Red Waves and Racist Rants in the Presidential Election Homestretch

Audiences buying into his violence-warped worldview love the message, not unlike those who thought lynching was a spectator sport in the 19th century.

Republicans and their minions are flooding the media with polling showing a swing in public sentiment toward Donald Trump. Surveys are coming out of nowhere, so-called Red Wave polling, “internals” leaked to friendly reporters, and betting market voodoo. 

The targets of this onslaught are the polling aggregators often cited in major media. Reporter Jay Kuo says he’s counted 60 of these “Trump is moving up” polls in recent weeks.

• Trump needs us to believe the race is close, not only because it will help him claim election fraud later, but because a close race gives a permission structure for people who are still undecided to excuse the worst of Trump’s attributes. After all, everyone else is still supporting him, right?

There was a time not long ago when North Korean-style propaganda was mocked in the United States. No more. As the Trump campaign enters the homestretch of this election, the closing message is one of sweeping extermination of the nation's immigrants. The lies keep getting more outrageous:

 "In Colorado the gang even got a green light to shoot police officers. Did you know the gang got the okay to kill your police?"

On Sunday he mused about using the National Guard or the military to round up “the threat within,” going after his political opponents.

The aim of the Red Wave (remember 2022?) is to have multiple trusted media outlets sow confusion and disillusionment. Most folks know at this point that when Donald Trump says he’s leading in the polls it’s 100% bullshit. His fans say it’s part of his grandiosity and like him for being such a “strong” man.

Every promise made from the stage in recent rallies has been wrapped in the threat of violence. First the claims about the nation being a cesspool of crime get made, buoyed by a fake narrative used as an example. Then comes the suggestion of state-sponsored violence as the solution.

Audiences buying into his violence-warped worldview love the message, not unlike those who thought lynching was a spectator sport in the 19th century. The Big Lies about immigration have been repeated to the point where September polls say more than half of the country now favor mass deportation.

While I’m sure the words mass deportation mean different things to different people, the Trump campaign has steadily widened its descriptions of those to be deported. At this point, I’m not sure that I –born overseas to American parents– wouldn’t be on a list were it not for the fact of my pale complexion.

Mass deportation is a really stupid idea, not that different from saying a shotgun is a good method of controlling flying insects. 

Via the National Immigration Forum:

• Researchers have calculated that deporting all unauthorized immigrants would reduce GDP by between 2.6% and 12% over a decade, with accompanying declines in tax revenues and employment hours. The removal of all unauthorized workers from the labor market would likely lead to significant labor shortages, which would be difficult to counterbalance and would reduce production and raise consumer prices.

• These risks are not merely theoretical; history reveals the adverse effects of mass deportation. A 2023 study found that, for every one million unauthorized immigrant workers deported under the Secure Communities Program implemented between 2010 and 2015, approximately 88,000 native-born U.S. workers lost their jobs. These findings suggest that, if all unauthorized workers in the current labor force were deported, nearly a million American citizens could lose their jobs. Mass deportation would deliver a severe blow to the economy, reducing economic output and eliminating jobs held by American citizens. In this way, deportation would have disastrous effects for the economy at large and individual workers.

Those who say the actuality of a Trump administration would be different from what’s being promised or implied at campaign rallies are wrong. It would be worse. They have a game plan and they’ll use it, knowing that a significant percentage of the population wouldn’t even realize what’s going on until either riots occur (necessitating more force) or the worst of the economic/political aspects manifested themselves.

The New York Times (and other media) are whitewashing the level of anticipatory violence occurring, as in the misleading headline "Trump Rally in Aurora Is Marked by Nativist Attacks" or presenting eugenics claims as evidence of "long-held fascination with genes and genetics."

Politico analyzed 20 Trump rallies and documented the escalating xenophobia and racism in progress.

• Vivid imagery, such as telling crowds of rally attendees that migrants will “cut your throat,” are now a staple of Trump’s speeches. He cites cases of U.S. women and girls allegedly murdered by immigrants in the country illegally, even as studies have shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans.

• But Trump says they are — because they are inherently worse people. He’s told nearly all-white crowds in the past that they have “good genes,” even before his explicit suggestion this week that non-white immigrants are genetically inferior — when he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that migrants have “bad genes.”

