“Trump-Led GOP: Staking Out Controversial Positions on Race and History

The Republican party’s candidates have adopted positions that have become increasingly polarizing when it comes to race and history. Led by President Donald Trump’s own messaging, several contenders in the 2020 election are pushing rhetoric that has proven to be deeply divisive. In the aftermath of the protests that broke out across the country in the summer of 2020, former Vice President and presumptive Republican nominee Joe Biden proposed supporting four actions to tackle police brutality and systematic racism, including banning choke holds. However, President Trump and many of his fellow GOP candidates diverged sharply from Biden’s proposals, opposing efforts to reduce the power of police officers. The President has largely chosen to focus on the rise of protesters rather than the causes and implications of the movement, claiming without evidence that “many of these people are professionally managed” and “professionally organized mobs”. Mr Trump continued to push law and order as a rallying cry, vowing to “restore America’s heritage and to defend it from those who seek to tear it down.” On the issue of Confederate statues that celebrate the South’s secession from the Union, candidate positions have also shifted sharply to the right during the Trump years. While some Republicans such as Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin initially supported the removal of such monuments, many have since changed their stance, instead pushing for “historical preservation” of the statues. Despite pleas from civil rights groups, many candidates have hesitated to outright condemn the Confederacy, instead preaching “healing and unity”. During a recent debate with incumbent Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama, GOP Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville even went so far as to praise Confederate soldiers for “fighting for their state” and claimed that the statues were “just a friendly reminder of our history”. The Republican party’s candidates are drawing ever clearer battle lines on the issue of race and are relying on economical messages from President Trump to rile up their base. While there is a great deal of disagreement even among Republicans on the best way to move forward, it is no longer possible to ignore the party’s increasingly polarizing positions.