GOP grapples with extremist episodes among its own

[DonViejo]

Some fear that if the conference doesn’t stomp out those political brush fires now, there’s a risk they will spread.

By MELANIE ZANONA and OLIVIA BEAVERS

03/04/2021 08:12 PM EST

The House GOP’s No. 3 leader recently urged Republicans to make clear they’re not the party of white supremacy. Two days later, one of their members spoke at a conference organized by a known white nationalist.

The whiplash between Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) plea and Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) public speech underscores just how tough it is for GOP leaders to rein in members who cater to the extreme wings of the party. As Republicans increasingly grapple with how — or even whether — to exorcise the most radical elements from their party, their leaders’ jobs won’t get any easier.

The House GOP has so far confronted no large-scale blowback from Gosar’s speech to the America First Political Action Conference, or from other incidents that link a few of its members to far-right imagery or rhetoric.

But some fear that if the conference — which just ushered in a historically diverse freshman class — doesn’t stomp out those political brush fires now, there’s a risk they will spread and engulf the party. Democrats are already trying to make QAnon, the far-reaching conspiracy theory labeled as a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI, the face of the GOP ahead of the midterms.

more
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/04/gop-extremism-473806

[lagomorph777]

1. CPAC is a white nationalist conference.

They all spoke there. And spoke, and spoke...

[Wounded Bear]

2. It's a little late for that. The wildfires are already burning...

Unless you slept through Jan 6th or have reality on permanent ignore, you would know that.

[Hortensis]

3. RW white Christian/nationalist extremists are the majority, populist wing.

For now. The corrupt hard-right white male establishment wing is trying to regain control but first have to avoid being hung by the populist mob. They'd also of very limited use to the RW kleptocracy they helped create if they couldn't continue to deliver.

[stillcool]

4. It's not Democrats that are 'trying'...

to make QAnon the face of the GOP. It's the right-wing universe displaying their truth. Something many reporters will never do.