2) This isn’t the first time this has happened. The alleged Pittsburgh synagogue mass murderer railed about Jews engineering the “invaders.” After that carnage, Trump mouthed a few nice words about the need for unity. Then the hate-rhetoric resumed.
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3) This whole worldview can be found, perfectly expressed, in Trump’s 2016 closing ad, which juxtaposed George Soros alongside dark, invading hordes. This trope is now going to be featured in Trump’s reelection campaign. See these images from Trump's 2016 ad:pic.twitter.com/uemN6yNlUz
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4) Remember the DHS analyst who warned of resurgent right wing extremism in 2009, unleashing that fake-outrage fest? As he put it to me, Trump is “mainstreaming” white nationalist themes. They are “now being endorsed at the highest levels of government”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/29/trumps-hate-and-lies-are-emboldening-extremists-just-ask-the-analyst-who-warned-us/ …pic.twitter.com/5UqERr9lVm
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5) As
@mattgertz points out, this language is still being defended -- and, more important, actively employed -- on Fox News:https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1158704514792402945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1158704514792402945&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2019%2F8%2F6%2F20756711%2Ffox-friends-invasion-el-paso-shooting-trump-live-tweets …
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6) Little by little, the boundaries on what Republican elites consider acceptable or even actively desirable from Trump are getting pushed outwards. The "send her back" chants were too much for some Rs. But for how much longer? As I noted recently: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/01/trumps-racism-hate-are-about-face-another-big-test/ …pic.twitter.com/M4USKtBt77
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7) This may be changing the GOP -- by changing what Republican voters think it means to be a Republican official, and changing what they expect from their elites. See former NSC official
@jgeltzer,@jtlevy, and me on this here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/01/trumps-racism-hate-are-about-face-another-big-test/ …pic.twitter.com/Ktw8BeSNLX
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8) Remember, during the 2018 elections, even as Trump sent the military to the border, multiple GOP ads across the country featured this "invasion" imagery. See this good roundup from
@SabrinaSiddiqui: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/18/republicans-immigration-attack-ads-trump …pic.twitter.com/srcai2Ar4W
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9) Centrist writers keep wringing their hands about the Dem candidates’ criticism of Trump’s racism. The subtext: It could alienate white voters. But the Ds are condemning Trump’s racism and its *consequences.* This is what responsible leaders *must* do: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/31/democrats-just-took-trumps-racism-not-how-youd-expect/ …pic.twitter.com/z1OQwRr7Uj
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10) And what happens if and when the expectations that Trump has raised are dashed among the more unstable racists and white nationalists who initially thrilled to his hate-rhetoric? This, from
@paulwaldman1, is deeply alarming: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/05/how-trumps-biggest-broken-promise-will-make-white-supremacist-terrorism-even-worse/ …pic.twitter.com/j6oONVZ5jR
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11) As
@brianbeutler notes, the media is still being deeply (willfully?) naive about Trump’s malevolent and destructive aims towards our basic values, towards multiracial democracy itself. This is major institutional failure, on par with runup to Iraq: https://crooked.com/articles/beto-trump-media/ …pic.twitter.com/PwGxYoCbHc
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12) Intelligence officials in Trump’s own government are warning of resurgent white supremacist and white nationalist terrorism. It’s time we all asked *them* whether Trump’s hate-rhetoric is fueling the problem. FIN https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/01/trumps-racism-hate-are-about-face-another-big-test/ …pic.twitter.com/oUGhCU1t0T
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CODA: Speaking of the consequences of Trump's racism and hate-rhetoric, see this deeply dispiriting thread from
@Carrasquillo:https://twitter.com/Carrasquillo/status/1158788367418560512 …Show this thread
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