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.
