In a different America, Kelly Loeffler and her financial transactions — that sure as hell look like she was trading on privileged information — would be the political scandal of the year, if not the decade.
But this is Trump’s America, where we have the president using a lapdog U.S. Attorney General to dig up dirt on his enemies; tweeting videos of senior citizens shouting “White Power!”, using teargas on U.S. citizens for a photo op, failing to act on information that Russia was putting bounties on the lives of American soldiers. And today, bragging about sending in U.S. Marshals to assassinate U.S. citizens.
But we just see all of these things wash over in a news cycle as Trump comes up with a new outrage to distract from the old one.
Loeffler is, among other things, in her role as part-owner of the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA’s version of Donald Sterling. Hers is a more Southern bougie style than Sterling’s crass dirty-old-man routine, but she shares Sterling’s worldview of not valuing the lives of Black and brown people.
Loeffler, appointed to the U.S. Senate by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 after Sen. Johnny Isakson retired for health reasons, is one of 21 candidates on the ballot for her first real election. She trails Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, the favorite candidate of WNBA players who are united against Loeffler. Warnock, at 30 percent, and Loeffler, at 26 percent are the frontrunners in the huge field.
There was a time when Republicans used to stand for certain principles. Maybe you didn’t agree with them, and maybe they were abhorrent. But the Republicans decided the battlegrounds, defined their positions, and made the arguments. Small government. Strong military. Law and order. “Family values.” States’ rights. Church, Mom, and Apple Pie.
Most of those principles have been washed away by the past two Republican presidents. We live in a surveillance state straight from Orwell’s worst nightmares. We have an amoral grifter president who poses with a Bible he has never read. An unhinged lunatic tweeting “LAW AND ORDER!” and protecting the rights of statues but not people.
What does the GOP have left?
Racism, and conspiracy theories. Which gives you … racist conspiracy theorists! Stoking white fears has been a cornerstone of Republican strategy for decades, but it’s never been so out in the open. You had Lee Atwater on tape heard decades later describing making the party’s racism more subtle and abstract. Now we have Stephen Miller shaping policy.
And today Loeffler proudly accepted the endorsement of QAnon nutter Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene is favored to win a seat in the House this fall, with Trump’s blessing. Greene has a remarkable resume of racism, calling George Soros (who is Jewish) a Nazi, describing Black people as being held in slavery by the Democratic Party, saying she would be proud to see Confederate monuments if she were Black (“I’d say, ‘Look how far I have come in this country.’”)
Greene tried to get Muslim Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their oaths of office on a Bible, even though elected officials can swear on any document they see fit, including the Quran or the Constitution. She accused both of supporting Sharia, and said both should “Go back to the Middle East.” Even House GOP leaders have denounced her. No matter, if you’re white you’re alright in Loeffler’s world, and she’s proud to have her on Team Kelly.
It’s not the first time Loeffler has aligned with racist conspiracy theorists, as she went on OAN to complain about the Black Lives Matter movement with Jack Posobiec, extensively tied to white supremacist movements by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Oh, Republicans still stand for guns, too. But only for white people.
Loeffler is a big part of that. She’s an avowed 2nd Amendment defender, but when armed Black people began protesting the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, she declared “we cannot allow mob rule.”
In the past, Republicans knew there were lines they couldn’t cross publicly, and would freely condemn KKK leader David Duke. Robert Byrd had to renounce his history with the KKK. Now, we have Trump telling the “Proud Boys to stand back and stand by” — a clear call to arms — and Loeffler enthusiastically welcoming a partnership with Greene.
Oh, and BTW, for the fucktards out there disintegrating in a puddle of white fragility, let’s see how funny Election Day jokes are as Trump mobilizes his goon squads and fanboi militias to kill more of us. If you don’t get how high the stakes are yet, you are definitely the fucking problem.
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