How Republicans learned to stop worrying and embrace 'replacement theory' -- by name

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/27/how-republicans-learned-stop-worrying-embrace-replacement-theory-by-name/


President Donald Trump constantly pushed the envelope in ways that made his allies uncomfortable. They sometimes spoke out, especially early on, only to have the base stand by the president and rebuke them. That meant that when Trump pushed even further, his duly chastened allies increasingly responded accordingly: with silence. It’s how we got from a guy carping about supposed voter fraud in an election he won, in 2016, to a guy spurring a harebrained effort to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost.

The boiled frog (the proverbial tale of a frog that is boiled too slowly to realize what’s happening to it) is now returning, in the form of “replacement theory.” The GOP seems either unconscious of what’s happening — or doesn’t care.

As we wrote a while back, the Republican Party’s increasing embrace of replacement theory — the idea popular in white supremacist circles that immigrants are being brought in to replace native-born (read: White) Americans — has been a slow build. For years, it was an idea relegated to infrequent mentions by fringe Republicans who operated outside the political mainstream and weren’t generally welcomed in politer circles of the GOP. When it was mentioned, it was dressed up as something besides replacement theory, per se.

What has transpired over the past week, though, shows how quickly something can be injected into the bloodstream when that dressed-up version is initially given a pass. While some of the most prominent members of the conservative movement have increasingly espoused a version of replacement theory without calling it that — and sometimes seeking to differentiate it from the white supremacist version — they’re now just straight-up embracing the label.

*snip*

[sop]

1. The recent census revealed just how close whites actually are to losing their majority status.

Merely creating free-floating anxieties about minorities won't be enough any longer, drastic measures will be needed. It will only get uglier.

[rampartc]

2. the republican version of "replacement theory"

seems to be that biden is inviting immigrants to become "democrat voters." they also believe that trump's wall was very near completion and was working perfectly.

i do think that immigrants are being recruited, by american businesses, primarily red state (and red counties in ca) agribusiness.

[tanyev]

3. We will need to replenish the labor force after a lot of them kill themselves off with Covid.