title:  In One Cowardice Move, GOP Congress Just PROVED They’re As Racist As Trump
text: In one of his first moves since becoming the President-Elect, Donald Trump has chosen one of the worst human beings in the country as his Chief Strategist. Steve Bannon was the Editor in Chief of Breitbart News, a site that s popular with white nationalists. Democrats in Congress have penned a letter asking Trump to fire Bannon. Every single Republican sided with the white nationalist. If that doesn t tell you everything you need to know about today s Republican party, nothing will.Why do white nationalists flock to Bannon s former site? Well, for one thing, the site defends white nationalists. If you want to be creeped out, read this. If you aren t sure what the alt-right is, this article will tell you in chilling detail about the pro-Russian isolationists who believe in studying race differences, with, of course, white Christians coming out on top.Then there are articles blaming African-Americans, really for nearly everything, but especially for crime.In normal times, Washington conservatives and the Bannon alt-right can t stand each other. The alt-right is isolationist. Washington conservatives are hawkish. More significantly, as the Washington Post put it:Constitutional conservatives can t stand the alt-right. Conservatives   real conservatives   believe that only a philosophy of limited government, God-given rights and personal responsibility can save the country. And that creed is not bound to race or ethnicity. Broad swaths of the alt-right, by contrast, believe in a creed-free, race-based nationalism, insisting, among other things, that birth on American soil confers superiority. The alt-right sees limited-government constitutionalism as pass ; it holds that only nationalist populism on the basis of shared tribal identity can save the country. It s a movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism.Not this year. Donald Trump has effectively normalized the underbelly of racism. While Congress for years has been hinting at their own racism with their refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of our first African-American President, few have admitted their racism, until now.If you still aren t convinced, those applauding the Bannon appointment include former KKK leader David Duke and the chairman of the Nazi Party. Nearly every civil rights group opposed the appointment.When Democrats wrote the letter, signed by 169 members of Congress, to fire Bannon, not a single Republican was brave enough or had enough integrity to agree that a white nationalist shouldn t be in the White House.Here s one of the key passages:Since the election there have been a number of incidents across the country in which minorities, including Muslim-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Jewish-Americans have been the targets of violence, harassment and intimidation. Mr. Bannon s appointment sends the wrong message to people who have engaged in those types of activities, indicating that they will not only be tolerated, but endorsed by your administration. Millions of Americans have expressed fear and concern about how they will be treated by the Trump administration, and your appointment of Mr. Bannon only exacerbates and validates their concerns.Very proud to be leading 169 Members of Congress asking @realDonaldTrump to rescind his appointment of alt-right leader Steve Bannon. pic.twitter.com/JSz9IPT9Gv  ((David Cicilline)) (@davidcicilline) November 16, 2016There is little political fallout from disavowing a white nationalist, at least you d think, but the Republican voters have proven that racism and white supremacy no longer belong in the closet. The mostly white Republicans in Congress might still keep pretending that they aren t as racist as their party s President Elect, but their failure to sign this letter was really all we needed to know.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images.