that before Trump the GOP at least had some honor? Some integrity? Some something or other?
Well, Youngkin and his coded racism is what the GOP "used" to be before Trump.
Youngkin ran the same style of Southern Strategy-Lee Atwater dog-whistle-white-fear stoking campaign that republicans have been known for for decades.
And another point...
Back in 2012, after the election there were interviews with "cross-over" Obama voters and one white guy said point-blank , "I voted for the N-word". Used the word without hesitation and with no absolutely shame. Because there was "no way" he was going to vote for "the Mormon".
So anyone that thinks racists/misogynists/homophobes won't vote for the Democratic candidate one time and the Republican candidate the next has no fucking clue what they are talking about because they have never really considered the hierarchy of bigotry - probably because they are in a position where they don't have to because it doesn't touch them. Not in any real way. Not in their daily lives.
And make no mistake, bigotry has a hierarchy - the whole "Who am I better than today?" self-soothing mantra of bigotry extrapolates out to "Who is better?" - the N-word or the Mormon. For that particular bigot, the black man was seen as less of a threat than the Mormon. And the hierarchy of bigotry works exactly that way.
The white man didn't suddenly stop being a racist when he voted for Obama - Romney's religion just scared him more.
So, yeah, bigots (racists, etc.) could vote for Biden in one election but Youngkin in another election. Because Youngkin spoke to their bigotry in couched terms that allowed them to feel good about themselves and how they think - their biases and prejudices - their implicit racism.
Trump's overt hate turned them off but Youngkin's more palatable approach - the couched and cloaked phrases and words of hate - appealed to them. They can tell themselves it wasn't their feelings of racism, it was education. It was parental rights. Even though the root fear of CRT and Toni Morrison's "Beloved" is steeped in racism.
Not all racists are the in-the-trenches overt racists carrying tiki torches. Most are those that live in the realm of implicit racism. Which is why one runs into so much denial from those who do hold to racist thinking but don't think they are racist. (Oh, no. I'm not racist. I'm just worried about my children feeling bad and schools teaching them things I don't want them to learn.)
K&R
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