One of the nation’s foremost civil rights organizations is urging radio stations in Georgia to stop running an ad tied to former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller that falsely accuses Democratic leaders of “anti-white bigotry.” The gross ads, paid for by Miller’s America Legal First organization, are openly and unabashedly “amplifying tropes that have historically been used to generate backlash to minority groups,” Politico reported.
In a letter, NAACP president Derrick Johnson said stations airing such ads make them “a knowing participant in the spread of disinformation designed to enrage and frighten white voters,” NBC News reported.
RELATED STORY: Racist Stephen Miller's group runs ads sobbing about 'anti-white bigotry'
Campaign Action
“The race-baiting advertisements are obviously false,” the letter states, as reported by NBC News. “Misrepresentations that form the bulk of the advertisement already have been publicly debunked. Thus, there is not even a good faith basis for publicizing them.”
Of course, this is Stephen Miller. Nothing was ever in good faith, and the ads—which basically accuse the Biden administration of putting white voters last on his agenda, and ask, “When did racism against white people become okay?”—have been chosen to run in Georgia for a reason. One-man abortion provider Herschel Walker is unfit for office, but he could win a Senate seat in Georgia, and Miller is determined to do this with the help of white voters who he can make angry over perceived grievances.
Johnson’s letter states that “America First Legal falsely claims that various institutions within the United States, including federal and state politicians as well as corporations, airlines, and universities, are engaging in ‘racism against white people’ in violation of the law. No ‘spin’ can be put on the statements contained in America First Legal’s advertisements that would make them true. Accordingly, such advertisements are an impediment to the democratic process.”
“We continue to be gravely concerned that this group, with the help of willing radio stations, is attempting to mislead the public with this specious advertisement,” Johnson continues. “We ask that you cease airing this advertisement immediately, as well as the many false advertisements propounded by America First Legal.”
As noted earlier here at Daily Kos, other racist ads tied to America First Legal staffers depict brown people at the southern border. Some are running in Arizona, where Sen. Mark Kelly is being challenged by conspiracy theory-pusher Blake Masters. “Even by GOP attack ad standards, Citizens for Sanity’s ghastly creation is extraordinary,” The Nation noted. Citizens for Sanity officials are tied to America First Legal.
Johnson’s letter is 100% right on all points—and especially that stations should stop airing America First Legal’s racist swill. America First Legal might technically be a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, but its still a tax-exempt nonprofit organization run by a noted white supremacist extremist who was the architect of some of the previous administration’s most reprehensible immigration policies, including family separation. Which other white supremacists will radio stations give airtime to, now that they’ve opened the door to Miller?
“Political appeals to White insecurity are now explicit,” read the headline to a column by The Washington Post’s Philip Bump. “The appeals used to be coded, quiet. Present and identifiable, but shying away from specific ‘they’re coming for you’ language. The coding is gone. The elevation of racial fear is explicit. The Southern strategy is gone; the Jim Crow appeals to Blacks usurping power are back.”
RELATED STORIES:
LGBTQ advocates remind us that Stephen Miller was scheming policy 'long before' COVID 'even existed'
Rep. Veronica Escobar says Stephen Miller should be locked up for 'heinous human rights violations'
Unsurprising: Racist ex-Trump advisor now suing over the rights of white COVID-19 patients