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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Yeah, this is dog-whistle politics quintessentially. The issue though is the dog whistles, not the policies that they get support for by using the dog whistles. Those policies either stand or fall on their own merits. The problem is the racist rhetoric, where it's being used ("they're sending us their rapists and criminals"). The "build a wall" policy that results from that isn't necessarily racist, it could be backed by myriad non-racist concerns... it's just a stupid policy in its own right. I guess I'm just saying these are separate issues and they shouldn't be conflated such that anything tangentially related to them is immediately cast as racist.
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I agree with that except for where you say these are separate issues. Because the whole Republican plan (they aren't unique in using this sort of approach but they have it down to a T and IMO use it for far more sinister purposes) is to use these two elements together (the rhetoric and the policy) in such a way that it keeps their leaders arms length from the rhetoric. Guys like Glenn Beck go around saying the stuff they know whips the base into a frenzy, priming them for the politicians, who then accommodate them. If I allow racism to happen, and encourage it to happen, and take steps to profit from it happening, but don't actively participate in it, I'd say that makes me a racist.
That's one brilliant thing about Trump, he's discovered that the arm's length approach isn't necessary. He's his own surrogate.