Great satire works because it’s true. Stephen Colbert mastered it in his parody of conservative journalists with his claim “I don’t see race.” Fox News and the Republican presidential candidates re-emphasized Colbert’s brilliance when they fell all over themselves trying to label the massacre in Charleston an assault on Christianity instead of a racist attack.

If it were an attack on Christianity, then those same journalists should be calling on America to look into Christian-on-Christian violence. They should be asking how a religion that purports to promote love can embrace symbols of hate and how it can allow hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan to operate as Christian organizations.

But of course the massacre wasn’t about religion. It was about race. And the statements by the journalists and presidential candidates were about politics, not sympathy or empathy. And because of politics, they’re avoiding a long needed conversation about removing the Confederate flag, a symbol of white supremacy, from government property.

The Republican candidates are more afraid of alienating the racist portion of their base than confronting the problems plaguing this country. They need to win Southern primaries and none of the candidates has the courage or leadership to stand up to narrow-minded ignorance. The fact that one of these candidates could actually lead our country is a testament to how far we are from dealing with the problems of race in this country.

And it’s not just race. On a host of other issues, Republicans who should know better are letting ignorance, greed, or extremism guide their party. Out of fear of the NRA, virtually every GOP candidate accepts the Orwellian absurdity that more guns make us safer. Scared of losing their fossil fuel campaign funds, Republicans deny the very existence of climate change despite overwhelming evidence. And in North Carolina, they are willing to pass constitutionally dubious laws to allow the government to discriminate against gay people in order satisfy their fundamentalist Christian base.

In the 1960s, the GOP cut a deal with the devil when they invited the racist wing of the Democratic Party to join them. They doubled down when they brought in the fundamentalist preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who politicized evangelical Christianity by focusing more on abortion and gays than poverty and redemption. Back then, Republicans believed that they could get their votes but keep them at the back of the bus. Today, it’s apparent that the reactionaries are in the driver’s seat.

Thomas Mills

Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >