Column: Dealing with extremists, some Republican leaders find sorry is the hardest word

Wendy Rogers, who represents a rural slice of Arizona within the state Senate, is a nasty piece of enterprise.

She not solely peddles the fiction that the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump, however suggests those that fail to consider that lie and different delusions ought to be hanged.

When she isn’t selling screw-loose conspiracy theories, the Flagstaff Republican friends round with Holocaust deniers and cheers for Russia and its strongman, Vladimir Putin.

“A globalist puppet for [financier George] Soros and the Clintons” is how Rogers described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a hero to a lot of the world — in a noxious tweet that managed to pair two favourite tropes of right-wingers and antisemites.

However within the view of Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, there’s something worse than spewing hate and undermining democracy: being a Democrat.

Rogers was simply one other of these flaky perennial candidates — a loser in 5 elections in 10 years — till Ducey sank $500,000 into her 2020 bid for the state Senate. Her Democratic opponent, Felicia French, wasn’t some worldwide drug trafficker or ax murderess, however somewhat a nurse and veteran of the battle in Afghanistan.

The funding by the governor’s political motion committee turned out to be a sound one, serving to guarantee Republicans maintained their majority within the state capital.

“What I’ve needed to do is transfer my agenda ahead,” Ducey informed reporters final week at an occasion selling youth scholarships. “I’m happy with what we’ve been capable of accomplish.”

Requested about Rogers’ execrable conduct, the governor replied — twice — “She’s nonetheless higher than her opponent.” Rogers shared his sentiments in a tweet with a coronary heart emoji.

Be that as it could, on Tuesday the Arizona Senate voted 24 to three to censure Rogers, with 11 Republicans becoming a member of 13 Democrats in help of the decision. Afterward, Ducey applauded the transfer, saying “antisemitic and hateful language has no place in Arizona.”

He expressed no second ideas about serving to elect Rogers within the first place.

Politics has at all times been about discovering the means to an finish, and profitable in any respect prices is hardly a brand new idea. However there’s something significantly unworthy and low about Republican leaders refusing to readily condemn and ostracize the haters, extremists and nut circumstances of their midst.

(Maintain these emails and letters about Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and different left-wing members of “the Squad.” You possibly can criticize their views, however none has advocated capital punishment for his or her political foes, or voted to overturn the need of voters in a free and truthful election.)

With the notable exceptions of Utah‘s Sen. Mitt Romney and Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — all of whom have skilled blowback from fellow Republicans — a lot of the intraparty condemnation of the GOP’s Aryan-salute wing has been terse and grudging.

Home Republican chief Kevin McCarthy waited days earlier than castigating Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona — who as soon as sought to create a whites-only congressional caucus — for talking to a white supremacist gathering final weekend in Florida. (It was there that Rogers proposed a “newly constructed set of gallows” to dispatch political opponents.)

Tracked down by Punchbowl Information’ Jake Sherman, McCarthy stated participation within the hate rally was “appalling and improper.”

“There’s no place in our social gathering for any of this,” the Bakersfield Republican stated, although a day later, with TV cameras rolling, he declined to repeat his criticism.

“I perceive your job, perceive what you’re making an attempt to do,” he informed reporters. “I’ve already commented on that.”

Take that, bigots and antisemites.

Others within the Home management served up equally weak tea, amongst them Indiana‘s Rep. Jim Banks, head of the conservative Republican Research Committee, who tut-tutted that it was “unbecoming” for a member of Congress to point out up in such a scabrous setting, as if Greene and Gosar had wearing white forward of Memorial Day.

What political leaders say — or don’t — issues.

Brian Levin, who heads the Middle for the Research of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, recalled how simply days after the 9/11 assaults, President George W. Bush visited a mosque and spoke eloquently of his respect for Islam. The variety of hate crimes in opposition to Muslims instantly fell.

Conversely, the divisive rhetoric from Trump and a few of his extra rabid followers coincided with a major rise in hate crimes throughout his administration — practically 20%, in response to the FBI.

“What’s actually essential is leaders of all events stand in opposition to bigotry and lawlessness,” Levin stated. “It’s quite simple. Make it constant…. This shouldn’t be controversial.”

Arizona’s governor is kind of proper to say he wants a Republican majority to enact significant insurance policies. Any concept with out the votes to cross is nothing greater than a theoretical notion.

However absolutely behind many minds is the information that Rogers, Greene, Gosar and the like have a good-sized following, nevertheless repugnant their views. A lot of their supporters vote Republican and a few might take offense at seeing their fellow vacationers condemned.

McCarthy is relying on a strong GOP turnout in November to meet his dream of turning into Home speaker. Ducey, who has handed on working in Arizona’s aggressive U.S. Senate race, is mentioned as a attainable 2024 vice presidential candidate, perhaps on a ticket along with his good buddy Mike Pence.

Condemning bigotry and hatred shouldn’t be exhausting. It’s solely tough when those that know higher attempt to cut up the distinction between proper and improper.