In Georgia and NC, Republicans quietly watch their integrity slip away

Just two months ago, Iowa Republican Steve King lost in his primary attempt for ninth U.S. House term. Republicans were surely relieved - they had stripped King of committee assignments and admonished him for inflammatory statements about race and immigration. He was bad for the brand, but finally, he was gone.

Now comes something even worse - Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter and virulent racist who on Tuesday won a GOP primary runoff in a U.S. House district in Georgia. Greene’s victory came in part because neither House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nor the National Republican Congressional Committee took sides in the runoff. She is likely to win in November in her conservative district, making her the first unabashedly pro-QAnon member of Congress.

It’s a stain on the institution and her party. But Republicans, some of whom protested earlier in the race, are now quiet.

The same has been true this week as disturbing questions surfaced about Madison Cawthorn, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. On Monday, the left-wing blog Jezebel and others questioned why Cawthorn appeared to use symbols connected to white nationalism on at least three occasions. Cawthorn declined to speak to a Charlotte Observer reporter about the matter, but he removed 2017 Instagram photos of a trip with his brother to Adolf Hitler’s German mountain retreat.

It wasn’t long ago that a candidate who even played near the fire of white nationalism would earn warnings about poor judgment from his party’s leaders. But this week, again, Republicans were quiet.

At the least, their silence is a significant political risk. It comes as the country is experiencing a national shift on racial justice, one that includes once-loyal GOP voters who are now questioning the party’s place in the discussion. But even more, welcoming QAnon supporters and, possibly, white nationalism sympathizers to Congress diminishes the GOP and the very many people in it who are neither racists nor subscribers to reckless conspiracy theories.

So why the hush from GOP leaders? In part, it’s because Republicans are loath to lose two U.S. House seats for two critical years in Washington. Certainly, it’s not the first time leaders in either party have looked the other way at bad behavior in their ranks.

But criticizing Greene or questioning Cawthorn might also bring more immediate consequences - specifically the wrath of President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, when Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois criticized QAnon as “nonsense” and said it had “no place” in Congress, he was quickly slapped on Twitter by the Trump campaign.

The president, after all, has little problem wading in conspiracy theories and welcoming white nationalists as “very fine people.” After Tuesday’s primaries, he singled out Greene among other Republican winners, calling her a “future Republican star.” It was inevitable that Trump’s years-long embrace of the fringe would lead to extremists running and now winning as GOP candidates. It also was inevitable that Republicans in Congress, who mostly have tried to keep their distance from President’s worst attributes, would eventually have to face the consequences of not standing up for their party.

Now, most of them are again bowing quietly, and their silence is dangerous not only for the GOP, but for the country. It leaves the door open for extremists and racists to further enter the mainstream. It gives them a currency they’ve long been denied - the light of legitimacy. That’s not worth a couple of U.S. House seats, in this or any election. Republicans should speak up, ask questions and condemn any party member who espouses or embraces fringe, bigoted beliefs. It’s no longer just bad for their brand. It’s becoming the brand.

This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 12:44 PM.