The GOP Primary of Hate

By David Corn  July 8, 2023

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Policy Conference in Washington on June 23, 2023. Jose Luis Magana/AP

In the fall of 2015, at a Donald Trump town hall in New Hampshire, an attendee yelled, “We have a problem in this country; it’s called Muslims...When can we get rid of them?” Then–GOP presidential candidate Trump did not seek to counter this expression of hatred and bigotry. Instead, he legitimized it. “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things,” he reassured the shouter. “You know, a lot of people are saying that.”

This was but one of a great many instances when Trump exploited and encouraged animus—which obviously was a winning strategy for him. His campaign of fear and loathing quashed all his Republican opponents, who foolishly believed they could succeed by emphasizing competence, policy, and ideology. The 2016 GOP primary was driven by anger and grievance. And it is happening again, only this time Trump has no monopoly on the venom.

A little over a week ago, the presidential campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) shared one of the most vile political videos of recent years. Simultaneously homophobic and homoerotic, it starts with a clip of Trump declaring at the 2016 GOP convention, “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens,” while flashing an image of an “LGBTQ for Trump” T-shirt that was sold back then. It also includes Trump saying it would be fine for Caitlyn Jenner to use any bathroom she chooses in Trump Tower and features a scene in which Trump remarked that transgender women can compete in beauty pageants.

Then the video abruptly shifts to dramatic footage of DeSantis juxtaposed against headlines showing his support for the “most extreme slate of anti-trans law in modern history” and his opposition to drag shows. Intercut with these shots of DeSantis are images of macho men, including movie heroes (Brad Pitt as a gladiator!) and muscle-bound bodybuilders. Next comes a montage of progressives criticizing DeSantis for being anti-LGBTQ and authoritarian—which is meant to be a reverse endorsement. The message: Here’s a real man who knows how to freak out the libs.

DeSantis was slammed far and wide for this video, which was viewed more than 25 million times. Not surprisingly, he stood by it, describing the piece as “totally fair game.” He had no choice, really. The point of the spot was to demonstrate he could demonize LGBTQ people more than Trump, thus proving he is more of a testosterone-driven, alpha-male asshole than the GOP frontrunner.

Much of the punditry about the ad focused on the DeSantis strategy of running to the right of Trump, with this video Exhibit-A of DeSantis’ effort to persuade GOP voters that he is an ultra-conservative alternative to Trump. And yet, it’s a puzzling move. Is there that much room on the right? And as many within the commentariat have observed, if DeSantis must swerve that far to win the Republican nomination, how could he appeal to moderate or independent voters who are crucial for victory in the general election?

But the video represented another dynamic in the race. DeSantis aims to triumph in an essential part of the GOP race: the hate primary. The challenge? Convincing Republican voters that he is a more hateful hater than Trump.

The video vilifies LGBTQ people as undeserving of support or acceptance in American society. It casts Trump’s support for gay rights as foul and suspect—a chink in his conservative armor. Simply put, DeSantis argues it is wrong to be gay, as he enthusiastically embraces the revival of gay bashing on the right.

Beginning in the 1970s, the New Right and the religious right amassed political power by riling up fundamentalist voters with assaults on gays and lesbians. They tried to portray liberals and Democrats—or as they referred to them, “Demoncrats”—as the enemies of God and country. Here were dangerous abortion-loving champions of alternative and, in their view, immoral and deviant lifestyles. (One top official of the Moral Majority even asserted that gays and lesbians deserved to be executed.) Their campaign of hate succeeded. The evangelical vote helped sweep Ronald Reagan into the White House and boosted Republican power for years.

Eventually, American society became more tolerant and the Supreme Court in 2015 declared same-sex marriage legal. It seemed at the time that the right had lost the fight. But in recent years, it has used a host of proxy issues to carry on the battle against LGBTQ people: transgender rights; classroom discussion of LGBTQ topics; drag shows; athletic competitions; and, of course, bathrooms. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion, raised the possibility of reversing the previous decisions that protected same-sex sexual relations and marriage equality. In Republican-dominated states throughout the country, lawmakers have mounted cruel attacks on LGBTQ people, especially trans kids and their families. And DeSantis has been leading the way in the GOP’s new war on the gays, with his “Don’t Say Gay” law and other measures he has enacted in Florida.

