Trump lies about immigrants to distract from his wackadoodle and dangerous platform

We need to condemn Trump/Vance's attacks without reinforcing them

Ever since JD Vance amplified lies about Haitian immigrants in his own state, the internet has been flooded by cat memes. That can make it seem that this newest attack is benign, or at least fluffy.

But the very opposite is true. This is part of the Republican effort to distract us from what they really stand for, make immigrants of color the targets of hatred and violence, and shift the responsibility for their cruel policies to new Americans who are largely a boon to their communities.

Trump and Vance are using a very old playbook that Trump started in 2015 when he started calling Mexicans rapists. Every time the right wing invents an invasion at the border or a caravan of migrants coming to rape and pillage, they dehumanize Black and Brown immigrants, legal or undocumented. And this dehumanization leads to violence.

By doubling down on the Springfield, Ohio story, Trump is putting the entire community at risk. Springfield’s schools have closed after receiving bomb threats. And the Klan and the Proud Boy have been marching through the streets. When Donald Trump was asked whether he denounced the bomb threats, he REFUSED TO DENOUNCE them, saying he didn’t know anything and he’d have to take a look. Vibes of Charlottesville, to say the least.

PSA: People who are not racists, traitors, fascists, and terrorists hear “bomb threats” and don’t need to know any more to denounce them. (also h/t Brian Schatz on X)

KKK flyer in Springfield Ohio this weekend.

Trump, Vance, and other right wing folks incite and invite violence against all Black and Brown immigrants, and Black and Brown people in general! They’d just as soon make a bigger group of “others” that they can dehumanize and deport. The right wing engages in stochastic terrorism to foment violence, in a way that’s eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany of the late 1930s. We talk a lot about this comparison, not because it’s facile, but because it’s accurate. When asked where the bottom was 8 years ago, the only thing keeping us from thinking about mass death and deportation was a failure of imagination.

Wow. That was scary and depressing. Please look at posts from Jess Piper, look at pictures of Taylor swift and her kitty, watch adorable animal videos and keep our heads high. We can do this if we put in the work. As Michael Podhorzer said in our conversation Within the Margin of Our Effort, we can do this. Let’s put our heads down, ignore the damn polls, and keep talking to neighbors, knocking, calling, texting, postcarding, and social media-ing. Our country and our neighbors need us!

LFG.