It’s no secret that the Trump campaign has narrowed their focus. The economy/inflation and immigration. That Trump ever had a lead on the economy even when President Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee always astounded me. However, slowly but surely VP Harris has eaten away his advantage. Since Trump’s campaign abandoned addition, at least of independent voters he’s determined to get out every last MAGA goober. And to get some who haven’t voted before to vote too. So when Trump and RWNJ outlets tell lies about things like last week’s economic news the people Trump wants to gaslight will believe the lies they are told.
The other issue of course is immigration. Trump, along with his sidekick Vance have been running around the country painting a picture of a dystopian landscape almost everywhere one looks. And the FEW areas okay so far are “next’ and any day now. It’s blunt, dark and even violent messaging about “illegals taking over”, hordes of them overwhelming “real Americans” and when it didn’t seem to be having enough effect they decided to flat-out make sh*t up. Hell, J.D. Vance said in an interview if making stuff up to get people’s interest is what it takes then by god they’ll keep making stuff up! We all know the bullshit about eating cats and dogs is just the beginning.
Trump is literally invoking almost word-for-word Nazi rhetoric. Immigrants poisoning America and all that. Well, certain immigrants anyway. If they happen to be white and from Europe and especially blonde & blue Scandinavians (the whole Aryan look) then Trump says welcome. Of course people from THOSE countries are pretty damned happy with where they are and aren’t interested in a U.S. shaped by Trump. The point is that it’s a very small and select group that Trump would allow to immigrate to our country. I don’t need to list all the people and groups he’d ban. It would take too long anyway.
Our southern border and it being a rich source of chances for photo ops makes and inviting target. Even Hispanics who’ve got roots here, who came here via the admittedly difficult legal process don’t like seeing undocumenteds crossing the border. President Biden let it be known when a hard-core conservative Senator was working on a bi-partisan plan to fix many of the problems he’d be on-board with a bi-partisan bill out of Congress. Conservatives couldn’t believe what Sen. Lankford negotiated. It was a wet-dream for them. Comments like ‘we’ll never again get Democrats to agree to something this strict’ were common and not just off the record.
Trump as you know intended all along to campaign on “illegal” immigration and solving the problem was the LAST thing he wanted. So he started making phone calls (threats) and tanked the whole thing, just so he could have a campaign issue. As I said earlier regarding the economy I’m astounded how so many tens of millions of even MAGAs who look around and see what they imagine are “illegals” around every corner haven’t seen through Trump’s stunt. Then again we’re talking about people who could become Darwin Award recipients on any given day.
So where are we in these final weeks of the campaign? The rhetoric got ramped up to heretofore outrageous levels both in volume and the lies being told. I think it’s safe to say it’s only going to get worse and I’ll bet anyone reading this feels the same. It’s raw. It’s BLUNT and it’s racist as hell. Trump, Vance and a distressing number of conservative leaders more or less acknowledge that. AND DON”T CARE! However, something’s been eating at me and it only crystalized in my mind earlier today.
One thing Trump has never been is subtle. Hell, his entire political career has been built on braying all the racist stuff the GOP message machine had so carefully crafted starting back with Reagan to ‘speak in code.’ Say things to point fingers with a ‘wink wink, nod nod’ that the good ole boys and gals out there would hear loud and clear. It got them a lot of success at the ballot box. Then Trump came along and made it “okay” for those folks to openly expressed their hatred and racism. And we’ve seen the results. Now, “immigrants” are the target instead of black people (as much) and the thing is, “immigrant” for Trump/MAGA doesn’t distinguish between those who came here legally and those who are undocumented. Nor those who have attained citizenship or even been BORN here.
If someone looks or worse looks and sounds different then for MAGA by default they are suspect. And there are an increasing number of white, ‘real Mur-i-KKKun’ folks out there who aren’t interested in allowing such people to prove they are citizens, or at least here legally. In many places where there’s a mixture of white (with MAGAs) and immigrants or first generation Americans parents who came here, even if they became citizens make someone born here, even if they speak with little or no accent “not a REAL American.”
Which brings me to Kamala Harris. When Trump tanked the immigration bill he had no idea President Biden would step aside. When during that awful month of Democrats back-stabbing the President it looked like it might happen Trump (and his team) imagined a true sh*t-show on replacing him as the nominee. The swiftness with which the Party rallied behind Harris stunned them. They’ve been on their back foot ever since.
However, there was a long-term strategy to hammer immigration as an issue and as much as Trump has been temped he’s (so far) refrained from equating Harris and Obama. Trump got his real start in politics as a prominent “birther” questioning whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii and an American citizen. He can’t get away with that with Harris. Her parent’s came here legally and both would attain citizenship. Harris and her sister were both born here and it’s simply too easy to prove.
However, and this is the important part Harris is a so-called first generation American. I for some reason was thinking about a scene from Charlie Wilson’s War when Gust was having a fight with his boss about his assignment. Gust complained about so many people having been stupidly fired because while born here their parents were immigrants. Having grown up in enclaves they spoke languages and knew customs that were essential to intelligence work and running agents in foreign countries. The boss sneered dismissively and said “some of those people were barely Americans.” The scene ended with the a-hole big office picture window into the cubicle/desk area being smashed.
The point is that THAT is an attitude that’s all too common. Harris isn’t the only person or political candidate dealing with this. Alexander Vindeman is running for Congress and even in a place like Virginia, near DC it’s a problem for him. It took me until today to figure this out. Then again, while I haven’t always been successful during the course of my life I’ve worked hard to suppress some of the racism adults (and some I grew up/went to school with) tried to instill in me growing up. However there are tens of millions of MAGAs out there, and tens of millions of more who if not kool-aid drinkers are all “proper” “upstanding” upper middle class and higher folks who think EXACTLY like that boss in Charlie Wilson’s War.
