New York Times Gets Weird: GOP Are Using ‘American Dream’ as a Dog Whistle

An odd 1,800 word Sunday front page New York Times story was uncorked by national politics reporter Jazmine Ulloa with “In U.S. Politics, Even the Phrase ‘The American Dream’ Divides,” which strained to make the Republican Party’s campaign treatment of the concept of “The American Dream” seem sinister and negative.

Ulloa’s piece got off to a promising start by introducing us to Juan Ciscomani, “a Republican who washed cars to help his Mexican immigrant father pay the bills and is now running for Congress in Arizona, has been leaning on a simple three-word phrase throughout his campaign — ‘the American dream.’….For decades, politicians have used the phrase “the American dream” to describe a promise of economic opportunity and upward mobility, of prosperity through hard work….”

Then came the puzzling twist: Republican campaigns today have actually twisted the “American Dream” idea for cynical, nationalistic purposes, or something.

It’s frankly unclear, save for the underlying message of Don’t Trust the GOP:

Now, New Republican presidential candidates and elected officials use the phrase differently. Invoking the same promise and arguing in speeches and ads that the American Dream is in danger or dying, they argue the phrases in different ways. They see rampant crime and unchecked immigration as well as burdensome regulations from the government and liberal social policy. These Republicans include many people of color.This includes immigrants as well as the children of immigrants. The phrase was first used in 1931 and has deep resonance for them.

Democrats warn that this and that are taken as gospel, while the GOP is seen to be a sinister perversion when it says the American Dream may be in danger.

To politicians of old, “the American dream” was a supremely optimistic rhetorical device, albeit one that often obscured the economic and racial barriers that made achieving it impossible for many.The Republican candidate for the position today has adopted it with a more serious and pessimistic tone., echoing the party’s leader, former President Donald J. Trump, who said in 2015 that “the American dream is dead.”

(….)

Political leaders have warned for years that the American dream is in danger. This warning was made by ex-President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, as well as other Democrats.The only thing that has changed is the way some Republicans are now presenting the issue more clearly. They use the “dream-is-in danger” rhetoric to attack Democrats and argue that Democrats have made patriotism into something less than it used to be.

Patriotism indeed becomes “contentious” when liberal activists dump historical statues into the river and fight to take the names of Founding Fathers off of school buildings (while keeping those same schools shuttered).

The Republican Party was even accused of using the “American Dream” as a presumably racist “dog whistle” thanks to friendly quotes from a frequent MSNBC guest (who most infamously said this):

This phrase is used by Republicans to show how diversifying the party’s ranks and recruiting powerful candidates from the back shows the Republicans’ commitment to this expression. Historians, among others warn against the possibility that Republicans could distort an American concept and make it an exclusive political message.

“The Republican Party is using it as a dog whistle,” Christina Greer is an associate professor at Fordham University of Political Science. “They are saying here is the potential of what you can have, if we can exclude others from ‘stealing it’ from you.”

Republicans dispute that their references to “the American dream” promote exclusion and say they are using the phrase the same way politicians have used it for decades — to signal hope and opportunity….

About Post Author

Follow Us