GOP tries to run away from yet another proudly racist House candidate

Republicans have had to deal with the embarrassment of yet another openly racist candidate running on the GOP ticket, in what is becoming a trend for the party.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) pulled its official endorsement Monday of congressional candidate Seth Grossman. Grossman was running for the seat in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, which will be vacant after the retirement of Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R-NJ).

Grossman has posted a series of racist comments online attacking black and Muslim people.

Grossman claimed that “blacks were not enslaved by whites”; argued that “welfare programs” did “more long term damage to blacks” than slavery; said Islam “has nothing in common” with other modern world religions; called Islam a “cancer”; and said America is “in the middle of a war with Islam.”

He also endorsed a column from the white supremacist website VDare that said blacks cannot reason, communicate, or “control their impulses” as well as other races. The column said blacks “are a threat to all who cross their paths.”

When Grossman posted the racist column on his Facebook page, he wrote: “Oy vay! [sic] What so many people, black, white and Hispanic, whisper to me privately but never dare say out loud publicly.”

The NRCC finally decried Grossman’s “bigotry” and rescinded its endorsement of his campaign — weeks after video surfaced of Grossman calling diversity “a bunch of crap,” and only after coverage of his racism became too loud to ignore.

But this is a problem all over for Republicans this year. Open white nationalists and even actual Nazis just keep running for the GOP nomination in congressional races — and sometimes winning.

In North Carolina, self-identified Nazi Arthur Jones is now the Republican nominee — despite bragging about his membership in the American Nazi Party and devoting a section of his campaign website to Holocaust denial.

Also in North Carolina, state legislative candidate Russell Walker has stated that “God is a racist and white supremacist,” and argued that Jewish people “descend from Satan.”

In Wisconsin, Paul Nehlen, a self-described “pro-white” figure who promotes Nazi ideology, is running for Speaker Paul Ryan’s seat.

In Virginia, Corey Stewart, who recently won the GOP nomination to oppose Sen. Tim Kaine in the U.S. Senate race, called Nehlen a “personal hero.”

In some instances, Republicans have sought to distance themselves or disavow these candidates. But at the same time, the party also supports racist leaders like Trump.

Trump has infamously called Mexicans rapists and described immigrants as “animals,” called for black men to be executed for a crime they did not commit, and praised white supremacists as “very fine people.”

Along with Trump, the Republican Party has an openly racist member of Congress in its ranks.

For years, Iowa’s Steve King has used his position to advocate for a host of white supremacist causes and ideas.

These new racist candidates aren’t sudden exceptions to the rule. They are what Republicans, after embracing Trump and King, are all about in 2018.

Suddenly decrying “bigotry” when it becomes an inconvenient election year albatross is meaningless when the party spends the rest of the year salivating over firing up racists to get them to vote Republican.