By Grant Morrison | Sports Writer
In a 1981 interview, Republican strategist Lee Atwater explained the origins of the party’s “Southern Strategy.” Knowing that explicit racial epithets would no longer garner mainstream electoral success, the party began to use coded language such as “states’ rights” and “busing” to invoke similar sentiments while seemingly talking policy.
These are known as dogwhistles: phrases that provide enough plausible deniability to avoid outright accusations of racism, but still appeal to the worst inclinations of hate.
40 years later, these whistles have only gotten louder.
In 2015, Donald Trump launched his first presidential campaign on a platform of anti-immigration sentiments. He sought to ban Muslims entirely from entering the United States, characterized Mexican immigrants as bringing drugs, crime and rape and proposed a physical barrier on the border to keep migrants out.
Since his election in 2016, this rhetoric has only gotten more and more extreme. He laughed with audience members who suggested shooting down migrants at the border. He told American-born Congresswomen to “go back from which they came.” He retweeted a video of his supporters shouting “White Power.” He posted, then deleted, ads that used Nazi symbols and described his potential second term as “a unified Reich.”
If I sat here and listed every racist incident of Trump’s career, I would exceed my word count before making a single point. By the time we reach 2024, the escalation of nativist rhetoric has led to thousands of Republican National Convention-goers waving signs that demand “Mass Deportation Now,” the new signature platform of the Trump campaign. He’s promised that “getting them out will be a bloody story.” He believes, “They’re not humans, they’re animals.”
His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is in lockstep with this extremism. Despite previously comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler, he has now unequivocally endorsed the top of the ticket — racist remarks and all. He has blamed Mexicans for his mother’s drug addiction (she was a nurse hooked on OxyContin) and claimed that “ethnic enclaves” lead to higher crime rates, citing Martin Scorsese’s 2002 film, “Gangs of New York,” as evidence. If it sounds like I’m making these up, I really wish I were.
But perhaps the most insidious are the recent hoaxes being spread about legal Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
On Sept. 10, Vance made reference to people having “their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” without providing any evidence. The claims began to gain traction on X and were amplified by official Republican accounts. South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace posted an AI-generated image of Trump holding a cat and running away from crowds of people of color.
But reports from Springfield’s city manager, city council and police department deny any such instances of pet consumption. They have denounced the claims of the Trump campaign while highlighting the reality of the situation and the need for additional administrative resources.
That didn’t stop Vance, however: “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he posted on Sept. 10, but “don’t let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.”
But much more than cat memes are at stake.
On Sept. 12, bomb threats were reported at multiple buildings in Springfield, forcing City Hall, county court facilities and two elementary schools to evacuate. Haitian members of the community have reported their cars vandalized overnight, with windows broken in and acid thrown on the vehicles.
When asked if he denounced the bomb threats, former President Trump said, “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats, but I know it’s been taken over by illegal migrants.” This, of course, is not true — the Haitian residents of Springfield are in the country legally and have been arriving to the town since 2018, in the middle of Trump’s first term.
At a Springfield city commission meeting, a member of the neo-Nazi group Blood Pride who introduced himself as “Nathaniel Higgers” said that “crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in.” Mayor Rob Rue asked him to be peacefully removed.
These claims do not reflect reality. There has been no uptick in crime, no reports of eaten pets and no “savagery.” On the contrary, local pastors are thrilled that the pews are full again. Business owners praise their Haitian associates and say they wish they had even more.
Make no mistake: JD Vance knows that he’s lying; he just doesn’t care.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sept. 15.
Despite what Donald Trump and JD Vance want you to think, immigrants are good for our country. Economically, as well as culturally, immigration is and always has been a vital part of the U.S. and its history. Population increases mean a larger workforce, larger Social Security contributions, larger tax base and community investment.
But instead of embracing what makes America great, Trump and Vance choose to demonize and denigrate. Trump claimed falsely on the debate stage that “they’re eating the dogs” while Vance cries that these legally authorized migrants have “no right to be here” and “ravage” the town.
This is straight-up, old-school, dyed-in-the-wool racism, and it should horrify everyone that it comes from a campaign a coin toss away from the presidency. The threat of rounding up, arresting and expelling millions of our neighbors is a direct, explicit suggestion of violence.
Because that’s who immigrants are: our neighbors. In scripture, time and time again we are called to love the immigrant, the foreigner and the poor. To treat them in the same way we treat those we know. The Bible makes no distinction between “legal” or “illegal” immigrants. This rhetoric is in direct opposition to the tenets of Christianity.
It’s also deeply anti-American. In an appearance on CNBC, Vance said “If the path to prosperity was flooding your nation [with immigrants] then America would be the most prosperous country in the world.”
I’ve got great news for him: it is.
But perhaps the most insidious element of this campaign is how much of it comes from Vance, an alleged Catholic who continues to spread rhetoric that is diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christ. Vance, who represents the very community that he endangers with his words. Vance, whose wife is the child of Indian immigrants. Vance, who once believed Trump was “reprehensible” and potentially “America’s Hitler.”
But Vance has since changed his tune entirely, not out of a newfound appreciation for Donald Trump’s character or a reappraisal of his policies, but an embracing of them. On X, he cited “what we’re seeing in Springfield” as the main example. He again spread lies about migrants spreading HIV and slaughtering animals. He told James Pogue of The American Conservative, “I think our people hate the right people.” He wholeheartedly endorses the idea of rounding up and expelling millions of people, many of whom are here legally.
In other words, JD Vance hasn’t changed his mind about Trump being America’s Hitler. He changed his mind about whether that’s a bad thing.
