Conservative’s White Nationalism Dog Whistle: The Political Lie of School Choice
A dog whistle is designed so that to unintended audiences (humans), the whistle is silent, but to the intended audience (dogs), the whistle is a sharp alert.
Now here comes the metaphorical portion of this post.
Over only a couple years of the Donald Trump era of Republican politics, we have become gradually accustomed—like a live lobster dropped in a pot of water soon boiled—to the gross and bluntly self-unaware language of his leadership of the Republican party—he of “grab them by the pussy,” no less.
But Trump’s race-baiting and race-appeasing of white nationalism/racism is no less ham-fisted.
In the U.S., we are pretty solid examples of Meursault’s dictum that people can get used to anything, but we also represent how short human memory is. I fear we have forgotten something most of us never even recognized: The good ol’ traditional political lie, often wrapped conveniently in dog whistle language.
Do not fret, though, because here’s a little nudge from former South Carolina Representative and Senator Jim DeMint, who did what many good ol’ Republicans have done, parlay the “damned-government” mantra into, ironically, a political career that leads to a cushy position in the so-called private sector, in DeMint’s case that was becoming president of the [White] Heritage Foundation forming his own conservative think tank.
It’s good work—if you are a white man with the sort of wealth and clout CONTINUE READING: Conservative’s White Nationalism Dog Whistle: The Political Lie of School Choice | radical eyes for equity
