The GOP-Trump Strategy - Whites Yes, Latinos No

The GOP-Trump Strategy: Blue Collar Whites Yes, Latinos No!

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Jimmy Franco Sr.

The hysterical agitation and intolerance uttered by Republican Trump to his so-called ‘silent white majority’ is urging them to action and this combined with his demand that 11 million immigrants be deported is part of his racial message and solution to “make America great again”.

Donald Trump’s popularity among Republican voters has dramatically risen in the polls as he now has a double digit lead over runner-up Jeb Bush. His fear mongering political message has found a very receptive base within our society among xenophobic and angry conservative sectors. His campaign promises to make America great again by deporting over eleven million hard-working immigrants, miraculously organizing the country to work right and winning decisive victories in the numerous wars that the US is involved in have found a receptive target audience. Trump’s national chauvinist message is not a new one as it was once used by various fascist groups in Europe during the 1930’s to gloss over mass

Trump’s immigrant bashing & scapegoating also calls for a form of massive ethnic removal.

unemployment and other social problems by scapegoating minority groups and demanding their removal, promising immediate fixes to problems and vowing to achieve military victories abroad to “make their countries great again”. He has merely given it a contemporary American form. Meanwhile, Trump has remained unapologetic about his derogatory comments he previously made about millions of Mexican immigrants whom he labeled as being criminals, rapists and drug dealers while admitting in a condescending manner that a few of them were all right. The other Republican candidates have also fallen in line and echoed his call to get tough on immigration as they are all attempting to win over the same angry nativist Republican base. Despite the racial demagoguery and untrue assertions made by Trump and others that huge numbers of immigrants are pouring into the country, recent research and facts show that immigration along the Mexican border is actually at an all-time low due to increased enforcement and a lack of jobs due to the recession.

The Trump and Republican election strategy of divide and conquer

Much of the xenophobic and authoritarian-sounding rhetoric being spouted by Trump and the Ted Cruz Republican tea party faction has resonated with and energized less educated blue collar white voters, reactionary tea party and Minutemen elements, rural and southern religious conservatives and other even more extreme elements on the political right. This extremely conservative sector is what Trump calls the ‘silent majority’ as he is using the old campaign term coined by Richard Nixon which referred to

Trump’s new “silent majority” is comprised of extreme right-wing Republicans who are primarily white.

conservative whites during the 1970’s who were opposed to civil rights and whose nationalism fueled their support for the misguided Vietnam war. Trump’s new and still primarily white silent majority can be characterized as angry, frustrated and resentful due to a dysfunctional government and broken immigration system, a growth of economic inequality, rising prices for education and housing, unwinnable wars and a general erosion of the standard of living for the US working-class. Adding to their anger and resentment is the demographic growth of minorities and their economic and political power, rapidly changing cultural values within our society and a sense of apprehension that their old and traditional white supremacist society and way of life is slowly fading away. This Trump-Republican strategy with its vision of a revitalized and dominant silent majority aims to agitate and instigate this simmering anger, resentment and white nationalism that exists among this sector of society in order to mobilize their voting power to hopefully propel the GOP to a presidential victory. Such a divisive and racially intolerant position essentially rejects the issues important to the growing numbers of Latinos within the country and dismisses the importance of their votes in favor of this white silent majority who the Republicans are gambling on to be more politically active and actually show up at the polls on election day. This GOP campaign message aimed at these disgruntled elements also promises to supposedly “make America great again” by rejecting the development of a politically and culturally diverse society and instead, turn the clock back to a romanticized and bygone conservative era.

Trump’s promise to “make America great” means removing 11 million people
The use by Donald and other Republican candidates of the traditional American tactics of immigrant bashing and scapegoating minority groups as the cause of our social problems is designed to inflame racial tensions throughout the country and stoke angry emotions within the Republican base for political gain. Such racial agitation and anti-democratic rhetoric is consciously intended to be divisive and to pit ethnic groups within our society against one another. Beside demonizing Mexican immigrants, Trump’s campaign promise to deport over eleven million of them without any semblance of due process rejects any honest attempt to legislate

“When Trump & Ann Coulter call us murderers & rapists, we cannot keep quiet”._Congressman Luis Gutierrez

comprehensive immigration reform that would bring some type of order to the broken system and a form of legalized status to these people’s lives. Rather, his publicly stated final solution in regard to these millions of immigrants residing within the US would be to use massive police powers to “find them and get them out”. A successful presidential victory by Trump and an ensuing authoritarian order for the mass deportation of over eleven million people would entail a national witch hunt and form of ethnic cleansing that would have to be carried out by a huge number of police agents who would most likely violate people’s civil rights by stopping Latino citizens and non-citizens alike along with other brown people to detain them and check their documents. Such a chaotic situation and violation of civil rights has already been created on a smaller scale in recent years by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona until his unlawful actions were curtailed by the order of a federal court. The Democratic position on immigration policy has improved somewhat in contrast to the immigrant bashing campaign being waged by the Republicans. However, the Democrats had their opportunity to implement immigration reform when they had a congressional majority from 2008 to 2010 and instead backed off and opportunistically resorted to using deportations as a solution in order to appear tough on immigration to conservative voters. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has recently stated during her campaign that she is for legalizing the status of the millions of undocumented persons residing within the country while Socialist Bernie Sanders who is running on the Democratic ticket has restated that he stands for comprehensive immigration reform. These are their present positions, so they must be held accountable by the voters for fighting for these issues.

