By Chido Nwangwu
Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
The November 5, 2024, presidential election in the United States is almost 5 weeks away; but it’s still raining cats and dogs! That is, figuratively. The Trumpian dog whistle, its coarse accompaniments and nakedly disingenuous shenanigans are almost on full throttle.
We all hear(d) his messages and songs set to racially polarizing themes, coded phrases, and symbolisms! We know them. We know their games.
Republican Party’s presidential flagbearer and indicted former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate Senator JD Vance said they are coming in a couple of days to the city they put under siege, Springfield in Ohio.
They are coming to stir more confrontation. They are dropping in for about 150 minutes to sow more virulent seeds of racial polarization.
Their mission is to stoke and repackage their orchestra of falsehood and racial animus, fuel threats of violence, psychological warfare and intimidation of some voters. Especially, they are targeting those from the African-heritage Caribbean country of Haiti.
Complicated and precarious have become the lives of thousands of immigrants who live in Springfield. They work decent jobs and contribute to the city’s economy as medical doctors, nurses, technicians and artists.
They are not “illegal or undocumented immigrants”.
Although millions of Americans support stronger control of the borders of the United States- especially the southern border, many consider Trump to be xenophobic.
Trump has stated several times that he will undertake massive deportations if he is elected president, again.
Rather than offer America a better plan, Trump and his squad escalate more racial “nationalism” screeds and tropes.
It’s amazing that rather than walk away from their spreading of disinformation and misinformation, Trump and Co double down on their insensible attacks and calumny.
It is the same irreverent Trump who set Springfield, literally, on fire during his poor performance at the only debate he has had with the Democratic Party flagbearer U.S Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris won that debate hence his refusal to accept her multiple requests for another debate.
At that debate, Trump shocked millions of Americans and the world as he uttered these lies: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs—the people that came in…. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
It is sad as well as hypocritical that the same man who said those words and turned Springfield into a boiling pot is coming to that city to continue his use divisive rhetoric and derogations to play politics.
If not for Trump’s boisterous quest to achieve presidential election victory by all means necessary, a normal and reasonable reaction would have been to calm the situation. But these are neither ordinary nor normal times for the residents and voters of Springfield.
It seems like Trump and Vance are getting ready to make an ill-advised “visit” to the traumatized community to “find those votes.”
According to Trump: “I’m going to go there in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield, and I’m going to Aurora.”
Significantly, he raises the possibility of something sinister happening to him.
In his own imitation, messianic projection and words: “You may never see me again, but that’s OK. Gotta do what I gotta do. Whatever happened to Trump? Well, he never got out of Springfield.”
It would have been funny except that he’s further putting people in potentially dangerous situations for his personal, partisan and narrow interests.
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Chido Nwangwu, is Founder of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, and established USAfrica in 1992 in Houston. Follow him on X @Chido247
