Michael Anton, the online author also known as Decius — now a policy aide at the National Security Council — believes that immigration by nonwhites and such values as “diversity” and “multiculturalism” are existential threats to white society.

Sebastian Gorka has aided anti-Semitic groups in Hungary and proudly wears a medal identified with Nazi sympathizers.

King’s racism and xenophobia are neither anathema or outliers relative to Republican voters. Social scientists have repeatedly shown how the election of Barack Obama resulted in racist backlash that helped to elect Trump. As part of that dynamic, “old-fashioned racism” (which was thought to have been vanquished from the mainstream of American society) has returned with a vengeance and is now closely correlated with white voters’ support of the Republican Party. Other research has demonstrated that white Republicans, other conservatives and right-leaning independents are also hostile toward immigrants, believe that America should be a white Christian country and consider white people to be somehow oppressed.

The right-wing media has also repeatedly circulated racism and nativism. Overt white supremacist sites such as Stormfront frequently feature themes about “white genocide.” More polite outlets like Fox News support similar themes as well, while urging their predominantly white and older viewers to “make more babies” to counter the demographic shifts taking place in the United States.

Few if any Republican elected officials or other elites will condemn Steve King and his comments. Why? They do not want to alienate their voters. Even if they wouldn’t use the same words, Republican leaders are also more likely than not to agree with King’s sentiments. Silence is complicity.

Over the weekend, Rep. King was one of the most popular topics on Twitter and other social media. This is to be expected given the incendiary nature of his comments. Such a reaction, however, is largely a waste of energy. In the age of Donald Trump, it is important to manage one’s finite resources and to that end accept several basic truths.

As I have argued many times here and elsewhere, today’s Republican Party is the United States’ largest white identity organization. Conservatism and racism have been one and the same thing since the end of the civil rights movement. Trump fits the definition of a racist and a fascist. To acknowledge the weight of these facts is not an act of surrender but a recognition of the realities of the political terrain. To feel surprised and upset at King’s most recent white supremacist bloviating — or those of Trump and other Republicans and conservatives — is wholly understandable. But one cannot shame the devil.

Now is the time to take that energy and use it to support grassroots mobilization to protect the commons and civil society. Now is the time to vote Republicans out of office on the local and state level, to use the power of the dollar and political consumerism to effect positive political change and to steel ourselves in other ways to fight against the fascist twilight that has befallen the United States.

Anything less will ensure  Trump and the Republican Party’s continued victory by ways both dishonorable and crooked. Unfortunately, in politics, winning is really all that matters. It is long past time that liberals, progressives and principled independents who oppose Trump and the current Republican Party borrow from that lesson.