Last month the political action committee associated with the outgoing Speaker of the House of Delegates—William J. Howell—deluged District 31 with an anti-immigrant direct mail piece. With its images of a gun, shot glasses, and an “I Voted Sticker,” as well as its use of the racially provocative term “illegal alien,” the sinister looking mailer attempts to present a distorted reality of the immigrant community in the Commonwealth. Even worse, it suggests a disturbing narrative tying the issuance of driver’s licenses with the potentiality for voter fraud and acts of domestic terrorism.
This is to be expected in the Era of Trump, and in the aftermath of a very narrow and embarrassing primary victory by Republican candidate Ed Gillespie against notorious demagogue and Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chair, Corey Stewart. As the Commonwealth of Virginia continues to wrestle with the tyranny of the status quo and its sordid racial past, residents should take heed to collectively disavow this type of dangerous rhetoric and misinformation.
The ways we talk about communities of color and immigrants in political discourse have vast implications on public opinion and policy. Put another way, elected officials, candidates, and campaigns use of negative stereotyping impacts our racial attitudes, which can influence the public support for a candidate or campaign platform. The structures, policies, and atmosphere that emerge from elected officials who resort to this despicable tactic also inform the ways we act in every day social life. That being said, if Speaker Howell, the Republican Party, and Elizabeth Guzman’s opponent, Scott Lingamfelter, were true advocates for an inclusive Virginia, they should issue an unequivocal condemnation of these anti-immigrant mailers.
Why does this matter? Troublesome findings came out of a recent nationwide poll on racial attitudes conducted in the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville. Although the poll found little explicit support for neo-Nazi groups, it illustrated a complicated picture: Many of those surveyed still hold onto antiquated racial views. For example, 30 percent of respondents felt as though “white European heritage needed to be protected and preserved,” and about one-third failed to express tolerance for interracial marriage. These findings are worrisome, and such a seemingly apparent ubiquity and rise of white supremacist ideology is worthy of much consternation. Nevertheless, researcher Leonardo Bursztyn and his colleagues at the University of Chicago give us a glimpse of hope. In their study of racist behavior in the United States, they found that rather than there being a rampant expansion of racists and racist sentiment, the election of Trump made people who already held these views more inclined to be public.
Whether there are more racists in the United States or whether the election of Trump made it appear permissible to express those views more openly is certainly a topic for much scrutiny and debate. But amidst all the chaos, these findings should give Virginians pause. We have an opportunity here to take a proactive stance and put a stop to the spread of hatred and bigotry that does nothing but divide us.
Delegate Lingamfelter and the aforementioned have remained eerily reticent on the matter. In fact, Lingamfelter—perhaps anxious over the competition from Guzman and her impressive fundraising haul to date—is directly linked to the website that is cited on the mailer.
Ironically, the Party that has fully embraced Trumpism and chest-beats maintaining safety and securing in our streets conveniently overlook the fact that Lingamfelter—an absolutist when it comes to the Second Amendment—was chief patron of the legislation that repealed the one-gun a month rule in Virginia. Since then, there have been reported cases of gun trafficking rings, such as the case in New York City where an undercover cop successfully bought 217 tommy guns, assault rifles, and handguns from traffickers in the Commonwealth. Perhaps instead of attempting to fear-monger and otherize a community that is, in fact, the least likely to commit a crime, they should take responsibility for their own reckless policies.
We know that fear-driven tactics work in politics. We saw this firsthand in 2016. But we are now seeing that there are no limits to the Virginia Republican Party leadership and Delegate Scott Lingamfelter’s willingness to sacrifice the common good at the expense of hardworking Virginians and immigrants. With racial discourse at its height today, we have the opportunity to raise the standards of those elected to serve as leaders for all Virginians. It is long past time to hold elected officials accountable to this destructive rhetoric that deepens, not heals, social divides among our fellow residents.
Monique Alcala served as Statewide Latino Outreach Coordinator for Governor Terry McAuliffe and as Political Director for Congressman Don Beyer. She is a Political Partner with Truman National Security Project. Views expressed are her own.