THEY will I fear have gotten the message without Trump ever saying it out loud – the message being ‘Harris is the child of immigrants. She’s BARELY American.’ It’s a crazy thing to think, but I believe while it wasn’t part of Trump’s original ‘immigration strategy’ all the hoopla forces Harris to tread carefully with her personal story. Being the child of immigrants and rising to where she is would in any other election be a big thing and a positive one about her and America. Now? It’s a minefield. Harris’s mother died of cancer so nasty comments about her could backfire on the Trump campaign.
However Harris’ estranged father is a ripe target. Expect to hear more about her ‘Marxist Professor’ father in the weeks ahead. CODE. Just like the ‘is she black or is she Asian’ crap. It is I believe an attempt to paint Harris as someone who isn’t “fully” American – who grew up guided by “foreigner” parents. Barely” American. I don’t know it if will work but I’m betting MAGAs got the message long before it occurred to me. Hopefully most independent voters won’t “get” what I think Trump is trying to do.
Kamala Harris is the poster child for the American dream. Born to modest circumstances and through hard work made herself increasing successful. First professionally and then politically. Her example is one that should inspire ANY American. So don’t just vote, do all you can to get others to vote too. When I was growing up the Klan got beaten down for a good, long while. That’s the hope I try to summon now. That we can beat down this morphed version of Klan thinking by beating the snot out of Trump/MAGA come Nov 5.
We HAVE to. It won’t be easy, but as the following clip indicates we have managed to do seemingly impossible things and somehow found a way to get it done despite the odds:
The nut of it “… Trump is literally invoking almost word-for-word Nazi rhetoric…” This Trump dogwhistle feeds and supports the dangerous symbiotic relationships, with mutual benefits, in other known places and their non-free and undemocratic, repressive and dangerous, forms of what’s loosely termed leadership.
Well, the GOP have to be very careful with the immigrant issue.
“Little” Marco Rubio, for instance, while he was born in the US, neither of his parents were citizens at the time, having immigrated from Cuba years before Marco’s birth (but not obtaining citizenship until Marco was 10 or 12, as I seem to recall).
Nikki Haley is in the same boat as Kamala Harris; she’s also the child of immigrants.
And, Ted “Cancun” Cruz? Well, he was actually born in CANADA and only had US citizenship because of his mother’s American citizenship (his father, the Cuban immigrant, didn’t obtain US citizenship until 2005, some 30+ years after Ted’s birth).
And Vivek Ramaswamy? Both his parents were immigrants from India (can’t find anything indicating their citizenship status or when they immigrated to the US).
And J D Vance’s sugar daddy, Peter Thiel? Born in Germany, and came to the US with his parents when he was one. His mother obtained US citizenship; his father didn’t. Theil himself would also become a citizen. (Thiel’s bigger problem will be when the folks he’s currently supporting turn on him because he’s gay. And no one would deserve to be hounded for that more than Thiel. He was infuriated that Gawker Media dared to publish a story outing him, even though he’s certainly taken every opportunity since to declare how “proud” he is to be gay. So when the RedHats come for him–and they will because he won’t be able to count on Vance to protect him–and then deport him, it will be no big loss.)
Harking back to my years on another site the expression IOKIYAR (It’s Okay If You’re A Republican) comes to mind. Unless of course said Republican challenges the flaming orange human shaped rectum aka Donald Trump.
Also, both Rubio and Cruz have that Cuban connection and that’s a BFD in Florida politics. Pissing off THAT crowd is something any GOPer, even Trump knows better than to do! Haley and Ramaswamy have kissed the ring, or perhaps the butt-plug so for the moment are in the clear on this but had Haley stayed in and the primaries concluded with her having won thirty percent (or more) of votes in the primaries with Trump having been convicted in NYC things could have turned into a brawl. And the issue I’ve written about would have I think been brought out into the open.
Small point: “Alexander Vindeman is running for Congress and even in a place like Virginia, near DC it’s a problem for him.” It’s Eugene Vindman, Alexander’s brother, who is running in VA07. It’s an open seat because Abigail Spanberger is leaving to pursue running in the governor’s election next year.
It’s also the seat for MY congresscritter….!
Alexander is campaigning with him though. I refuse to pay for YouTube, so I get ads, including his.
I do not know why the Harris/Walz campaign is not hammering home the fact that trump was responsible for the republican’s wet dream immigrant legislation in political ads across the entire nation-during college and NFL football games on the boob tube would be a good start. I have seen nothing I can recall (and such an ad would be pretty memorable) about this. Maybe other markets are carrying something????
Every goddamn body in America is technically an immigrant. None of our ancestors were originally from here. NONE. Every human on earth can be traced back to east Africa. We’re all from a shit hole country/continent. OK Alanis now that is ironic. Although there’s mystery surrounding how and exactly when it occurred, Native Americans were here long before our European ancestors wrecked havoc. My adopted sister is Cherokee and she has a better claim than anyone in the Maga crowd. Of course when facts no longer matter then we all are in Wonderland, waiting for the citizens to install a nazi as our leader marching us into HELL. OFF WITH OUR HEADS!
Some of our ancestors were from Olduvai Gorge, I believe. But that’s definitely not America either.
Yep. My Mom was Scot-Irish & Dad, a Quarter Cherokee & German. So, if I were a Trumper, guess I can stay! Seriously, I’m not worried that Trump will be “our Leader” again! Our Righteous Democracy & Honest INTENT will WIN. JUST VOTE Blue.