It's SCARE THE WHITE PEOPLE Time for MAGA
When all else fails, they lean back on what's worked for decades.
If it’s spring of a presidential year, you’re a Republican, your candidate has little to run on and a shrinking base of support, it’s time to SCARE THE WHITE PEOPLE.
This isn’t a new, or unsuccessful strategy for the GOP. In an interview decades ago, George H.W. Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater said, “In the 1954, you could say n-word, n-word, n-word. By the 1968, you can’t say that anymore.”
In the 1980s, the GOP came up with “welfare queens.”
In the 1990s, young Black men were “predators.”
NOTE: Atwater uses the n-word repeatedly in this audio.
More recently, Republicans have rolled out Critical Race Theory (CRT,) the burnt-out hulks of American cities, and ‘caravans of illegal immigrants’ crossing the border to steal rich white suburbanites’ jobs, homes, and wives.
In the wake of January 6th, Republican leaders attempted (and failed) to equate a Trump-led insurrection to the organic, legitimate protests following the murder of George Floyd four years ago.
This is all bullshit, of course.
BS or not, Republicans have little else to try. Trump is a disaster electorally, strategically, and financially. His team knows this and that’s why they’ll go back to the tried and true.
Last week, a friend fowarded me a presentation* from “Make America Just Again” yet another MAGA, grifty, front-group who, by their own admission, is to “counter the left’s use of abortion with potent law and order issues.”
*Below are some of the choice slides and statements. The entire deck is linked at the bottom of this post.
MAGA loves to use “injustice” to describe the trouble Trump has caused himself. He is in fact, not a victim, never has been, and wouldn’t be sitting in a court room (or facing other indictments) but for his own actions.
Crime “ravaging cities” is a favorite of Republicans in trouble. Most of their voters are suburban, exurban, and rural. “Those people” are creating trouble in cities many of these voters rarely, if ever, visit.
Do you think the photos of Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg are accidents?
Abortion is the bumper the Republican dog can’t get enough of. When Kelly Ann Conway goes on Fox News to tell conservatives that they’re in trouble on abortion, reality has infected their bubble.
They’ll be trotting this out in Maricopa County, Arizona, the WOW counties in Wisconsin, the collar counties of Philadelphia, and suburban Atlanta. Trump has hemorraged many of these voters, as last week’s PA primary demonstrated.
These goons are trying to raise $14 million for this effort and spend most of it on television, the least efficient medium in modern politics.
Larry Elder is a talk radio hack.
To give you a sense of how ancient Ed Rollins is, he was already really old when I used to see him at my dad’s office…in the 1980s.
The Bottom Line:
It’s important that the pro-democracy movement communicate with these voters NOW and through Election Day. Unlike the right-wing/MAGA machine, we both need to tell the truth, are able to tell the truth, and don’t need to make things up. The GOP has no such compunction: They’ll lie about anything and everything if it means they can win in November.
We should take these efforts at face value. When pushed to the wall, Trump and his acolytes will say and do anything to convince their voters that “those people” are coming for them. We must always push back, and push back hard on their tactics.
News and Notes:
Really enjoyed my talk with the Wall Street Journal’s Dana Mattioli on her new book about Amazon’s plans to take over the world. Hint: They’re doing a pretty good job of it, already.
Here’s a non-Amazon link to her book:
Please check out my conversation with the inimitable Brooklyn Dad on the Defiant Podcast.
Here’s the entire “Make America Just Again” PDF if you’d like to review it.
They will be leaning on the “socialism destroys freedom” mantra. Bill Barr got it started yesterday in his Caitlin Collins interview!
Well said. Love your podcast, too👍