• “What is so jarring to me is these are not just Nazi-like statements. These are actual Nazi sentiments,” said Robert Jones, founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, the author of “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy” and a vocal critic of Trump’s rhetoric. “Hitler used the word vermin and rats multiple times in Mein Kampf to talk about Jews. These are not accidental or coincidental references. We have clear, 20th century historical precedent with this kind of political language, and we see where it leads.”

The people at Politico and other outlets are giving this a pass by not making it a bigger deal because they personally see no downside to a xenophobic authoritarian regime. Yes, they are fools, but their class and racial privilege act as blinders keeping them from realizing that there must always be another enemy to conquer for authoritarians to remain in power.

Here’s Michael Podhorzer, former political director for the AFL-CIO, who correctly predicted the overall results of the 2022 midterms, when many were predicting a Red Wave. 

• “When we do focus groups with the segment of Latinos that are answering survey questions saying that they’re comfortable with mass deportation,” he said, “what comes out quickly is” that they do not appreciate how draconian and expansive Trump’s proposal could actually be.

• “That focus group flips,” he said, as soon as they learn that they or their loved ones could get swept up in it themselves.

What I’ve learned over the years  -through breaking up with self-medication and four rounds of cancer- is that putting one foot in front of the other is the antidote to despair. It’s not a balm, but a process that will get you through to the other side of whatever fear you are experiencing.

We’re being sold doom and gloom. You don’t have to buy it. When I die, my accomplishments will be remembered by some and forgotten by others. What won’t be left behind for others to see will be the fears I encountered along the way.

There is quality polling showing that the contest between Trump and Harris remains unchanged. Turnout remains the key to victory. And down ballot races are political insurance.

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Monday News You Should Read

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8 minutes, 19 seconds: Inside one man’s dying body as Narcan molecules rush to reverse an overdose by Blake Nelson at The San Diego Union-Tribune

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story outta be a Pulitzer Prize winner. It’s the most honest description of drug interaction with the human body I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, it’s subscriber only. 

• A cloud of naloxone grew inside his brain. The molecules ricocheted off each other and knocked into opioids and crashed onto neuronal surfaces until one happened to land on an exposed receptor. Another filled a different receptor. The cloud grew.

• Outside the man’s body, medics from Heartland Fire and Rescue walked through the bedroom door and weaved around a keyboard and a skateboard and a basket of toiletries. Twenty-five seconds had passed since naloxone entered the body. “You guys wanna move him that way?” one asked. Rost grabbed a wrist. The man’s eyes were slits and his head floppy as officers adjusted his body.

• Without warning he opened his mouth. “Eeeeguuuuuuuuuugh.” Air rushed into his lungs. He took a second breath. Then, silence.

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Texas county sidelines librarians, reclassifies book on abuse of Native Americans as "fiction" by Judd Legum at Popular Information

• The move to reclassify Colonization and the Wampanoag Story comes after a controversial decision last March to remove librarians from the decision-making process when a children's book carried by Montgomery County is challenged. Previously, there was an advisory committee comprised of five librarians and five community members. As a result of the change, the librarians were removed from the Committee, and the determinations of the new Committee, which consisted of five non-librarians, became binding. 

• The change to the book review process was driven by a local right-wing group, Two Moms and Some Books. The group is led by Michele Nuckolls, a local mother. Nuckolls believes "children’s books with alternate gender ideology to be moved to the adult section." The group also is demanding more "conservative and Christian’s [sic] books in the public library." The group is especially enthusiastic about titles from Brave Books, which publishes children's books from far-right authors like Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. In case there is any confusion about the objectives of the group, its slogan is "Make Libraries Great Again!"

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How Christopher Columbus Ruined My Life by Asha Rangappa at The Freedom Academy

• Some people believe that labels don’t matter, and that getting stuck on them only highlights our differences and divides us as citizens. It’s true that in the end, we are all Americans. But when individuals claim their African-, Italian-, Japanese- or other heritage as a part of their identity, they aren’t disavowing their American-ness. Rather, they are invoking a unique cultural narrative that has shaped their path and relationship to this country. Sharing and understanding these distinct histories is what weaves us together as one nation on the other side of the hyphen. Treating identities as interchangeable obscures these histories and does a disservice to the groups that have lived them.

• I’m dismayed that I (still) have to explain to my children the difference between Native Americans and Indians simply because one man happened to get lost five centuries ago. But perhaps one day the way we refer to the people who live in America will recognize that the world is much bigger than Columbus had ever imagined.