Dog Whistles or Old Saws<\/p>\n
Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida and devout Trump supporter, won the Florida Republican Gubernatorial primary this week.\u00a0He built his campaign around his fealty to the President, even filming a television commercial with his toddler \u201cbuilding the wall\u201d and learning how to read from a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d poster. \u00a0He spent millions of dollars less than his opponent, but got millions of dollars (approximately $9 million) in free advertising from Fox News appearances.<\/p>\n
Andrew Gillum, Mayor of Tallahassee, won the Democratic nomination for the race, defeating front-runner former Congresswoman Gwen Graham.\u00a0 Gillum will now bid to become the first African-American Governor of Florida.<\/p>\n
Gillum ran from the \u201cleft-wing\u201d of the Democratic Party.\u00a0 His platform includes health insurance for all, a $15\/hour minimum wage, a billion dollar increase in Florida education spending, and an increase in corporate income taxes.\u00a0 He was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders as well as supported by billionaire progressives Tom Steyer and George Soros.<\/p>\n
In a world were common political sense says that campaigns are won in the middle among the independents and undecided, DeSantis and Gillum are running from the extremes.\u00a0 The two \u201cmiddle of the road\u201d candidates of both parties were left behind in the primary.\u00a0 So it is seems likely that this campaign will generate a lot of controversy.<\/p>\n
It didn’t take twelve hours.\u00a0 On a Wednesday morning Fox News interview, DeSantis made the following statement about his opponent:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em>\u201cHe is an articulate spokesman for those far-left views. And he’s a charismatic candidate… \u2026The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Gillum and the media immediately cried \u201cfoul,\u201d claiming DeSantis was mimicking his mentor by using \u201cdog whistles\u201d to racist followers.\u00a0 They claim the terms \u201carticulate\u201d and \u201cmonkey\u201d were coded insults against black opponents.<\/p>\n \u201cMonkey this up\u201d is an awkward phrase.\u00a0 \u201cMonkey around\u201d or \u201cmonkeys and a football\u201d or \u201cmonkey business\u201d all are common phrases.\u00a0 \u201cMess this up\u201d or \u201cScrew this up\u201d or its more profane derivation is commonly used.\u00a0 But where did the phrase \u201cmonkey this up\u201d come from?<\/p>\n Racists have long used monkeys, apes, and gorillas as insulting terms for black people.\u00a0 To insert the word \u201cmonkey\u201d for what should have been \u201cmess or screw\u201d couldn’t have been accidental, it doesn\u2019t fit.\u00a0 So DeSantis, Harvard and Yale educated, either intentionally chose the term, or subconsciously inserted it.<\/p>\n In the same way, claiming that an African-American candidate is \u201carticulate\u201d has undertones of racism as well.\u00a0 It highlights the \u201csurprise\u201d that an African-American could be so \u201cwell spoken.\u201d\u00a0 DeSantis isn\u2019t the first to run into this situation.\u00a0 Joe Biden, in opening his last campaign for President in 2007, made the following statement about his opponent Barack Obama:<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.\u00a0 I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”<\/em><\/p>\n What Biden meant as a compliment came out as condescension to his black opponent.\u00a0 He quickly apologized, Obama accepted, and the campaign of 2008 moved on.\u00a0 DeSantis, a history major and lawyer, would or should have been aware of that precedent.\u00a0 So again he either intentionally chose the term, or subconsciously inserted it.<\/p>\n What my grandfather might have said, or even my father, is not politically acceptable today.\u00a0 What was common speech in the 1940\u2019s or 50\u2019s we now know is \u201cloaded language\u201d full of racist connotations.\u00a0 Politicians use speech as their \u201cart,\u201d their way of shaping the views of potential voters.\u00a0So when DeSantis places these \u201cloaded\u201d terms in his speech, we can\u2019t assume that it\u2019s an accident, or something his grandfather used to say, or even his subconscious bias slipping through.<\/p>\n Politicians practice the art of communication.\u00a0 Either DeSantis is committing malpractice, or he\u2019s doing exactly what he intends to do:\u00a0 communicating to the voters of Florida that they really don\u2019t want to vote for a black man.\u00a0It exactly what the President would do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"