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J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press/File 2017

Senator Bob Corker declared that the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to in dealing with crises.

Donald Trump has frequently pledged to unite Americans, and over the past week he has seemingly fulfilled that promise. Indeed, in his response to the events in Charlottesville and his refusal to condemn Nazis, he waded so far into the sewer of moral barrenness that even Republicans were willing to join Democrats in condemning his comments.

While some Republicans, like Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who is up for reelection in 2018, were willing to question Trumps stability, competence, and basic comprehension of American values, most Republicans reserved their words of denunciation for neo-Nazis and white supremacists and only vaguely chastised Trump.

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To be sure, its always good to see Republican politicians speak out against racism. But you dont get points for doing what youre supposed to do.

A true condemnation of racism, bigotry, and hate would look a lot different than tut-tutting about Nazis and white supremacists.

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It would have meant condemning Trump a year ago, when he suggested that a Mexican-American judge could not be impartial because of his ethnic heritage and taking away ones endorsement of Trump because of it.

The huge response to Saturdays rally should be seen as an important statement of public disgust toward vile groups and the hateful beliefs they espouse.

It would mean deploring efforts by state legislatures in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and countless other states to restrict the franchise of minority voters and passing changes to the Voting Rights Act that would further protect voting rights.

It would mean speaking out against the Trump administrations Muslim ban and its incessant attacks on undocumented immigrants as purveyors of national violence and crafting legislation in Congress to stop it.

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It would mean rejecting the nomination of Jeff Sessions as attorney general because of his history of racist, xenophobic, and homophobic statements. It would mean pushing back on his efforts to increase punishments for low-level drug users, which disproportionately affects minority populations.

It would mean rather than attacking Black Lives Matter and treating the police as somehow above criticism working with civil rights groups to protect minority communities from police brutality. It would mean passing common-sense gun control legislation that would make it easier for cops to do their jobs without worrying that every traffic stop could turn into a deadly encounter.

In short, there is a clear and unambiguous legislative and policy roadmap for enacting policies that tackle institutional racism and bigotry in American society.

But, of course, for this to happen it would mean that the modern Republican Party wouldnt be the modern Republican Party. The reality is that, for nearly five decades, the GOP has used coded racial messaging to scare white Americans and win countless elections. Trumps image of homicidal undocumented immigrants follows in the ugly footsteps of Willie Horton, welfare queens driving Cadillacs in American inner cities, and tough law-and-order rhetoric. The true difference with Trump is that, unlike previous Republican politicians, he didnt use dog whistles when making nakedly racist appeals.

Republicans might convince themselves that they are somehow different from Trump because they didnt call for a total Muslim ban or propose deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. But every Republican candidate for president in 2016 supported restricting Syrian Muslims from entering the country. They all backed tougher enforcement policies in regard to undocumented immigrants, and they were all happy to use both groups, as well as Black Lives Matter, as rhetorical punching bags.

Indeed, condemning bigotry and racism in America means recognizing that bigotry and racism in America exist in forms much larger and more insidious both implicitly and explicitly than just a few hundred losers marching in a white supremacist rally. It means recognizing that decades of Republican rhetoric on crime, immigration, terrorism, and the role of government perpetuate those racial divisions. In short, it means more than doing the absolute bare minimum. When GOP politicians are willing to do that, they should be praised. Until then, their words are meaningless platitudes.

Continue reading here:
Enough talk: Republicans must walk the walk on systemic racism - The Boston Globe