This new crusade against LGBTQ Americans is all about the hate. It may sound hyperbolic to say this, but for decades much of the GOP’s political agenda has been fueled by animosity and malice toward fellow Americans. Since World War II, Republicans have contended that Democrats and liberals are anti-American commies. The aforementioned New Right and the religious right expanded that depiction to portray their political foes as anti-Christian miscreants. George H.W. Bush questioned Michael Dukakis’ patriotism because he belonged to the ACLU. Newt Gingrich claimed Democrats were abnormal and immoral traitors. The tea party accused Barack Obama of being a secret socialist Muslim born in Kenya who covertly plotted to destroy America so he could become its dictator. And Trump for years has blasted Democrats as antifa-allied reds and radicals who yearn to annihilate the nation, especially the innocents living peacefully in white suburbs.

It's the politics of tribal hatred. (I know someone who has written a whole book on this.) And it is not a both-sides-do-it situation. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden each campaigned in search of national unity. None of them sought to demonize entire segments of American society. They declared that Republican policies and ideas were wrong and perhaps destructive, not that their proponents were twisted and evil people who needed to be eradicated.

Hatred has long been a fundamental undercurrent of GOP politics. Trump brought it to the center stage. Now DeSantis is trying to elbow him aside as the party’s hater-in-chief. With this approach, DeSantis has not gained much traction; for months, he has been steadily sliding in the polls. But he has not indicated any intention to change his tactics.

So when the pundits scratch their heads about DeSantis’ attempt to out-flank Trump on the right, they miss the point. He is trying to out-hate Trump. That tells you a lot about the guy and what he thinks of Republican voters. And it places DeSantis firmly within the long and ignoble tradition of the Grand Old Party.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

From Twitter to Threads

Some of you might have felt the earth shake this week, when Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta unveiled its new social media Twitter-wannabe app Threads. Millions of Twitter users stampeded to the new site, seeking to escape the Musk toxicity that has enveloped his $44 billion investment. Threads, an offshoot of Instagram, works much like Twitter, though it lacks several key features—such as direct messaging—which most likely are on the way. Given that Zuck screwed up Facebook, in part by letting loose an algorithm that boosted conservative voices and de-amplified Mother Jones and other progressive outlets (and my own posts, as I wrote about here), I am not confident that Threads will be a social media mecca.

But this week, it did have an exciting first-day-of-school feel. That reflects the ardent desire of many Twitter users to have a place for productive engagements and smart, fun, and sometimes silly conversations uncontaminated by alt-right crap and Musk’s malevolence. I don’t know if Threads will be such a spot, but you can find me there under this handle: davidcorn1.

And a reminder: I’m also floating about at Mastodon (mastodon.social/@DavidCorn), Spoutible (@DavidCorn), Post.news (@DavidCorn), and Bluesky (@davidcorn.bsky.social). For the meantime, I will be sticking around Twitter. With nearly a million followers there, it’s hard to say goodbye. But, man, this social media stuff is exhausting.

Coming Soon: The Our Land Zoom Get-Together

As promised—or threatened—we will be holding a Zoom gathering for premium subscribers to Our Land. The time: 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 18. The place: wherever you have an internet connection. Here’s how it works: Premium subscribers—which means those of you who pay that small monthly amount to receive the full version of Our Land—will get a separate mailing with a Zoom link the day of the event. Click on it, and you will be transported to our group chat, where we will discuss recent news, recent issues, and whatever else might be on your (or my) mind. To be clear: only premium subscribers will receive this invitation. So, if you’d like to be part of this jamboree, sign up before then at www.davidcorn.com. Will folks show up? I have no idea. But if this goes well, we just might make it a regular thing.

