For about as long as he's held political office, Steve King has been making a thinly veiled case for making America white again. And he's been in office, first in the Iowa Legislature and now in Congress, for 22 years.

But this year, there are cracks in his armor. Even national standard-bearers in his own party are calling him out for race-baiting. They realize you can't build a career on demonizing a minority that is poised to soon become the majority.

In a strongly worded Oct. 24 piece, the conservative Washington Examiner called King’s endorsement of Toronto mayoral candidate Faith Goldy, who claims white Canadians are victims of genocide, "exactly what it looks like: a shameful endorsement of white nationalism."

It was a reference to King's Oct. 16 tweet calling heralding Goldy as, among other things, "Pro Western Civilization and a fighter for our values." Goldy was at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where hooded Klansmen marched. She promotes 1930s propaganda to eliminate “the Jewish menace.”

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"This latest development, coupled with his past of controversial statements, should be enough for Republicans to finally reject Steve King and call for his resignation," wrote The Examiner's Lindsay Marchello.

In the conservative Weekly Standard, under the headline, "Steve King: America's most deplorable Congressman," writer Adam Rubenstein said King and Goldy "are both animated by the same brand of race-based identity-politics that consumes the alt-right. King’s focus on race and ethnicity is so consuming that it has become the core of his politics."

King was asked by host Dave Price on WHO-TV's "The Insiders" last week why he'd go to bat for Goldy. He said he was defending her freedom to express her views because her TV ads were barred and she was excluded from debates. "This is about freedom of speech," he said. "I'm a strong defender of speech and when I see it's being policed by the politically correct, I speak out, wherever in the world it is."

That's ironic because King has yet to condemn an Oct. 19 anti-abortion, anti-gay activist's burning of LGBTQ-themed books from a public library in his own district. The activist Paul Dorr, who was irked by an Orange City gay pride event, made a Facebook Live video of himself doing it, while declaring, "Orange City Library, you won't be peddling this one anymore! You should all be ashamed of yourselves and repent."

The Insiders interview was recorded before that happened. But the congressman has had every opportunity to denounce the effort to deny the LGBTQ community's freedom of speech.

Asked by Price if he's a racist, King said, "That's what they say. The people who know me don't say that."

But he didn't directly answer the question. And he seemed not to understand why white supremacy is considered a derogatory term today, claiming it wasn't two or three years ago. King has long decried the prospect of America losing its cultural continuity with the influx of people from other races, religions and ethnic groups. He has derided migrants from south of the border as drug-runners and violent criminals. So when Price asked him about the reliance of agricultural concerns in his district on immigrant labor, King had what at first seemed a reasonable answer.

To keep Americans in those jobs, he said, "We would have adjusted their wages and the benefits." In Storm Lake, he said, agricultural employers used to pay what teachers make, but now pay half that. King's opponent, J.D. Scholten, wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Yet King has repeatedly voted against hiking it above $7.25, where it stands today in Iowa. He has argued against even having a minimum wage.

When the U.S. House voted in 2006 to raise it by $2.10, King argued it would hurt small businesses and "price low-wage workers, the very people it is intended to help, out of the labor market."

King's rhetoric seems to work for him because he's not some firebrand speaker rallying masses with appeals to their basest instincts. He speaks calmly and directly, meeting gazes with twinkling eyes and an endearing smile. His arguments might sound reasonable at first, until you understand what he's really claiming or calling for. It's as if his talk is coded.

That appeal may finally be ebbing. Even magazines like Esquire, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan have joined in the chorus of voices denouncing him. And a U.S. House colleague, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, told CNN recently, "Unfortunately, I think he thinks that in Iowa, in that district, it benefits him." Castro was responding to King's recent accusation that he and his brother Julian learned Spanish "to qualify as retroactive Hispanics" – whatever that means.

"But," observed Castro, " I think there's a good chance that Steve King doesn't come back to Congress in January."

The nation has plenty to say, but only the voters of District 4 can determine that.

Rekha Basu is an opinion columnist for The Des Moines Register. Contact: rbasu@dmreg.com Follow her on Twitter @RekhaBasu and at Facebook.com/ColumnistRekha. Her book, "Finding Her Voice: A collection of Des Moines Register columns about women's struggles and triumphs in the Midwest," is available at ShopDMRegister.com/FindingHerVoice