Roseanne Barr finally went too far. ABC canceled her top-rated show on Tuesday after Barr’s unhinged tweetstorm, which included a racist and Islamophobic insult directed at Valerie Jarrett, who is African American and was a White House adviser during the Obama administration. My colleague Eugene Scott notes that Barr was “arguably the face of ‘pro-Trump’ Hollywood,” and had drawn praise from the president, who also saw her as the embodiment of his working-class white base. (The White House wouldn’t offer an opinion now that she is headed for career oblivion.)
What does this say, if anything, beyond a television network that acted swift to snuff out a nasty racial controversy?
For one thing, it tells us that ABC doesn’t believe the mass audience it seeks to reach — or even Barr’s viewers, specifically — is racist. TV executives aren’t known for bravery, but they are keenly attuned to popular culture and their audiences’ tastes. The executives understood Barr’s disgusting racial insult would not pass muster with the show’s viewers, as well as the larger community of ABC/Disney entertainment consumers. Company executives were so concerned about appearing sympathetic to Barr’s views that they blasted her remark in unusually harsh terms. Disney CEO Robert Iger tweeted:
Roseanne’s comment was certainly heinous, and her employer rightly judged its brand would suffer far greater damage if she remained at ABC. One cannot help wonder what would have ensued had the Republican Party, at any of several points during the 2016 presidential campaign said: “Trump’s beyond the pale. Voters picked him, but we do not want him.”
President Trump’s defenders shouldn’t make the mistake of saying their man isn’t as racist as Barr. To begin with, standards for a president should be considerably higher than those of a sitcom star. Moreover, Trump said more than enough to have justified a decision to boot him out of the party. A responsible party could have decided that calling Mexicans rapists, arguing a U.S.-born judge of Hispanic origin could not rule on a case fairly, riding the birtherism wave, and refusing to disassociate himself from the alt-right were racist enough to disqualify Trump as president. Nevertheless, the party’s base, its activists and donors cheerfully handed over the GOP nomination. Elected officials up and down the ballot supported him — enthusiastically.
Even after Trump’s election, when the racist comments have multiplied — equating neo-Nazis with anti-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, characterizing African countries as “shitholes,” stating a preference for Norwegian (read: white) immigrants, identifying immigrants as criminals — the Republicans have not dumped him. Sure, he’s been elected to serve for one term (if he makes it that far), but party officials could well announce they are not, in TV parlance, picking up the Trump show for another four years. And yet most Republicans, even a few critical of Trump, are sticking with him as their 2020 standard-bearer.
It’s one thing to accept — even grudgingly — the primary voters’ pick, and then the results of the electoral college vote. But it is quite another to announce one’s support going forward. (Even if Trump was to make the exact same slur as Barr?)
There are any number of explanations ranging from fear of the president’s most ardent base, to a misreading of the electorate (shouldn’t the GOP think better of their fellow Americans), to wishful thinking that Trump will disappear on his own. None is sufficient, however, for politicians who have seen Trump in all his ignorant, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, narcissistic, cruel and dishonest glory to assert he is deserving of another term. That would transform passive acceptance of Trump’s racism (and other character flaws) into active indulgence of his conduct. Those who try to chase away 2020 challengers and/or want to help Trump secure re-nomination are effectively telling us they approve of him as the embodiment of the party. That makes them unfit to hold power.
There has been debate since the 2016 election among #NeverTrump Republicans (and now former Republicans) as to whether the party can be de-Trumped and made presentable again. I’ve argued that is a very tall order. But even sunny optimists about the GOP’s revival would concede that endorsing Trump’s behavior by bestowing its re-nomination would render the party morally and politically bankrupt. Republicans should look to the bigger picture, to the country’s well-being and the party they still claim to support. If they are savvy — forget about doing the right thing — they’ll follow Iger’s example. It’s long past the time to cancel Trump’s presidential horror show.
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