Watching Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential candidacy announcement speech, I was struck by how differently I would have responded to his message 10 years ago. In 2013 I wrote: “It’s to their credit that Republicans are obsessed with getting the government to address its unconscionable and unmanageable debt, freeing up the productive private sector to create economic growth and maintaining the nation’s military preeminence.”
Ten years on, I’m sadder and (hopefully) wiser. As the intervening years have shown, the GOP has abandoned good faith altogether. Kevin McCarthy and his band of nihilists wouldn’t recognize good faith if it hit them on the fanny. The Republicans who are beating their chests for “fiscal discipline” were obedient lapdogs when Donald Trump increased deficits by 50% — and that was before COVID. In total, they grinned along to an additional $7.8 trillion in national indebtedness. Did I mention that they quietly raised the debt ceiling three times during Trump’s term?
Scott was along for the ride on all of this, so when he objected on Monday that we have “spent decades getting deeper and deeper into debt to the Chinese Communist Party,” it rings a little hollow.
It’s not that there is nothing to like or admire about Scott. He did rise from poverty. His grandfather picked cotton. When he says, “My family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” he has every right to be proud. And while he wasn’t exactly a profile in courage in calling Trump out, he wasn’t a total sniveling coward either. After the Charlottesville “fine people on both sides” disaster, he said: “What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised. ... There’s no question about that.”
When asked about raging inequality, Scott talks about education. Even after years of bitter disillusionment with conservatives and (especially) Republicans, I still believe that our schools are a disgrace and reforming education is the best route to reducing poverty and hopelessness. Maybe I wouldn’t use the expression “less CRT and more ABCs,” but OK, it’s politics. Let that pass. One cheer on policy.
I would also offer one cheer on message. During his announcement speech, Scott insisted that “We must show compassion for those who disagree with us,” arguably not the most congenial sentiment for the perpetually roiled GOP base that has moved from laughing at cruelty to cheering on brutality.
Scott’s boosters hope that his message of patriotic optimism will be an implicit rebuke to the dark turn the party has taken with Trump, to which one can only say, lots of luck. A party that makes Kyle Rittenhouse a pin-up, dangles pardons for convicted murderers of Black Lives Matter protesters, and describes the Jan. 6 rioters as citizens engaging in “legitimate political discourse” doesn’t seem to be pining for a return to sunny optimism.
Does Scott have one unique advantage here? Sure. Republicans do love Black conservatives. I used to think Republicans lavished so much love on Black candidates and others (like Condoleezza Rice) because they were keen to prove that they harbored no racism in their souls. But since 2015, it looks different. The mask has slipped so often: Trump’s Charlottesville outrage. The “s---hole countries.” The smearing of immigrants. A senator said Democrats favor reparations for “the people who do the crime.” Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson mainstreamed the “great replacement” theory.
So Scott’s pitch that his life is proof of America’s virtue and lack of racism seems discordant, less an affirmation of patriotism than a cynical play for Republican votes: “I’m the candidate the left fears the most.” Translation: I’m the Black candidate who affirms your racial innocence.
“We can choose victimhood or victory,” Scott intones. “Grievance or greatness.” Sure, there are people on the left who wallow in grievance, but what fair-minded person can fail to notice the victimhood and grievance that billows from every GOP outlet? “I will be the president,” Scott promises, “who destroys the liberal lie that America is an evil country.” Seriously? It’s more like he will be the candidate who erects the biggest straw man to attack.
Is this unjust to Scott? Perhaps, though someone once said, “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up.” Here is Scott, the breath of fresh air, on the events of Jan. 6: “The one person I don’t blame is President Trump.” And here is his 2022 response to Maria Bartiromo on whether he’d be open to the VP spot with Trump: “I think everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon, without any question.”
If you’re keen to prove that America is not an evil country, maybe start by ruling out running with or even voting for a truly evil figure.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.
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