The more things change, the more they stay the same. Avid and astute consumers of national politics who stay abreast of current events were possibly aware of or deeply immersed in the scandal that has rocked and roiled the Republican Party over the past several days. The fallout is still happening. Revelations from approximately 3,000 pages of leaked Telegram messages from Young Republican leaders surfaced were appalling: racist slurs, antisemitic praise for Hitler, misogynistic rape jokes, and violent fantasies about political opponents. The texts, which Politico reported on October 14, were part of a “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat of about a dozen Gen Z and millennial Republicans, some of whom held jobs in elected officials’ offices or in government posts. The exchanges mixed politics with personal matters, laced throughout with offensive language that was shocking for its volume and groupthink.

The texts, reported by Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo, were part of a “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” names of young republican operatives chat of about a dozen Gen Z and millennial Republicans, so a number who held jobs in elected officials’ offices or in government posts. Over seven months, in 2,900 pages of messages sent over Telegram, elected Republicans and the leaders of local groups for young party activists in New York, Vermont, Arizona, and Kansas routinely espoused racist, misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic language The scurrilous exchanges integrated politics with personal matters, laced throughout with offensive language that was disturbing for its volume and groupthink.

Reaction from across the political spectrum was swift. The Kansas and New York Republican Party disbanded their Young Republican organizations. Vermont Republican Samuel Douglass, the only elected official who participated in the group, apologized for his xenophobic and antisemitic comments and resigned from his position. Several other participants involved in the text exchanges have either been forced out of their positions or have voluntarily resigned. The numerous odious comments included “I love Hitler;” “Room 1488” (a prominent number associated with White supremacists); “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber;” “Hey, come on in. Take a nice shower and relax,” meaning, “We want to trick you into mass murder”; “Expecting the Jew to be honest;” “Watermelon people;” “I’m ready to watch people burn;” “Stay in the closet f*ggot;” and “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.”

Notably, Vice President JD Vance downplayed and dismissed the scandal as young kids doing stupid things. As many people quickly reminded the vice president, these “young people” ranged in age from 30 to 42 years old! Interestingly, Vance seemingly had no problem dismissing such antics by these bigoted young political operatives as harmless and edgy. Yet, just last month, the same JD Vance demanded that people be reported to their employers for making far fewer incendiary comments about Charlie Kirk’s death. The hypocrisy abounds.

Not unlike many bigots when caught red-handed in exposing their true behavior, the majority of disgraced operatives resorted to the traditional “I deeply apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended by my comments. Anyone who knows me knows this is contrary to my values and is in no way a reflection of the way I live my life. I am deeply sorry and ask for your forgiveness.” Please! Spare us the dishonest nonsense. Such behavior is an EXACT reflection of who you are! As the late Maya Angelou stated, “When people show you who they are the first time, believe them.” Indeed! Truth be told, reductive and rapacious commentary is so commonplace in right-wing circles that Aaron Sibarium, one of the most effective reporters in right-wing media, stated in 2023: “Whenever I’m on a career advice panel for young conservatives, I tell them to avoid group chats that use the N-word or otherwise blur the line between edge lording and earnest bigotry.” Enough said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a congressional investigation, formally requesting in a letter to the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that it open an investigation into the “vile and offensive text messages,” noting that the committee is already investigating Harvard University’s response to antisemitism on its campus. In his letter, Newsom criticized Vice President JD Vance for failing to condemn the comments in the group chat, saying this demonstrates that Trump administration agencies “cannot be trusted” to undertake such an investigation. Newsom wrote, “If Congress can investigate universities for failing to stop antisemitism, it must also investigate politicians’ own allies who are openly celebrating it.” Good points from the governor.

As MSNBC host Chris Hayes noted, this kind of virulent hatred has become all too familiar in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, and it’s becoming clear that people who are running the Republican Party at the ground level are also immersed in this cesspit of bigotry. The undeniable truth is that such acidic rhetoric is hardly obscure language espoused by trolls and fringe elements lurking within the internet’s darkest, most sordid corners. These individuals include young Republican leaders, future politicians, campaign aides, consultants, people who harbor power, and people who may very well influence policy.

That’s what makes such a situation so troubling. Language that is often whispered among like-minded people is no longer confined to groupthink. It’s strategically organized. Perverse fantasies of mass death of non-White Christians and non-heterosexual people have moved from the periphery to group chats and items on staff meeting agendas. These aren’t so-called male bravado or slips of the tongue. They are statements of intent and nothing short of a determined goal.

One can only imagine the outcry if a group of Black, Latino, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQIA+, and young political operatives had shared virulently anti-White, anti-heterosexual, and anti-Christian rhetoric and discussed various devious, sinister, and other untoward efforts to marginalize, humiliate, and outright harm them! The right-wing blogger sphere would have gone into 24/7 super overdrive attacking the culprits (rightly so), demanding apologies from Democratic lawmakers and immediate terminations and almost certainly expressing hostile racial commentary.

The reality is that for people of color, whose bodies have historically been routinely raped, assaulted, lynched, objectified, and targeted in one manner or another, there is nothing humorous about such rhetoric. Rather, it’s the sound of a shot being fired, similar to ominous sounds before the carnage begins: first the laughter, followed by “the fire next,” to paraphrase James Baldwin. Many people prefer to deflect and deny how such sinister thinking moves from private chats into the public sphere. The danger isn’t just what they say when they think no one else is watching. It is what they do and say when they think everyone around them quietly concurs.

It’s a chilling reality that these same people could be your next-door neighbor, your colleague, the man or woman who attends the same health club as you do, the “Christian” pastor (Joel Webbon, anyone?), your primary  physician, your children’s teachers (that should be a real concern), or your HR manager etc. More daunting and disturbing is the fact that we currently reside in a political climate that is conducive, if not outright hospitable, to enforcing and ratifying such draconian policies. This unsettling state of affairs, particularly given this current political tide, will require our most stringent collective effort to stem and preferably reverse such an adversarial state of affairs.