In 1988, George H.W. Bush appealed to white fear by tying Michael Dukakis to Willie Horton. Horton was a convict out of prison on a furlough program, that did not return after furlough was up and twice raped a woman and beat her fiance. He used this ad (produced by former Roger Ailes employee, Larry McCarthy).
This was a huge dog-whistle. It was effective. It played to white fear of black crime.
Fast-forward to tonight and Donald Trump is inviting to the stage mothers of people murdered by illegal immigrants. It was ‘Willie Horton’ on steroids. (And Roger Ailes is somewhere in the nebulous background here too) The hair stood up on my neck. Then his reassurances to his audiences were that criminal illegal immigrants would be deported on day one, because the local police (like Sheriff Arpaio, for instance) know who they are and where they are.
Evocative of this:
We absolutely must defeat this frightening monster. We do have a different country, with a different demographic…..but nothing should be left to chance.
www.hillaryclinton.com/...
Source: my memory and Wikipedia.