Lindsey Graham’s Hypocrisy is a Product of Whiteness
He’s not merely being wishy-washy. Graham is angling to maintain his racialized standing.
Lindsey Graham will have the legacy of a lackey. The South Carolina senator makes political moves to preserve privilege. As he flip-flops, Graham demonstrates the elasticity of whiteness.
Graham’s record is all over the place. He once called then-candidate Donald Trump “a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot”; he now defends the president’s comments on lynching. During the 2016 election, Graham famously tweeted, “If we nominate Trump, we’ll get destroyed... and we will deserve it.” Fast forward three years and he’s one of the president’s staunchest defenders. More recently, Graham, who once passionately insisted he didn’t want to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden or his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, announced he’s now launching an investigation.
All this waffling isn’t about Graham’s reelection, mere hypocrisy, or being wishy-washy. It’s about maintaining his racialized standing.
Graham is “the white citizen” that Joel Olson described in his seminal book, The Abolition of White Democracy, a man who embodies the tension white people can feel between “equality and racial standing.” The white citizen professes…
