Schneider: If GOP leaders can't condemn Donald Trump now, when will they?

In late June of 2015, then South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said what few Republicans would. In the wake of the Charleston church massacre, in which 21-year old Dylann Roof gunned down nine members of an African-American church, Haley called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the statehouse grounds.

 "This flag, while an integral part of our past," Haley said, "does not represent the future of our great state."

In the weeks prior to Haley's declaration, 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls had waffled on the Confederate flag issue. Needing South Carolina's valuable delegates, candidates such as Jeb Bush and John Kasich hedged their bets, claiming that it was a local issue for South Carolinians to sort out.

But once Haley made her stand, the dam broke, and all the GOP candidates lined up behind her.

It took one leader to give the party permission to take the morally correct position. 

It's the sort of leadership lacking among Republicans dealing with America's first toddler president. In what has become a tiresome cycle, Donald Trump again last week appealed to the worst elements of the American public and again escaped any condemnation from party leaders.

If one were to believe the words of its current standard bearer, the Republican Party now believes that "good people" attend Nazi marches and a white supremacist killing a woman while allegedly driving a car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters is the fault of "both sides." On Thursday, Trump used a false historical story about venerated former U.S. General John Pershing — circulated primarily in chain e-mails — to defend the shooting of defenseless Muslims in the war on terror.

Certainly, some rank-and-file Republicans have taken the president to task for his unconscionable comments. Freshman Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher said the president "needs to be crystal clear that hatred has no place in our society," and that Trump is currently "failing at it." On Friday, former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called on Trump to apologize for his comments.

But the party's actual leaders are falling short. House Speaker Paul Ryan released another anodyne statement merely condemning white supremacy as "repulsive," but not providing any context for why he made it. If only we could find the mysterious person who made Ryan's statement necessary!

Sadly, for leaders such as Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), being stuck with Trump is like being trapped in a cross country car trip with a wolverine. They can't escape.

But Trump is killing whatever positive agenda they are trying to achieve. Every day, poor Paul Ryan has to walk in front of the press and show them the little birdhouse he built while there's a skyscraper on fire next to him. Just last year, Ryan said Trump's attack against Judge Gonzalo Curiel was an example of "textbook racism," so it's not as if Trump's appalling recent behavior comes as a surprise.

Yet even though the party's leaders are dealing with an erratic, vindictive juvenile, they believe they need to stay in Trump's good graces. But is passing tax reform really worth this? And can such a damaged president shepherd meaningful conservative reforms through Congress? Even if the Republican Congress is able to adopt some of its favored policies, what does it mean if America is ablaze with racial animus and hatred? As they like to say on "Game of Thrones," conservatives would merely be "kings of the ashes."

Hopefully, when the GOP cognoscenti finally decide Trump is of no use to them, their condemnation will be swift and strong. But that time may have already passed; the history books won't be kind to Trump appeasers.

A few years back, Republicans were obsessed with the idea of pulling new voters into the conservative coalition. But unless their leaders take action against Trump for his racist comments, the GOP will have quickly transformed from a big tent party to a big hood party.

Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email christian.schneider@jrn.com. Twitter: @Schneider_CM