Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz. Nevertheless, he is an elected official in the United States of America. Our fellow Americans picked him to represent them and some feel confident that he could effectively preside over the nation in the greatest of capacities.

The pushback against “political correctness” had given us a politican and supposed presidential contender who has a special place on his website for a “rebel artist” names Sabo who used the n-word and terms like “goat fuckers.” While the specific merchandise featured on Cruz’s site doesn’t expresses these views, giving Sabo a dedicated link is simply an instance of cross promotion.

For cross promotion to work, there must be a significant overlap between the target demographics of the two brands. Basically, Ted Cruz’s audience and Sabo’s audience are quite similar. If that weren’t the case, this marketing strategy would not have been pursued. The two audiences share likes and dislikes, political ideology, religion, an affinity for firearms; they are made up of generally like-minded individuals.

This cross promotion allows Cruz and his supporters to express agreement with this ideology without being explicit, and avoiding the public condemnation that would follow. By promoting Sabo, Cruz is sending cloaked messages that these views are legitimate.

In the days leading26 republican governors refusing to accept Syrian refugees, the growing anti-immigrant and anti-muslim sentiment on the right, and the floating around of ideas such as religious tests for new immigrants and the closing of mosques; Sabo saying things that politicians can’t. Sabo can go there.

It’s easy to see why the far-right adores him. He says what they want to, and he’s not “politically correct” at all. He is however a white supremacist who recycles the dehumanizing tropes found in many genocidal societies.

What strikes me as odd is that many on the right often invoke the Holocaust when they feel their free speech or gun rights are being threatened, but a well known conservative presidential candidate’s website features merchandise from an artist who tweets like a génocidaire and no one bats an eye.

Ted Cruz probably isn’t going to be the next president of the United States, but the politics of every other candidate on the right are not very different.

The message communicated to his constituents is that it’s okay to use the n-word, to call Iranians “sand people,” and to call blacks and muslims “feral” or “animals.” When Egyptian forces mistook Mexican tourists for militants and killed 12, an appropriate response is “12 less Mexicans to sneak across our border.”

While this isn’t really a new phenomenon, it is a prime example of how the contemporary conservative establishment communicates ethnic chauvinism and engages with the ideology of white supremacy.

Again, Ted Cruz probably isn’t going to be president. But in some ways the Republican party does work together. May of the constituents that Cruz’s cross promotion courts will likely end up voting for whatever candidate wins the nomination.

Certainly, some conservative politicians are happy to have someone like Sabo, saying what they themselves wish they could. When the right complains that their views are censored for not being “politically correct,” these are the ideas they are attempting to put on an equal playing field with perspectives that are not rooted in xenophobia and ethnocentrism.

The entire argument is an attempt to legitimize racist narritives.

Here are some examples of the things Sabo has said, and a screenshot of his dedicated page on the website: