On January 11, Auburn University President Jay Gogue expressed deep concern and anger about the January 6 insurrection, and, on behalf of Auburn University, he called on the nation’s leaders to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
We applaud him, but we should go further.
Specifically, we must condemn President Trump and Republican leaders, particularly those in Alabama, like Tuberville and Brooks. It is time to call all Trump supporters what they are: people who accept white supremacist fascism, a view unfortunately supported by the plurality of Republicans.
Republicans continued to support President Trump despite multiple expressions of white supremacist fascism. In 2016, Donald Trump refused to accept election results if he lost; in 2017, he called white supremacists “very fine people”; in 2020, he refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, and he has declined to condemn white supremacists on numerous occasions.
Unfortunately, supporters of these examples of white supremacist fascism are not ‘extremists’ but rather the plurality of the Republican party. When the plurality of a political party supports the actions of people setting up nooses, wearing Camp Auschwitz shirts, and carrying the Confederate flag as they invade our Capitol, we do not believe we should come together with them as part of the Auburn Family.
Rather, we believe that all American patriots should join us in explicitly condemning President Trump and the plurality of the Republican party and informing their supporters that they are unequivocally on the wrong side of history.
Matthew Miller and Bruce Gladden are associates professors in the Auburn University Psychology department.
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