Governor of South Dakota Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty ImagesTop Democrats including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala, and Kamala Harris have publicly stated that they don't believe America to be racist. Republicans want to portray the party's thinking as not in line with mainstream America's. The GOP has tried to harness lightning-rod issues like critical race theory or defunding the police, signaling that race will be back at the heart of the 2024 campaign.It's a winning issue for independents and it's good for the base. But I really believe rank-and-file American voters, regardless of their center-left or center-right, suburban vote, parents, feel that America is not a racist country. Critical race theory is being forced down everyones throats. This was Bob Heckman, a Republican consultant who worked on nine presidential campaigns including the 2016 campaign of Sen. Lindsey Grahams. This is a case where the Democrats have gone too far. I believe it's a very effective issue.Multiple people who attended these events said that GOP strategists discussed the salience of attacking Democrats on the topic of race at private meetings.The effectiveness of America is not racist was the topic at the RGA gathering. Republicans were buoyed by GOP battleground polling that indicated white Americans are intrinsically racist, which is deeply unpopular among voters, even independents.Republicans are hoping to use the pressure on Democrats to defend the rhetoric from the left to tap into the discontent that is already emerging in suburbs, where parents are being roiled by debates about racial equity in schools and systemic racism.Curt Anderson, another potential presidential candidate, stated that this is not a close race. This is Defund The Police 2.0.Republicans are not immune to the risks associated with focusing on race. Recent polls show that a majority of Americans believe that discrimination is a problem in America. When given the option, more voters trusted Biden to manage race relations than Donald Trump. Even though defunding the police movement is not popular with voters, critical race theory is still well-known by the wider electorate.The issue is still a simple one for Republican primary voters. Public polling has shown that Republicans pay more attention to race theory than Democrats, and they see it more negatively. This makes it an effective tool in the party's culture wars. Fox News polled a majority of Republicans last month to find out how America works today. Many Republican candidates have been convinced by their own polling that they can reach independent voters. They are describing Democrats as too focused on race.Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator saw his profile rise after declaring that America isn't a racist nation in the GOPs official reply to Bidens first joint address.Liberals want to instill the belief that being white is automatically racist. This is what Carmine Boal, an ex-Iowa state representative, believes. She chairs the Northside Conservatives group, Ankeny. It is a great thing that a Black man can run on the platform that America is not racist.Scott isn't the only Republican to endorse the America is not racist country line. Nikki Haley (an ex-UN ambassador and daughter to Indian immigrants) declared the same last year.So did Rick Scott. Scott expressed regret at the rioters involved in last year's civil rights protests and thanked God that he grew up here.He said, "No, America isn't racist."Veteran Republican strategist and lobbyist Ed Rogers stated that marginally involved voters don't want to hear they are racist if they are taken as middle-of the-road.It may be comforting for these voters to hear that a presidential candidate isn't telling them they aren't. A Republican strategist at the RGA meeting stated that the assertion that America isn't racist works because it invokes part of Trumps counter, which was when he was rising. It was easy to make America great again, and proud to be an American. It's not as though we were doing something wrong or are terrible when approaching all problems in America.Although race has been a constant in presidential politics for a long time, the topic was too controversial to be discussed in any meaningful way. Barack Obama, the first Black president, was cautious and measured in his approach. It was big news when Democratic presidential candidates in 2020 responded to Trump's 2016 racially charged campaign with a series of explicit, race-related appeals to issues ranging from poverty and justice to criminal justice.Trump's response from the Democratic Party and the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by the police last year only served to increase concerns about racial justice during the presidential election. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believed that racism was a serious problem when Biden defeated Trump in exit polls.Republicans were not helped by the fact that their standard bearer, the party's standard bearer, began his 2016 presidential campaign calling undocumented immigrants criminals and rapists. He also praised fine people from both sides of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. His 2020 campaign was closed with an angry effort to increase turnout among white voters.Today's prominent Democrats don't disagree with Republicans who claim that the country isn't racist. Responding to Scott's April comments, Biden said that he didn't believe the American people were racist. However, I believe that after 400 years, African Americans have been placed in a position where their opportunities and education are so far behind those of us who can.Kamala Harris, Vice President, speaks at Howard University in Washington on Thursday, July 8, 2021, about voting rights. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) | (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)Democrats claim they are facing a strawman argument and what Jaime Harrison (chair of the Democratic National Committee) called the Lee Atwater stuff, which Jaime Harrison calls the dog whistles, in Republican messaging about race.Harrison explained that they speak about The 1619 Project and CRT [critical-race theory] because they are interested in all things other than those that have a real impact on American lives. Now, they return to the old "Let's demonize, and we can energize rural white people against Black folks or brown folks" approach. They talk about immigration because they believe that it is important. Because it is the party that divides and gets people, especially white people, afraid of ethnic minority groups, they also talk about the race stuff. It's sad and shameful.Trump could run again in 2024, and the campaign's charged rhetoric will likely be rehashed. Trump stated in a statement Friday that he couldn't believe this was happening when the Clevelands baseball team changed its name to the Guardians. These changes are being forced upon us by a small group of people with crazy policies and ideas.Trump's rhetoric and style turned off many suburban and independent voters in the 2018 midterm elections and in the 2020 presidential race. If Trump does not run, Republicans may choose to field a number of more polarizing candidates in the GOP primary field for 2024 that could counter Democrats on race.Pence has already tried out a version. He told a crowd last month in New Hampshire that America is not racist and that it was past time for America's to abandon the left-wing mythical systemic racism.At the Hillsborough County GOP's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, his remarks received a standing ovation.
