Opinion: The GOP’s xenophobia is fueling toxic culture of hate

The answer is obvious to many. California Rep. Judy Chu, who heads the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the former president, “clearly stoked the flames of xenophobia” against Asians. After public health officials named the virus Covid-19, deliberately seeking to avoid potentially xenophobic overtones, Trump ostentatiously, mockingly called it the “China virus,” the “Wuhan virus,” and the “Kung Flu.” According to Chu, that led to attacks on Asians increasing exponentially. And what happened in Atlanta, she argues, is the result of what Trump unleashed. Chu is hardly alone in reaching that conclusion.

The Atlanta area shooting suspect, according to Police Captain Jay Baker, claims he wasn’t looking for Asian victims, but there’s much we don’t know about the case. The fact that Baker, who was the spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office’s case, has himself allegedly posted racist anti-Asian material on social media is only one more reason to be skeptical of the claim that race and national origin were not a factor.

Whatever the killer’s motives, it would be naïve to deny a link between the skyrocketing number of attacks on Asians and the words coming out of politicians’ mouths. From the US-Mexico border to the streets of Georgia, California, and across the country, those who look like they might be immigrants, no matter how many generations ago their families arrived in the US, can become targets of violence.

Politicians didn’t invent prejudice, but they are exploiting it for political gain, and destroying lives in the process.

The Trump playbook has been photocopied and reenacted across a party now remade in his image. Xenophobia has become one of the preferred political tools of countless figures on the right.

But stoking racism and fear of immigrants has become one of the go-to tools of the Trumpist Republican Party.

The matter is complicated. It affects millions of lives. It deserves serious discussion, not political exploitation. But that’s too much to ask these days.

The United States is not the only country where xenophobia pays dividends for politicians. It is painful to see it manipulated for gain anywhere on Earth. But it is particularly disheartening to see it done in the US, where in addition to destroying lives, it threatens to rip up one of the traits that made America great: its ability to attract people from different parts of the world and allow them to make a life for themselves and become part of the country.

Politicians exploiting differences for their benefit bear part of the blame for destroying lives, they are also guilty of lacerating the very country they claim to serve.