Dumbass Comment of the Week

This week—as Mark Zuckerberg released Threads—the judges decided it would be appropriate to go with an all-Twitter contest. After all, given the rousing response to the new social media platform, it’s not clear how long Twitter will be around. Okay, that’s not fair. Twitter is not likely to collapse, but it could experience a slow painful death that goes on for years before the suffering ends. After all, as Musk was limiting the number of tweets his users could view, Zuck was drawing in a huge crowd of people eager for an alternative to that hellscape. As I noted above, given how Zuckerberg has screwed up Facebook, there’s no way to know whether Threads will end up being its own disappointment. But for the moment, anything that is not Twitter—and does not boost Musk’s conspiracy theories and alt-right idiocy—is a breath of fresh air. Never thought I’d be rooting for Zuckerberg. Yet as fantasy author Robert Jordan once observed, “To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.”

Which brings us to our first contestant: Musk himself. This week he felt compelled to share with us his thoughts on democracy, endorsing the view that voting should be limited to people who have children.

This is breathtakingly stupid. Non-procreators don’t have a vested interest in the future and should therefore be disenfranchised? People without kids don’t care about nephews and nieces—or children who are not their own? It’s especially tone-deaf for a white person with South African heritage to suggest limiting voting rights. Yet once again, Musk has demonstrated he doesn’t know when to STFU. Using Twitter to spread his moronic notions has severely damaged the site and the brand. I wonder how that’s all going to turn out.

But no prize for Musk today. He was beaten out by Linda Yaccarino, his recently handpicked CEO of Twitter. As millions of Twitter users were sprinting over to Threads, she tweeted: “On Twitter, everyone's voice matters. Whether you’re here to watch history unfold, discover REAL-TIME information all over the world, share your opinions, or learn about others—on Twitter YOU can be real. YOU built the Twitter community. And that's irreplaceable. This is your public square. We're often imitated—but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

This isn’t tweeting; this is whistling past the graveyard. You can’t stop the exodus from Twitter with happy talk. It’s a joke to claim Twitter is a reliable source of “REAL-TIME information all over the world” after Musk destroyed the verification system and limited the number of tweets that can be viewed each day. Her praise of the Twitter “community”—after Musk’s changes regarding content moderation have led to an increase in hate speech on the site—was laughable. Twitter users are voting with their feet—or their digits. At least, that’s what they are doing this week. Threads represents a major loss for Musk and Yaccarino, but as for Dumbass Comment of the Week, she’s the big winner.

The Mailbag

My July 4th celebration of government workers hit a nerve with many readers—partly because so many people have friends and relatives who have been in the civil service. Ann Lamb recalled her mom’s cousin who worked in the Department of Transportation, “where he was blissfully engaged in his passion for trains!”

Christie Macdonald emailed:

Thanks so much for your latest column. As the daughter of a career civil servant—and potentially the mother of one, our daughter just started working for the federal government and who knows what the future holds?—I have always felt that we undervalue their contributions. My father was a diligent and dedicated employee who took great pride in contributing to society. I was raised to value the contribution that politicians and civil servants make to our society through their day-to-day work and their shaping of policy. 

I have many times defended their role, and surprised many people when I don’t just go along with their comment or joke about their job, pension, etc. While we need to be alert for corruption and complacency everywhere, our society cannot function without dedicated people helping it run. And while I’m Canadian, not American, I believe this is true for both of our countries.

My father was a grain inspector, and every time I use all-purpose flour I can hear his voice saying, “all purpose is no purpose.” I miss him terribly. He passed away several years ago. I say a little apology to the cosmos every time I use my nonspecific flour! He would be so proud to see his granddaughter carrying on his tradition of dedicated service to our society. Now, off to make my Saturday morning muffins with *all-purpose* (sorry, Dad…) flour. 

Carole Leomporra wrote:

I never understood the many in the private sector who denigrate public employees, like our educators, etc. until 1993, when the right wing was threatening to take over our local school board in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and I had to step in and run for the Board of Education myself. I won, and we stopped movements like book-banning and policies that took children back to the ‘50s and ‘60s. It was difficult for me to understand why those people throw stones until one of our superintendents, a fundamentalist Christian himself, told me that “these people don’t believe in public education.” I’d never heard this before, and I’d never seen it until I experienced it.

Teresa Hennessy shared this:

As a retired federal lawyer, immense thanks for writing and publishing this piece. Please run it again.

