MAGABomber Cesar Sayoc and synagogue shooter Robert Bowers were divided over their support for Trump. Sayoc loved Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic rants. Bowers didn’t think Trump was hateful enough. But both of them took action based around the same false claim: That Democrats, and specifically Holocaust-survivor and billionaire investor George Soros, are funding an “invasion” by immigrants from Central America. Both the murderer and the attempted murderer were inspired by two core ideas:
- Democrats and Soros are funding the “caravan.”
- Democrats and Soros help undocumented immigrants to vote illegally.
Both these ideas are lies. Not just lacking in evidence. Not just unsupported. But lies that have been disproven at every turn. USA Today shows how the latest version of these paired lies proceeded up the chain from a few of the most rabidly white nationalist members of Trump’s base, up the visibility chain to Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump Sr., and a regular appearance on rally stages across the country—just in time to launch a flurry of bombs and bullets.
But neither idea is new. The idea that Soros and other “globalists”—the moderately less offensive term for “international Jews”—are funding everything from immigrant caravans to every. single. protest. pops up again and again. And Republican representatives and senators have been quick to join Donald Trump in endorsing this lie. The claim that undocumented immigrants are also Democratic voters is baked into Republican assumptions. It’s the theme song of Republicans like Kansas’s plague Kris Kobach and was at the heart of Trump’s claims that millions of illegal votes denied him a popular vote victory.
With Trump declaring that the caravan, make that The Caravan, is the focus of Republican efforts to scare the shit out of voters, it’s no coincidence that leading racist screamer Matt Gaetz and perennial dumbass Louie Gohmert began drawing lines between Soros and a group of immigrant families. Gaetz pushed videos that turned out to not even be from the right country, but just because people pointed that out, doesn’t mean anyone backed away. Far from it. Even after the video had been outed as fake, Donald Trump Jr. pushed the same video to his Twitter followers.
Not only has the violence that resulted from these claims not merited an apology or a rethink, it’s the the central theme of the Republican closing drive. The GOP continues to support and pay for ads linking Soros to the caravan, and Democrats to the caravan, and the caravan to illegal votes. Trump continues to hammer these themes at his rallies. They know it’s all lies. They know it generates literally deadly hate. But it’s the core of their party.
This year, show the Republicans that racism, anti-Semitism, and hate is not a winning combination. Help give Democratic candidates and the House and the Senate a last-minute push.
And it is never too late to volunteer. Or … okay, it’s too late after the election, but it’s not too late now so … volunteer!
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and other members of the Trump White House often seem frustrated that just reciting economic statistics doesn’t end every argument. Trump inherited a recovery, and thanks to a giant sugar injection for corporations, that recovery is still going on. That he’s made it almost two years without sending the economy utterly down the crapper seems to some of Trump’s team that it should be miracle enough for anyone.
But no one at a Trump rally is chanting “Lower percentage of taxes on billionaires!” Trump’s brand is built on racism and conspiracy theories. His supporters expect racism and conspiracy theories. Trump provides. And now that the Republican Party has fully embraced Trump as their leader, his message of immigrant “invasion” and those sneaky globalists has become the message for the GOP. It’s the focus of ads across the nation.
It’s not unusual for a political party to build their campaign around goals they may not meet. It’s not even unusual for a party to create a strawman to build fear of the opposition. It’s not even the first time the Republican Party has gone all in on a message of racism and hate. Or the second. But it’s definitely another.
When it comes down to the wire, Republicans go to what’s important for their base. That’s why they don’t dare let off on pushing these lies, even while people plan for the resulting funerals. It’s literally all they’ve got.