Replace the Great Replacement loons
Let’s be crystal clear: The theory of “great replacement,” the name given to the notion that there is some deliberate Democratic effort to supplant white voters with Black and Brown ones for political gain, is both deeply racist and completely farcical. It is not one interpretation of the facts, or a mere exaggeration, or a political disagreement. It is premised entirely on lies and insinuations that are projections of a white supremacist worldview.
The claim, for example, that Democrats have left U.S. borders “open” to gain voters is ludicrous on a number of fronts. The border is very much not open, and in fact is essentially the most restrictive it has been in U.S. history; those who do cross the border illegally can’t vote; and those who do gain asylum have gone through a formal, fully legal process that grants them eventual citizenship, the very legal immigration that many conservatives claim to want.
To even spar with the theory’s proponents on the facts is to give them credence they don’t deserve, but unfortunately, their sick ideology has managed to slither its way into mainstream political and media discourse. In their most extreme form, one result is the carnage we saw in Buffalo this weekend, as a young man radicalized by this dogma was driven to what, in his twisted view, was necessary action.
On the wrong side of all this are so-called leaders like upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican. Two days after the massacre, she tweeted that “Democrats desperately want wide open borders” in order to secure more votes. Last week, she complained about the Biden administration fulfilling its legal obligation to feed migrant children in its care, while bizarrely calling out “pedo grifters” in what appeared to be a reference to notorious QAnon conspiracy theories about pedophiles running the government.
Stefanik has elections coming up in her redrawn district, both a GOP primary and, if she wins, the general election. Her constituents should take the opportunity to signal that her words have electoral consequences.