In his newest column for HuffPost, America’s Voice Communications Manager Juan Escalante takes a hit at the GOP’s pathetic strategy to rally voters by attacking immigrants, minorities, people of color. In doing so, Escalante points out the countless Republican attack ads continually demonizing immigrants — a desperate and blatant attempt to divide and distract voters as midterms loom less than a month away.
Escalante’s piece is excerpted below and available online here:
Midterms fast approach, and Americans are once again being inundated with attack ads from candidates on both ends of the political spectrum. The GOP for its part has abandoned campaigning on the party’s one big legislative accomplishment so far under President Donald Trump ― massive tax cuts for the rich and powerful ― and instead are doubling down on their old, reliable narrative, scapegoating immigrants and stoking white fear.
… But a curious trend is occurring amid the GOP’s attempts to paint immigrants as the rapists, murderers and drug dealers they want Americans to believe are causing all of our problems: In certain races, these attack ads may now be backfiring. Using immigrants and refugees as punching bags is what the GOP base responds to, but it may no longer be enough to ensure Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress.
… Using immigrants and refugees as punching bags is what the GOP base responds to, but it may no longer be enough to ensure Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress.
… Apparently, the Republican strategy to “divide and distract,” which replaces their policy proposals and vision for the future of our country with the vitriolic anti-immigrant attacks that have become too familiar under the Trump administration, isn’t working ― even in a state like Kansas, where the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Kris Kobach, has built a national profile through strident attacks on undocumented immigrants.
In just a few weeks, voters head to the polls to decide if Trump loyalists will prevail. Until then, Americans will repeatedly be served politically charged ads echoing Trump’s anti-immigrant position. I hope they remind Americans of the immigrant families destroyed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the traumatized young children held in detention centers at the southern border, and the Dreamers currently in the sights of the president’s deportation force.
It’s clear GOP candidates are betting on a formula of attacking minorities, people of color and immigrants ― just like Trump did in 2016. This technique ― attacking the less-fortunate and those seeking a better life for their families ― will be what gets Republican extremists booted from Congress as they tout efforts to divide Americans, not solve the real changes facing our democracy.
