GOP embraces racist ‘replacement theory’ to anger white voters

Right-wing Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania drew headlines this week when CNN reported that he cast the Ku Klux Klan as the “military wing of the Democratic Party” during a closed-door congressional briefing on antisemitism. But Perry also promoted the anti-immigrant and antisemitic great replacement theory at the same Oversight Committee briefing, titled “the Origins and Implications of Rising Antisemitism in Higher Education.”

“Replacement theory is real,” Perry said of the extremist conspiracy theory that the white majority is being displaced by a nonwhite population they consider to be “inferior.” Perry then launched into a rant about “importing” people into the country that “have no interest in being Americans.” He also suggested a coordinated effort was underway “to chill the conversation so that we can continue to bring in more people that we never met that are un-American.”

Perry was arguing that a version of the great replacement theory was already afoot in America, being led by what he later called the “radical Left.”

Perry’s comments may have caused a stir but they are anything but exceptional in today's Republican Party. The pro-immigration group America's Voice has identified a staggering 165 members of the 118th Congress who have used replacement theory rhetoric in their official capacity.

More specifically, Republicans have seized on the word “invasion” to amplify the idea that immigrants are flooding into the country to replace white voters at the ballot box.