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During coverage of the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, MSNBC talking heads pointed out that most of the speakers had “toned down” the usual GOP rhetoric, with little talk of the “stolen” 2020 election, weaponized government, and praise for the January 6 insurrectionists as “patriots” or “hostages.” The shift in tone — at least in primetime — was allegedly reflective of some imaginary desire to reach beyond the hardcore rightwing base and attract voters who aren’t stewing in MAGA rhetoric and conspiracy thinking.
It sounded like bullshit to us, especially since down on the convention floor, convention organizers had supplied the crowd with great big RNC-printed signs that demanded one of the few things the 2024 GOP platform is at all specific about: “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” Inspired by an an appearance by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, any time a speaker mentioned “illegal aliens,” the crowd chanted “Send them back! Send them back!”
The crowd had plenty of reason to chant, especially when Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, warned all the undocumented immigrants in the arena or watching the RNC livestream, “You’d better start packing now because you’re going home,” which quickly became a bit of a meme, in case you’ve seen any “better start packing now” lines on social media.
On Twitter, more than one smartass called out the irony of a crowd full of people who want to deport all undocumented immigrants (including asylum-seekers, who they’re certain are just faking) and the signs and the chants, and the warm welcome for JD Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, whose parents immigrated to the US from India. But of course they did it right, with the right papers, so they’re very good immigrants, while anyone who overstays a visa or crosses the border without papers is a CRIMINAL (it’s a misdemeanor) and obviously a huge threat to public order.
If you have the papers, you’re the living embodiment of the American Dream.
“My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle class community, with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister,” she said. “That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.”
She said JD adapted to her vegetarian diet, and even learned how to cook Indian food for her parents. “It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream,” she said.
If you or your parents don’t have the papers, your achievements are nothing, no matter how much hardship you might have faced, and even if you were brought across the border as an infant. You are forever stained by the worst misdemeanor crime in human history, so MASS DEPORTATION NOW! And once birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment is done away with, then presumably people born to noncitizen parents can have their citizenship revoked, too. It would obviously be very popular.
The Trump and Vance spokespeople had clearly planned out their response to any questions about the sharply different takes on good immigrants living the American Dream and bad immigrants destroying the American Dream, as NBC News notes:
When asked to weigh in on the criticism, the Vance team sent a response from Jai Chabria, a JD Vance adviser and friend of the family.
“White liberals attacking a successful brown woman with such vitriol is exactly why the Democrats are bleeding so many minority voters right now,” he said.
You know, white liberals like Trump pal Stew Peters and Trump pal Nick Fuentes, white liberals like that.
Trump campaign spokestroll Steven Cheung attacked the very question with similar vitriol, pretending that even asking about Ms. Vance in contrast to the party’s view of most immigrants was a horrible attack on her:
“It is disgusting that out-of-touch liberals and far-left media lose their minds and self-implode when faced with a wildly successful diverse figure who they think should be blindly aligned with them,” he said.
Shame on anyone for suggesting there’s any contradiction at all. You must be a pedophile, and the mass deportations are definitely on the way.
Never mind that the logistics of actually deporting 11 million or 14 million people (or 18 million, according to Donald Trump’s lie-filled debate claims) would be nigh unworkable from a logistical standpoint. The scale of such an operation has been examined this week in some detail at both NBC News and The New York Times (gift link). But Republicans don’t see that as daunting, or a huge waste of money that could be used for other things, or even as something that could be bad for the economy. And it certainly wouldn’t be a human tragedy, because these aren’t people we’re talking about, they’re illegals. They broke the law. Republicans can’t stand people who break that one particular law (they may be more flexible on other ones).
And let’s be honest: Just the prospect of all those raids, the standing Army being ordered to drag “illegals” out of homes, workplaces, even schools, and especially the prospect that we might start shooting people trying to cross the border — it makes Republicans so hard.
So yeah, guess the tone has, yet again, not changed much.
[NBC News / NYT (gift link) / NBC News]
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