Interesting to see the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial page pick up on the points I made here regarding the incoherence of the very vocal anti-immigration crowd, the apparent dislike of David Brat for legal and illegal immigrants and the earlier, vicious attacks on my friend Shaun Kenney for calling out the nativists:
From a purely mercenary perspective, such attacks are political poison. The GOP cannot win elections with its shrinking cadre of white conservatives alone. From a principled perspective, the attacks are incoherent. Supporters of free market capitalism cannot rationally argue for the free exchange of products and services on the one hand and big-government control over the exchange of labor and people on the other. If a businessman wants to hire immigrant labor, why should Washington tell him he can’t?
Following such trains of thought to their conclusions is beyond the capabilities of some.
But let’s follow a different path. The relentless pounding on immigration — and “amnesty” — has brought to the surface some truly ugly things.
Consider this tweet from the Brat campaign:
— Dave Brat VA 7th (@DaveBratVA7th) June 2, 2014
It’s tough and, in a campaign, entirely fair. But it generated some truly terrible reactions. One of the comments on the post called for the repeal of the 14th Amendment (because that gives citizenship to “anchor babies” of illegal immigrants…nevermind that stuff about applying the Bill of Rights to the states).
But that is mild compared to who picked up on Mr. Brat’s campaign picture…those lovely folks at Stormfront (they can get their own link). These people latched on to the fact that the picture featured Cantor and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg…”surprise,” the comment says, “they’re both Jewish!” And it gets worse from there.
The marginally less nasty people at VDARE have also had their fun with the contest. For those who have better things to do than wander near this particular fever swamp, it is the same organization that contends Ken Cuccinelli lost the 2013 gubernatorial campaign because he failed to “galvanize the white vote.”
And then there is that radio ad the RTD editorial mentions calling for Shaun’s resignation from the RPV. Tom White picked up on it, approvingly, and even created a video for it. It’s from an anti-immigration group calling itself the American Immigration Control Foundation. Sounds relatively benign until you discover that the group’s current leader, John Vinson, is among those looking for the South to rise again. So yes, the neo-Confederates are out there banging the drum on all this stuff, too.
This is a consequence of heated rhetoric at the top. On the surface, it’s cast as a battle for the rule of law and economic security. It has an evil side of which the vast majority of people are unaware. But should be.
And one last thing…that “joke” Larry Nordvig unleashed at the Brat campaign event Tuesday? That it was uttered at all — at a campaign event, no less — is telling, and damning. But so too is Mr. Brat’s response:
Asked about the comment on Wednesday, Brat said he was in a separate room at the time and had not heard Nordvig’s remark.
He said Nordvig is not working for the campaign and that the campaign “does not condone those comments.”
“Those kinds of comments do not fit the positive tone of my campaign,” Brat said, adding that he’s running on his record.
Kudos to Mr. Brat for putting distance between himself and the “jokester.”
But there’s a lot more nastiness out there your allegedly positive campaign has stirred up. Again, you have little control over who and what will take your message and run with it. But it has given the despicable fringe an opportunity to ride their hobby horses alongside you. And people, including Mr. Brat, need to be aware of it.
