Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. (POLITICO)
I read this article from POLITICO, not with surprise or shock and awe, but with a ton of frustration pounding heavily onto my gut. I am not naïve enough to consider that the hate filtering down from Trump and his Gestapo of Republican enablers dissipates or dries up; rather, the role model of bigotry, violence, and bullying presented by Trump morphs into some kind of oxygen for a generation who, in my estimate, were raised by thugs who themselves were denied morals or values as they grew up.
Trump is MAGA. We know this. The very terrifying fact, however, is that MAGA has now become free from the Dr. Frankenstein, Trump, who created that monster, and that monster is at the ready to rip apart those it encounters.
Together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric circulate freely — and where the Trump-era loosening of political norms has made such talk feel less taboo among those positioning themselves as the party’s next leaders. (POLITICO)
