Trump is Dangerous

Racists Politics Must Be Exposed and Opposed !

The intolerant agitation promoted by Republican Donald Trump and support in essence by most Republican candidates is a call to the ‘silent white majority’  combined with a demand that 11 million immigrants be deported is a dangerous and divisive racial message.  It must be vigorously opposed.

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.

We know these campaigns to be dangerous. It is not only the ranting of a fringe right.

The Trump – Republican arguments are factually incorrect and the  proposed agenda is impossible to implement short of establishing an authoritarian police state never before seen in the US. How will he deport 11 million, when 40% of these people are members of families with US citizens and thus they are eligible for gaining a green card ? For them, it is only a matter of the 20 year long waiting list.

And, how will he round up the  estimated 40% of all of the workers who arrived with a valid visa, but overstayed their work or tourist visa.  How will he find these people?  His claims are stupid.

Let us be clear.  The attack on Mexican American children by Donald Trump is impossible to implement.  They are US Citizens.  Yet, US citizen children were deported in the 1930’s in the program euphemistically known as “repatriation.”

There is no such thing as an anchor baby.  They are US citizens.

There is no such thing as “birth right citizenship”, they are US citizens. 

It is offensive that Trump and seven of the other Republican candidates for President would introduce these arguments.  They are seeking to create categories  of  Others. Someone the US could deport.

This is Dog Whistle Politics, as described well in Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class. (2014)

It is remarkable and disturbing that the US press is treating these racist claims as legitimate political discourse.

These are examples  of strategic racism, that is a system of racial oppression created and enforced because it benefits the over class- in this the many billionaire funders of the Republican Party.    Strategic racism as described by Ian Haney López is the development and implementation of practices because they benefit a group or a class.  These scapegoating campaigns are  a product  of strategic racism including  a complex structure of institutions and individuals from police and sheriffs, to immigration authorities and anti immigrant activists,  Tea Party activists, militia and elected officials and their support networks.  These groups foster and promote inter racial conflict and job competition as a strategy to keep wages and benefits low to promote their continuing white supremacy in the nation.

We know well the history of this kind of divisive  campaign.

In the Summer of 1993, a failing economy and governmental cut backs  combined to make Governor Pete Wilson the most unpopular governor up until that time.  By November of 1994 Wilson won re-election with over 56% of the vote.  Two factors combined to deliver victory to Wilson; a mean spirited, divisive, and racist campaign directed against Mexican and Mexican Americans, in Proposition 187 and an inept campaign by Democratic Candidate Kathleen Brown.

We need to recognize the potential of racist scapegoating as revealed in the Wilson promoted Proposition 187 passed by 2/3 of the California voters in 1994. The campaign produced a large turnout of right wing voters.  It banned over 600,000 immigrants from receiving needed food stamps, medical care.    Prop. 187 became national law in 1996 as a part of the Immigration Reform and Control act of 1996. 

The voters of California  in that election  voted 62% to 38% in favor of Proposition 187, the Save Our State initiative to restrict illegal immigration.  A number of groups including FAIR, the Republican Party, and the Perot organization worked together to qualify the initiative.  Today, the anti immigrant groups include the  Tea Party, Minutemen and various militia organizations.

In 1994 California has a population that is 56.3 % White, 26.3 % Latino, 9.4% Asian, 7.4 % African American, and 0.6% other.  However, according to exit polls, the voters in this election were 80% white, 9% Latino, 7 % African American, and 4 % Asian. Exit polls show that Latinos voted against Prop. 187 by 3 to 1, African Americans split their vote 50 -50, and the Anglo electorate passed the proposition by over 60%. This is the vote Trump and the other Republicans are seeking.

As a consequence of this attack on the Mexican American community, Latinos organized to vote in large numbers in future elections.  Republicans became a small minority party in California.

Some poorly informed politicians, like Mr. Trump, and seven of the other candidates for President unfortunately have a strange failure of comprehension. They must be defeated.  To do that, all eligible must register and vote.

U.S. Census data released on July 19 confirm what we already knew about American elections: Voter turnout in the United States is among the lowest in the developed world. Only 42 percent of Americans voted in the 2014 midterm elections, the lowest level of voter turnout since 1978. And midterm voters tend to be older, whiter and richer than the general population. The aggregate number is important but turnout among different groups is even more crucial.

As the Pew research has pointed out, “Overall, 48% of Hispanic eligible voters turned out to vote in 2012, down from 49.9% in 2008. By comparison, the 2012 voter turnout rate among blacks was 66.6% and among whites was 64.1%, both significantly higher than the turnout rate among Hispanics.”