The New York Times reports that Donald Trump is going to win the South Carolina Republican primary and remind everyone just how unbelievably racist Southern Republicans are:With a campaign message about cracking down on illegal immigration and fighting Middle Eastern terrorism with methods including torture, Mr. Trump has built a commanding lead in South Carolina polls. His results in the two early-voting states so far have alarmed more traditional Republicans, who fear that a Trump nomination would solidify for nonwhite voters an image of Republicans as an angry and intolerant party. More traditional Republicans  means the Republicans who are perfectly fine with their base being rabidly racist as long as they keep it out of sight. But after 50 years of the Southern Strategy in which Republicans appealed, almost nonstop, to the racial resentment and petty entitlement of white people in order to secure their vote, the base of the Republican Party has no room left for diversity.In other words, they built that.Just to be clear on how screwed Republicans are, Nate Silver s 538 predicts an 81% chance of a Trump victory in South Carolina. He s currently projected to win with 32% of the vote with Rubio and Cruz coming in at 19.4% and 18.8% respectively.The Times, like much of the media, is trying really, REALLY hard to blame the racism of the GOP base on Trump as if he summoned it from thin air. This is part and parcel of the unspoken pact to pretend that the Republican Party is not an angry and intolerant party. But anyone who s paid the slightest attention to what Republicans say and what they do is very aware that the rest of the party is exactly as racist as Trump, they re just smart enough not to say it out loud. As long as they use dog whistles and coded language, Republicans, aided by the corporate media, were able to pander to their racist base while still appealing to low-information independents that didn t pay attention. Trump is a threat because he s exposing them for who they really are and that will make them toxic to the majority of the country.If Trump, a pro-choice New Yorker that is not religious in any meaningful way can win big in Bible-thumping South Carolina, it shows that racism is, indeed, the prime motivating factor of the Republican Party.Good luck spinning that, corporate media!Featured image via AI archives