When members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on whether to publicly condemn President Donald Trump’s latest racist outburst — this one directed at a quartet of non-white Democratic congresswomen — the results were predictably partisan.

Democrats voted to censure Trump, and the bulk of House Republicans voted against the measure. We can track just how low expectations have sunk by noting that only four Republicans felt comfortable noting for the public record that blatantly racist comments from a sitting president are out of line.

Total vote tally: 240 in favour of rebuking Trump’s Twitter rant, 187 against.

The sides in this conflict are clearly defined — either you reject racist statements from elected officials or, like those 187 Republicans, you accept them out of solidarity with either the party or the sentiment.

But if you’re the PGA, which has a long history of hosting major events at Trump-owned country clubs, you try to choose both sides.

Last weekend’s Twitter screed prompted calls to relocate the 2022 PGA Championship, scheduled for a Trump golf course in New Jersey. Instead, the organization told Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold they would rather “stick to sports.”

“We are fully committed to diversity and inclusion, but we are not a political organization (and) simply don’t weigh in on statements made in the political arena.”

Except politics infuse any decision to trade with a president who regularly funnels government business to his privately-owned hotels. Common decency is at play here, as is marketing for a sport that’s struggling to retain casual fans. The PGA’s refusal to speak out against Trump’s racism undermines them on all fronts.

There’s no good-faith debate over whether the president’s tweets about congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib were racist. They were. The only discussion is where this latest outburst fits on a spectrum that spans discrimination against non-white renters (Trump’s real estate company was sued for it in 1973), defending neo-Nazis as “very fine people” (Trump post-Charlottesville, 2017) and a Klan rally (where Trump’s father Fred was arrested in 1927).

Racism explains why Trump told the group, now known as The Squad, to return to their countries, even though only Omar was born outside the U.S. and all are American citizens. If progressive politics was the problem, Trump would launch a similar broadside at Bernie Sanders. He hasn’t, just like he’s never suggested Republican rival-turned-ally Ted Cruz should return to his country — Canada.

Last year, Trump used the same tactic against NFL players, most of them Black, who protested against racism during pre-game anthems. And the verbal attacks serve the same purpose this summer: to rally a base that skews old and white, and often rallies around whatever euphemism for racism mainstream media outlets favour at the time.

For sports fans, the only other open question about racism and the latest Twitter rants is why the PGA didn’t take an obvious opportunity to disentangle itself from Trump.

Even the president knows how this cycle plays out. In 2015, he called immigrants from Mexico “rapists” and suggested the country willingly sends criminals to the U.S. Those comments didn’t damage Trump among his core supporters, but they cost him partnerships with Macy’s, NBA and Univision.

The PGA, meanwhile, claims it can’t choose sides, even though an organization purporting to value inclusion can’t serve that goal while partnering with a president who panders to white nationalists, and brags about grabbing women’s private parts. And it can’t claim to stand outside the political process when, according to OpenSecrets.org, it spent more than $290,000 on political lobbying each year between 2003 and 2018.

Concerning Trump’s racism, silence equals support. The strategy might work for prospective political allies, but it’s a curious tactic for an organization seeking long-term solutions to chronic TV viewership problems.

In 2018, with Tiger Woods contending on the final day of the PGA Championship, the event drew a 5.4 overnight rating, up 3.2 from the previous year, according to Sports Media Watch. This past spring, with Woods eliminated early, ratings plunged to 3.27 overnight, according to Showbuzz Daily. By comparison, the Raptors and Bucks drew a 3.68 rating later that night, even though the game was broadcast on cable and the PGA Championship appeared on CBS, which has a broader reach.

Any TV audience growth plan that depends on Tiger Woods is about as dependable as the aging golf star’s creaky knees, and staying hitched to Trump might prove even riskier for the PGA.

An analysis by The Associated Press showed that prices at Trump-branded condos in Manhattan had dropped 9 per cent over the first 10 months of 2018, while local condo values overall continued to climb. Experts attributed the price decline to the buildings themselves — many were outdated — and to a steady weakening of the Trump brand amid the president’s divisive politics.

If the PGA hopes to retain some of the casual fans who parachute in when Woods threatens to win another major, a partnership with an atrophied Trump brand threatens to drive that potential audience away. Last weekend’s Twitter rant gave the PGA a chance to divorce themselves from controversy, but they chose disingenuous neutrality instead.

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Maybe they’ll make a better decision next time Trump says something racist.

Because there will be a next time.

There’s always a next time.

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