Things have gone too far: Republicans in Florida must censure state Sen. Dennis Baxley.
They should follow the lead of Republicans on a national level who stripped U.S. Rep. Steve King, an Iowan, of his committee assignments for espousing racist rhetoric anchored firmly in white supremacy.
Two of the most well-established conservatives in the nation, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, suggested that King resign, sending the message that conservative is one thing but racist crosses the line of what’s acceptable in America.
Baxley, an Ocala Republican who represents a large portion of Lake County, uses the same “Great Replacement” rhetoric as King. In discussing why he opposes abortion, King mentioned that white women aren’t having enough babies to keep the white power structure — he calls it the “culture” — in place. Of course, he puts it in a more politically correct form.
Baxley’s remarks aren’t only bizarre, they’re inaccurate.
Replacement theory for white supremacists is the notion that whites, now numerically dominant, will be replaced by people of color unless white women start having 2.1 children a piece. Fire up those vaginas, girls!
Ugh. This is the tale of how a legitimate area of study in the field of demography has been hijacked by wily cranks looking for logic to back their racist theories.
Make no mistake — replacement theory is the hottest topic in white supremacist circles now. That’s what the Neo-Nazis were chanting about at the fatal march in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 when they yelled, “Jews will not replace us.”
Leave it to kooks and haters to twist a complicated area of academic study into a five-word slogan that any conspiracy-hungry racist can yell at a march.
Let’s unpack the truth.
First, it’s true that any population that doesn’t reproduce at 2.1 births per woman will die out or be replaced by people of another race through birth or immigration. But that’s only if that civilization is unaffected by dozens of other factors — and none is.
A study by the National Institutes of Health says that fertility is not a “reliable guide” to predict population because mortality and migration play equally big roles.
And Leslie Root, a demographer from the University of California, wrote in the Washington Post that that a rate below 2.1 — the U.S. has a fertility rate of about 1.7, according to the Centers for Disease Control — doesn’t even indicate a shrinking population all of the time.
Most countries in the developed world, she wrote, have stable birth rates below that magical 2.1, and other sources say more than half the world lives in places with low birth rates. They’re not dying out or being replaced by another race.
Rather, Root wrote, low birth rates tend to cause economic problems such making it difficult to fund pensions, which is a bit of a distance from the BIG HAIRY CRISIS of white genocide feared by, well, white people, of course.
And there is the key: Replacement theory has freaked out male Nazi types who fear the world will implode without white people to run it.
What’s got them most terrified now is that whites are expected to become the “majority minority” in 2045 with 49.7% of the population. This thought makes their little heads explode.
But the key to the study of demography is to accept that no trend lasts forever, Root wrote. Consider the post-war baby boomer generation — over-population was a big worry after the high birth rate, and it’s not even a topic of conversation any more.
“It’s simply false that only way forward is to keep things the way we imagine they’ve always been,” Root wrote.
However, this white supremacist love affair with replacement has gotten very complicated. The low birthrate has become a key recruitment tool for white supremacists. In the “manosphere,” a loose collection of online blogs, forums and websites, the fellas blame women’s rights — after all, women are working when they should be home producing and raising white babies. Should women even be allowed to work or vote any more?
Dear Reader, step away from the cliff!
Thankfully, Baxley has not delved into those noxious waters. Still, the senator’s anxiety to keep whites like him in power is particularly distasteful because he has the good manners and the demeanor of a gentleman rather than the average raving racist. It must have come from years of gently comforting families of the dead as he built a string of funeral homes in Ocala and across North Florida.
Twelve years ago, this son of a Baptist preacher, then a state representative, told an Ocala Star-Banner reporter he had gained sensitivity and an understanding of people of color during his first six-plus years in office.
“There still is a lot of pain,” Baxley said. “They still feel it. I’m sorry about that. It’s also a great occasion to repent. I repent for the sins of my ancestors and for my own.”
It’s a wonder the senator could get done with repenting one kick-in-the-shins to blacks before he draws back his boot again.
Baxley is no bag of hot air. He doesn’t just talk it. He lives it, and he votes it. First elected to the House in 2000, Baxley served 6 1/2 years in that chamber and then was out of Tallahassee for three years until his election to the Senate in 2010.
During his years in the Legislature, he has gradually but surely established himself as a reliable vote against blacks and for white people.
Two examples:
Toward the end of the legislative session in 2017, Baxley refused to hear a bill in a committee he chaired to build a memorial to slaves who helped establish Florida, saying the monument would “celebrate defeat.” Seriously? Defeat for who? Only for white guys who held slaves. Getting rid of slavery was generally considered a pretty big win for blacks.
As a descendant of a Confederate soldier, Baxley filed legislation to prevent communities from getting rid of offensive Confederate flags and statues. Honoring Confederate anything — people, flags, philosophy — is continually throwing slavery in the faces of blacks, especially those whose ancestors were enslaved. Of course, it’s painful to be reminded that one’s people were once so degraded.
Now, the senator has gone wildly rogue babbling this racist replacement theory. Top Republicans should stop listening to Baxley’s mesmerizing voice and start listening to the content. White supremacists don’t belong in positions of power in the Legislature.