There are Malinches for hire within our midst 
The old traditional Mexican story of the relationship between the Spaniard Hernan Cortes and the Aztec princess Malinche who assisted him in his conquest of the Aztecs eventually gave rise to this term being used to describe a traitor or betrayer of one’s people. Presently, our communities have an abundance of Malinches who hug their constituents with one arm while holding out their other hand for a financial mordida to do the bidding of those who would harm us. Donald Trump’s recent visit to the border town of Laredo Texas exemplified the role of such Malinchistas as the mayor and other Mexican-American city officials showed up to enthusiastically welcome him and clustered around in a groveling manner while not uttering one criticism of Trump’s previous derogatory anti-Mexican comments. While Laredo is close to 90 percent Mexican, these timid city officials resembled hyenas hovering around Trump in search of 

Trump being welcomed to Laredo Texas by Mexican-American city officials & calling for building a huge wall & for mass deportations.

some leftover financial scraps as they embodied a shameful lack of principles and any sense of ethnic pride. Additionally within our midst, many national Latino civil rights organizations have also not taken a firm public stand to rebut Trump’s Mexican bashing. This Malinche-like behavior also extends to the Congressional and certain state Hispanic Caucuses comprised of Latino politicians. This lack of courage and wishy-washy behavior by supposed leaders can only be attributed to two major causes: individuals afflicted by ethnic self-hatred and a colonized peon mentality who do not wish to offend their financial patrons, or persons who totally lack any principles and as opportunists seek to profit by acting as a middlemen by selling out their constituent’s interests for a price. Also, many people erroneously believe that Trump and his Republican backers will miraculously go away if we simply ignore him and his growing number of rabid followers. However, history has shown that dangerous individuals and ideological trends do not simply disappear by having people straddle the political fence and keep quiet as these regressive forces need to be countered and defeated with an organized and public show of force.

Throwing Latinos under the bus by the GOP requires a fight-back strategy  
The unleashing of a political war against Mexicans and Latinos in general by the most chauvinist elements within the Republican Party is part of a well thought out strategy for winning the presidency. The warped and fear mongering campaign message that there is a massive number of immigrants constantly flowing into the country and causing many of our problems is part of the red meat agitation that is being fed to their angry GOP base. Such demagogic rabble-rousing is intended to fuel their antagonism toward minorities and government and get them out to vote for a tarnished Republican brand. The recently-held Republican television debate had three blatant features that characterized the event: finger pointing and insults

People need to get organized, speak up, register to vote & electorally defeat this backward & racially divisive campaign.

hurled about by a group of angry men dominated the debate as there was a lack of a dignified discussion and any real substance regarding pressing social issues; second, Trump’s past derogatory descriptions of women as animals and the negative GOP attitude toward women’s issues was readily apparent; and last, Fox News and its Australian owners, proudly showed to a vast audience that in reality they are the ideological leaders and powerful enforcers of right-wing political orthodoxy within the Republican Party, and as such, sent the message to Donald that he is now a liability to the GOP and has to go. The majority of the GOP leadership disrespectfully rejects any positive policies related to key Latino interests and arrogantly disregards the need and importance of their votes in the upcoming presidential election. Therefore, we need a counter strategy to this political onslaught which will publicly and systematically rebut these ethnic slanders and lies hurled by Trump and his GOP while simultaneously intensifying voter registration among Latinos and mobilizing them to turn out at the polls. Also, city, state and federal political representatives need to be pressured by their constituents to repudiate this ugly campaign of immigrant bashing and hate mongering being spouted by this backward Trump sector of our society. This throwing of Latinos and issues important to them under the bus by the GOP leadership makes it imperative that we energize a broader sector of Latino voters to elect more opposition candidates who are principled enough to stand up and represent our vital interests. Voting must not be unconditional as we must demand that in return for our vote that these politicians adopt certain positions and concrete policies which they will be held accountable for implementing. As part of a greater progressive left coalition within the country, we must take political action with all possible allies in order to defeat the backward forces that we are facing. We need to stand strong for a principled unity, respect for ethnic and cultural diversity and a repudiation of any backward vestiges of racial hatred, immigrant bashing and divisive politics.

Copyright, August 9, 2015  Reposted with permission. 

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