph Hitler. It’s almost worse, in a sense, because Hitler’s platform had other features than anti-Semitism, but Trump’s is now reduced to nothing but clearly audible dog whistles. If you’re voting for Trump, and you’re not voting for the racism, what are you voting for? Okay, possibly you just believe in some mythical form of Fascism that is not grounded in blaming some “other” for all your problems, but that’s a bit of a stretch, and it’s just as bad. So, if John prefers the term “Fascist”, I think Aundre should oblige.

All this is a bit rich coming from a guy who pretty much argued that you could label anyone a socialist who was in favor of bringing back tolls on our highways. I’d say the logical connection between Trumpism and racism is a lot stronger that that between tolls and socialism.

Finally, and this is directed specifically to John, Aundre didn’t say that all Republicans are racists, he basically said that any Republican, or anyone else, who votes for Trump is a racist. There’s a difference. No one is forcing any registered Republican, or anyone else, to fill in that little circle with the genius’s name next to it. When you do so, you are supporting a clearly racist agenda, carried out in both words and deed. Those little kids in cages all have brown skin, after all. It’s not a minor issue that can be lost among the other travesties that Trump has inflicted upon us; it is the major issue. A vote for Trump is a vote for racism.