NYT’s Mara Gay: Modern GOP Was Founded on Backlash to Civil Rights

GAY: “I mean, that’s right. We have to kind of go back to the historical origins of the modern-day Republican Party, which does not mean that every single Republican subscribes to these beliefs. Quite the opposite. But yet, the origin of the Republican Party as we know it today really has to do with a backlash to Civil Rights. And so, any understanding of that Republican Party without that historical backlash to civil rights is incomplete. And so while of course a majority, we hope, of Republicans do not espouse these views, I think we can safely say that, you know, that thread has always been there and there has always been a tension between the ways it is expressed, what’s acceptable, what kind of language can we use around it, how close do you get to some of the grosser parts of that base, versus just plain conservative economic agenda. And so, that tension has always been there. The difference is that Donald Trump has brought forth an id, if you will, and I’m certainly not the first to say this, that is really the darkest face of that. And I think it’s really up to the Republican Party to excise that, confront it once and for all and move forward, but they do not appear in a position to do so.”