In a new analysis posted at Medium in advance of the Republican convention, Frank Sharry predicts: “This convention is going to be a tribute to Trump and the GOP’s embrace of white identity politics. It’s gonna be ugly.”
Clearly, Trump and his enablers believe racism and xenophobia works. Stephen Miller recently asserted that Joe Biden’s immigration stance on immigration is “a massive political vulnerability.” Trump’s recent ads criticize Joe Biden for supporting a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. From April to June the Trump campaign spent more on immigration-themed ads on Facebook than on any other policy issue. Republican candidates are turning to xenophobic attack ads all across the country.
Sharry calls this strategy immoral and un-American. He goes on to argue that the strategy is likely to be an electoral failure. He cites four key reasons why:
- Americans have never been so pro-immigrant.
- Americans have never been so strongly opposed to Trump’s cruel policies and so strongly supportive of pro-immigrant policies.
- Since 2016, most Democrats have learned how to lean in and navigate immigration attacks in contested campaigns, and have done so successfully.
- Immigration has decreased in importance to voters in the midst of multiple crises, calling into question why Republicans go there. Perhaps it’s because they have very little besides the stoking fear of the non-white other.
Read Frank Sharry’s Medium post: “Trump and The GOP Will Rev Up Racism and Xenophobia This Week. It Won’t Work This Time.”