@Right_in_Virginia , I don't get my spidey-sense of where things are from the likes of Jake Tapper. I get it from the folks I live and work with. One (Hispanic) colleague I spoke with yesterday said she's more offended by Trump's "go back to where you came from" tweet than anything else he's said during his Presidency. And not because she's a fan of AOC; she's for Biden and a textbook example of a "moderate" Democrat.
And someone who was never going to vote for Trump anyway. The number of Democrats who will vote for a Republican -- and vice-versa -- is small. It's the swing voters who really matter.
What folks don't realize, I think, is how hurtful that trope is to Hispanics and other "brown" people - they've heard that "go back home" insult since when they were kids. At least African Americans don't have to absorb the hurt of being told to go back to from where they came; we all acknowledge that slaves weren't immigrants. But for Hispanics, and east Asians, that's something you just grin and bear. Doesn't matter if you're a second generation citizen, that trope is painful and all too common.
So to hear it repeated by the President of the United States is easily seen by folks as profoundly racist and hurtful.
Tapper may consider Trump to have "won" by forcing Pelosi to defend the Squad, but that's just transitory politics. Real life is the leader of the country repeating a trope that's stung Hispanics all their lives. That's the mark that won't go away. Yes, it's true that the President's beef with AOC and the Squad is ideological, not racial. But his ham-handed tweeting has gotten the best of him again, and is doing him considerable damage among voters who, all other things being equal, would be pleased to vote for continued peace and prosperity.
Hispanic citizens, to a large degree, even support the President's position that immigration laws need to be enforced. But the President himself, irrespective of his policies and positions, is offensive and toxic. And you know he's not going to change.
Honestly, I don't think that tweet is any more hurtful/offensive than some of the other controversial things he's said about hispanic immigrants (legal or otherwise) since 2015. And yet, he did better with Latinos voters than prior GOP nominees. There has to be a reason for that.
I think it comes down to Salena Zito's brilliant "seriously, but not literally" observation about Trump. If you do what his opponents do and take his statement "literally, but not seriously", then "go back home" is offensive. So the people who don't like him anyway -- such as your Biden-supporting friend -- are going to interpret it literally and resent him for it. But those are votes he was never going to get anyway
However, if you choose to take his statement "seriously, but not literally", the meaning is quite different: In essence, he's making a rhetorical point -- the flip side of all those disingenuous leftist threats to leave the country if Trump was elected. Those leftist threats to leave the country weren't meant to be taken
literally, but rather were intended to show how
serious they were about disliking him.
The sentiment Trump is conveying is: "If this country sucks so badly, and you're so intent on running it down, why haven't you moved to to a different one that is better? You should be more grateful that this country gave you and your family a better place to live." And
that sentiment is one that a lot of more patriotic immigrants will support, and that will resonate among a lot of other people as well. Trump is conveying the same sentiment they may feel, even if they wouldn't say it publicly themselves.
So of course, a media that takes him "literally but not seriously" is going to spin it in the worst possible way, and blast him with accusations of racism. But I question how influential nasty headlines or the opinion page of the
Inquirer actually is among potential Trump voters. I believe a
lot of people are going to say "you know, he probably shouldn't have said it that way, but I absolutely agree with the point he's making." And when it comes time to vote...are people going to reject the guy they believe shares their core sentiment on issue just because he sometimes makes his points inartfully?
It's a really weird balancing act he has going on. On the one hand, he undoubtedly -- and needlessly -- offends a great many people when there's a better way to make his point. But the flip side of that is that his willingness to offend/speak his mind also convinces people that his opinions are genuine -- that he's not carefully sculpting a public image while secretly believing something else. His malaprops mark him as
authentic, and that's powerful.
