Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I like Trump or because I think he’ll be a good president. Rather, it’s because Trump has raised the curtain on the modern Republican Party and forced it to confront the racial intolerance and xenophobia that has bubbled up as a part of its political appeal. Of course, Republican leaders would argue that what motivates the party’s supporters is an embrace of the GOP’s conservative, ideological views. Lower taxes, less government spending, reduced regulation, and adherence to traditional family values are just some of the platitudes on which Republicans have run for the past 40-plus years. Certainly for many conservatives, these are the reasons they are Republicans.


But there’s always been a darker, more insidious element to Republican political success — mining white resentment, anxiety about social change and fear of minorities. This began in the late ’60s, as white voters found themselves negatively affected by black advancement and fearful about rising crime rates. Since then, Republicans have played directly on those fears, sometimes explicitly, but usually more implicitly — and always piling more and more anxieties for their overwhelmingly white voters. They’ve used black criminals, like Willie Horton, to raise fears about crime. They’ve winked and nodded at the Obama birther movement and its explicit racist element. They’ve played on far-right conspiracy theories about the federal government taking away American’s guns as a prelude to taking away their freedom. They’ve exploited legitimate fears about terrorism by wildly overstating the threat from terrorists and scapegoating Muslims. They’ve railed against illegal immigration and pledged to secure the border, all the while looking the other way at the xenophobia that so clearly underpins the GOP rank-and-file’s opposition to illegal immigration.

When Republicans spent years reviling “liberal tax-and-spend Democrats” or “makers and takers,” it was code for Democrats wanting to tax whites who are “makers” to pay for handouts to the poor “takers.” When they complained about the Democratic Party’s attachment to “special interests,” what they really meant were blacks, Hispanics, and other groups unpopular with their white voter base. When they’ve talked about standing up for traditional marriage — or, today, about protecting children in public bathrooms — it’s been code for discriminating against the LGBT community, which is so alien to many Republican voters.


Years ago, Republican media guru Richard Vieguerie captured the essence of the Republican electoral success, post-1960s. “We never really won until we began stressing issues like busing, abortion, school prayer, and gun control,” he said. “We talked about the sanctity of free enterprise, about the Communist onslaught until we were blue in face. But we didn’t start winning majorities in elections until we got down to gut-level issues.”

What’s different about Trump — and the reason why his candidacy is so clarifying — is that he is so in-your-face in playing on those gut level fears. He calls Mexican immigrants “rapists”; he unambiguously embraces “birtherism”; he doesn’t want to ban just Syrian Muslims, he wants to ban all Muslims; and he makes clear that he believes minority Americans can’t look past their own skin color — thus making them somehow alien Americans.

By being so open about issues that usually were activated with a dog whistle, he has forced Republicans to answer for the dark impulses within the GOP that they’ve exploited for years.


Until Trump launched a racist attack against Judge Gonzalo Curiel, many Republicans would have continued to avoid confronting this unseemly reality. Indeed, there is something rather rich about listening to Republicans argue that Trump has now gone too far, when party leaders were largely silent about his earlier attacks on Mexican immigrants, Muslims, and those with disabilities; his various challenges to the rule of law and freedom of the press; and his pledge to commit war crimes.

But over the past week, Republican leaders have found it increasingly difficult to play the usual semantic games — and you can see how unprepared they are to deal with it. Take Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who has engaged in rhetorical contortions that would do an acrobat proud. On the one hand, he calls Trump’s attack on Curiel “textbook racism,” but then says he will continue to support him for president. What message does that send to nonwhite Americans, who make up close to 30 percent of the electorate? It’s the same message that Republicans have been sending to them for decades: We don’t care about your votes.

Sure, some Republicans will still pretend they can win black votes or Hispanic support, but, when push comes to shove, the path of mining white resentment will remain the chosen path.

With Trump as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, the American people can no longer have any reason to question what kind of issues motivate the GOP’s supporters. Rather than dog-whistle racism, we get explicit racism, xenophobia, and misogyny — and it’s given Americans a true choice between the two parties. I’m sure that’s not the reason Trump chose to run for president, but in clarifying the real decision facing Americans, he’s done a genuine service to the country.


Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.