Exploiting the racial and cultural divide
Published November 3, 2017
by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, November 1, 2017.
If you want to get an idea of what the 2018 election cycle will look like, check out the races in Virginia. It’s not pretty. Both sides are using ugly racial and cultural stereotypes to gin up their base voters. Republicans imply that Hispanic gangs are infiltrating the state. Democrats insinuate that local rednecks want to harm immigrant children. The ads just widen the cultural divide that’s given us Donald Trump.
On the Republican side, GOP nominee Ed Gillespie has been running ads that say Democratic nominee Ralph Northam supports sanctuary cities that will become havens for the violent Latino gang, MS-13, whose motto, ads claim, is “Kill, Rape, Control.” Of course, Northam doesn’t support allowing criminals to take over his state, but Gillespie’s ads are aimed at Trump supporters who might otherwise sit the election out. Establishment Republicans, of whom Gillespie is one, are looking the other way, just hoping Gillespie can eke out a win in a state that has been trending Democratic for the past decade.
The Democratic response came this week with an ad that shows a white guy in a pickup truck with a Confederate flag on the back chasing and intimidating immigrant kids who are otherwise just minding their own business. The truck has a Gillespie bumper sticker on the back. While the ad might be trying to juice non-white voters in the state, it’s probably targeted more toward white liberals in cities who already have negative views of Trump supporters from rural areas.
The ads have a tit-for-tat feel to them. It’s almost like the two sides are saying, “If you’re going to portray our supporters like that, we’re going to portray yours like this.” It’s more a battle of ad makers giving their allies something to cheer about in a “Take that!” sort of way than an appeal to people who either need persuading or motivating. I suspect Gillespie’s ads have more impact on their targeted audience, though.
As a guy who grew up driving pickups and who now lives in a town with a substantial Hispanic population, I find both sides disturbing. They epitomize the zero-sum mentality of politics today, appealing to cultural biases and disregarding the strength of our diversity. Regardless of their political persuasion, most rural white men don’t support the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacist organizations. Most Hispanic residents, whether here legally or not, are hard-working, law abiding people who just want better lives for their children. Pitting the two sides against each other as political foils damages our country by exploiting the racial and cultural divides that need to heal if we hope to function better as a society in the future.
https://www.politicsnc.com/exploiting-the-racial-and-cultural-divide/
November 4, 2017 at 1:26 pm
Norm Kelly says:
It's stunning how much race relations have deteriorated since Thank-God-Obama's-Gone was elected. And, yes, the downturn can be traced directly to the 2nd black president. (for all you libs with short-term memory loss, y'all claimed Bill as the 1st black president.) Race relations were further destroyed by the likes of that football-has-been player guy, the lies perpetrated by demoncrats and media allies about things like 'hands up dont shoot', and referring to the Trayvon Martin shooter as a white guy who referred to the hoodie dude as 'black' when he was no such thing & did no such thing.
So, since the decline in race relations ca be traced to libs, demoncrats, media allies, can we now expect honesty and open discussion from the same groups?
Obviously not. White men are constantly berated for not wanting to engage in open, honest discussion about race relations by libs and media allies. Then when some white guy has the courage to talk about race relations, media allies, libs, demons, and black groups/leaders shout from every place possible that whites have no understanding and no right to participate in any discussion of race issues. Groups like antifa are expected to riot and destroy cuz whites don't understand. Black leaders like our own Rev. Buffet Slayer (who refuses to go away) find racism in everything said or done by whites, by Republicans, by anyone who voted for Trump. When anyone points out the truth of NuBlakPantha thugs, the crimes of antifa, or the lies being spread by demons & media allies, the reaction is the same - total shutdown of the one(s) courageous enough to speak truth.
And as to the line 'Most Hispanic residents, whether here legally or not, are hard-working, law abiding people' could only be said by a confused, die-hard alt-left zealot (all terms stolen from the left's handbook). If they are not here legally then by definition, and with truth/honesty in mind, they are NOT law-abiding! Just because libs are a confused, delusional group does not mean you can drag the rest of us along with you. Words mean things. Law breakers can not also be referred to as law-abiding. And what other sovereign nation so easily, voluntarily gives up their sovereignty? And then makes excuses for killing sovereignty? What part of 'here illegally' doesn't make sense to alt-left types? What part of 'sovereign' makes no sense to socialist libs?
