The Charlottesville rally offers a unique opportunity for reflection on the United States, democracy, and political parties as they stand currently. Not only were the rally’s participants and their behavior under scrutiny, but the President’s responses to the rally also raised questions
that he violated the democratic norms Levitsky and Ziblatt (2018) outline in their theory of political parties as democracy’s gatekeepers. These red flags, furthermore, provoked questions of how the Republican Party—of which Donald Trump is the highest-ranking official—criticized his violation of these democratic norms. In this way, this study was first concerned with
democracy and how the Republican Party is or is not acting as democracy’s gatekeepers in light of the Charlottesville rally.
Additionally, the blatant white nationalism on display at the rally also put the issue of race center-stage—specifically as it relates to the Republican Party. After a historical dive into the literature surrounding the emergence of the modern Republican Party, it is noticeable that the GOP has continuously wrestled with its approach to the topic of race in America. The racism and white nationalism at the Charlottesville rally was an obvious time for the Republican Party to discuss race, particularly with how it relates to their party at large. In this way, this study was also concerned with race and the Republican Party and how senators’ responses did or did not address this topic.
In order to study these two questions, I first built a sample of Republicans to analyze. I chose Republican senators because they are a group of elite, influential actors within the party. I then collected information about them: their state, reelection year, whether or not they plan to seek reelection, which candidate won their state in the 2016 Republican primary, and which candidate won their state in the 2016 general election. I analyzed this information alongside their criticism of the president in an attempt to discover what criteria (if any) were common for
senators who explicitly criticized Trump’s response to the Charlottesville rally. In other words, what did senators who criticized the President (setting aside desire for policy overlap and
aversion to electoral risk) have in common? In terms of these quantifiable findings, I did not recognize any clear patterns that suggested these criteria are indicators of a senator’s response.
Instead, after an inductive, qualitative analysis of responses (tweets, retweets, Facebook posts, and press releases) from August 11 through August 19, what became more clear was that there is a group of 13 especially elite Republican senators who did criticize the President and act as democracy’s gatekeepers. Furthermore, it was common for these senators to come from the same state—only five out of the 13 senators explicitly criticizing the President were not joined by an accompanying Republican senator. In this way, the Senate acted as a “small-world network,” with senators helping and reinforcing each other in their response to the Charlottesville rally. However, these senators did not publicly pressure other Republican senators to criticize the President more strongly.
A more common form of “critique” was criticism without explicitly criticizing—30 out of 52 senators used this tactic in some way. In other words, senators would use specific types of rhetoric and timing, most likely to indicate distaste for what the President said in response to the Charlottesville rally, but intentionally avoided direct conflict with Trump. In this way, these senators show what it means to put policy overlap and aversion to electoral risk over their role as democracy’s gatekeepers. These findings broadly show that Republican senators failed to
collectively denounce Trump’s antidemocratic rhetoric in the wake of the Charlottesville rally when there was a clear opportunity to do so.
In terms of addressing race, Republican senators approached the topic by using unified, American rhetoric. This is progress for the Republican Party and suggests that Republican senators see an opportunity to change the narrative surrounding race and Republican politicians. However, what is still consistent in terms of the traditional way Republicans handle talking about
race is an avoidance of talking about it in relation to their own party. After the Charlottesville rally, senators sought to discuss the topic, but generally not with regard to how the Republican Party has historically handled race.
The Republican Party, moving forward, has an opportunity to address race more explicitly. Naturally, we look toward our politicians to participate in and help facilitate this conversation. The Republican senators in this study have a platform to stand on and a voice to speak with—two things that afford them more influence than a private citizen—and they should use them. The Charlottesville rally proved that white supremacism and white nationalism are still alive and well, even in August of 2017. In light of this, although Republican senators’ rhetoric was not void of talking about race after the Charlottesville rally, it is important to address the historic relationship the GOP has had with race in order to move forward with a more
multiethnic, multicultural political party and democracy more broadly.
In the final words of Levitsky and Ziblatt (2018): “Few societies in history have managed to be both multiracial and genuinely democratic. That is our challenge. It is also our opportunity. If we meet it, America will be truly exceptional” (p. 231). In terms of the Republican Party’s relationship with Donald Trump and its critique of his behavior and rhetoric, it is imperative moving forward that Republicans set aside their policy agenda and fear of electoral risk. As the leader of the Republican Party, Trump’s power and influence is unmatched—unless it is checked by a collective and unified Republican Party that is more committed to democracy than to
advancing a policy agenda or winning reelection. This is not the Republican Party I observed following the Charlottesville rally, but it can be, and I hope it will be.
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