Donald Trump met with his Hispanic advisory council, and then began his national ad campaign with a
deceitful assault on Mexican immigrants.
We should recognize how dangerous such ads are. In November of 1994 Pete Wilson won re-election with over 56% of
the vote based in large part on a similar mean-spirited, divisive, and racist campaign
directed against Mexican and Mexican Americans in Proposition 187. We need to recognize the potential advantage
of racist scapegoating in winning elections.
The purpose of Trump’s intolerant bombasts are not to develop a policy
-- it is to capture and exploit the anxiety and emotion of a particular sub-set
of voters: xenophobic Republicans and the hard Tea Party Right.
Anti-immigrant campaigns such as that promoted by Trump and the Republican Party have effects and must be opposed. Currently, Trump is repeating
and amplifying inaccurate, oppressive,
and highly charged stereotypes about race and immigration in the U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, in his June 16, 2016, talk to his
supporters said, “ the major political task in the next five months is to make
certain that we defeat Donald Trump.”
"We
cannot have a president who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women and
African-Americans," he said. "We cannot have a president who, in the
midst of so much income and wealth inequality, wants to give hundreds of
billions of dollars in tax breaks to the very rich. We cannot have a president
who, despite all of the scientific evidence, believes that climate change is a
hoax."
We agree with Sen. Sanders. Politicians using divisive racial politics must be defeated. To do
that, all eligible citizens must register and vote. Low voter turnout among young people and progressives
gives the radical right an opportunity to win. If you
believe in a democratic society -
Join us in a campaign to register and get out the vote.
This is an except from a longer post here. http://antiracismdsa.blogspot.com/2015/10/trumps-racially-divisive-politics-must.html
Duane Campbell is a
professor emeritus of bilingual multicultural education at California State
University Sacramento, a union activist, and past chair of Sacramento DSA.
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