Perhaps next July 4th, I will reprise it. But this reminds me to once again issue my plea: If you like a particular issue of Our Land, please forward it to all the friends, relatives, and strangers in your contacts—and kindly suggest they visit www.davidcorn.com to sign up for the newsletter.

Harvey Berman observed:

There can be no question that Trump aspires to make every single federal employee responsible first to him personally rather than to the country at large. He admires brutal dictators like Putin and MBS, and he longs to do to this country what they have done to theirs. He will destroy any semblance of democracy if given the chance. Our entire system of government is in greater jeopardy now than at any point in modern history.

As I noted in that article, Trump has indeed said he would like to destroy the civil service and change the rules so that every federal worker serves at the pleasure of the president. His return to the White House would give him the opportunity to try to establish a loyalty (to Trump) test and seize the power to fire any employee in any federal agency. This is a key component of authoritarianism.

The most amusing response came from Thomas Lifson, a writer for the far-right American Thinker website. He called the piece “parody,” but added, “there is an important and sinister political agenda ahead that [Corn] got to five paragraphs into the piece.” That “sinister” agenda? Warning of Trump’s plan to seize total control of the federal work force should he return to the White House. Lifson is actually a fan of this idea. In fact, he contends that civil service protection—which safeguards most federal employees from being fired by a vengeful president—is “totalitarian” and a way to impose “fascism.”

I believe the technical term for this sort of argument is…bananas. A non-political civil service is hardly a characteristic of fascism. With this critique, it is Lifson who has demonstrated a desire for authoritarianism.

A reader named Kevin Hydra wanted to vent:

David Corn is a bitch. I would love to see David Corn make an actual policy argument in an article instead of the old tired Democratic fear-mongering, abusing words like racism or homophobic. These people like Corn helped elect a politician who stood against blacks and gays for 45 years and only changed when he became so impotent that any staffer could write any order of words down on paper and he would repeat it in a not-so appropriate order.

Thank you for this moment of Fox-think. Either Joe Biden is leading a crime family and a cabal of antifa, socialists, commies, Deep Staters, and media insiders, or he is a drooling dimwit. By the way, Biden in 2012 proposed legalizing same-sex marriage ahead of President Obama. And as a politician from Delaware, a border state, he has a long and complicated record on race, including highs and lows. But for the past decade or two, he has clearly been an advocate for many policies of benefit to Black Americans, and he won the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination largely due to the relationship he had developed with that constituency.

MoxieCam™

“Moxie, what do you see?”

“A dog playing with a ball.”

“Sorry. I forgot to bring one.”

“------------------.”

“Really? The silent treatment?”

“------------------.”

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

July 1, 2023: The patriotism of government bureaucrats; Marvin Kitman, RIP; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Rick Scott); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 27, 2023: When lying doesn’t matter (including John Durham’s testimony); Hightown, a crime drama that explores the underside of Cape Cod; and more.

June 24, 2023: Why Jack Smith must go farther; Dumbass Comment of the Week (the Trump and DeSantis war rooms); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 21, 2023: How Daniel Ellsberg changed the world—and my life; how you can support Our Land; Loves Goes to Buildings on Fire’s love letter to the NYC music scene of the 1970s; and more.

June 17, 2023: How dangerous is Elon Musk?; anatomy of a (No Labels) scoop; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Fox News); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 13, 2023: HBO’s brilliant Reality—and my appearance in it; Jenny Lewis’ rocks mid-life; and more.

June 10, 2023: Pat Robertson’s obits left out a key fact: his crazy antisemitic conspiracy theory; how best to post a Santos scoop; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jay Monahan); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

June 6, 2023: Mike Pence and the right’s revival of its war on gay America; CNN CEO’s big fail; 65 and a bad day to get stranded on Earth; Joy Oladokun’s effort to be the “Black Bruce Springsteen; and more.

June 3, 2023: What the GOP’s hostage-taking in the debt ceiling fight tells us about regulating rogue AI; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Jenna Ellis and Glenn Greenwald); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

May 31, 2023: What the hell is Ron DeSantis thinking?; Moonage Daydream is too dreamy; Tina Turner’s “Whole Lotta Love”; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.