This week’s news seems far too familiar. And far too dangerous. Its trajectory reminds me of the horrific violence that happened at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Synagogue six years ago this fall. I pray that this week concludes more peacefully than that of October 27, 2018.
Six years ago, we were deeply enmeshed in a midterm election. Then-President Trump was tweeting about a migrant “invasion” coming north from Honduras bringing “Criminals and Middle-Easterners.”
His surrogates implied that the many caravans crossing the border were funded by globalist Jews. Trump stoked fear about an impending crisis on the border, blamed Democrats, and then finished with: “Remember the Midterms!”
Trump was ramping up his hyperbole to stoke fears that would supposedly turn out his base on election day. But that’s not how extremist Robert Bowers interpreted it. He didn’t see it as mere election rhetoric. Bowers was swimming in the deep end of the white nationalist internet cesspool, and all he saw was that elected leaders were warning him of a looming white genocide that would be funded by Jews and carried out by Central American migrants.
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Referring to these migrant caravans, Bowers posted a message on Gab in which he wrote that “HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” And then he murdered eleven profoundly innocent Jews who were just going about their Saturday prayers in private spaces.
Six years later the feeling is eerily similar.
Trump is again whipping up xenophobic fears to get attention before an election. Except that this time the scary immigrants aren’t Hondurans planning to invade through Mexico. This time they’re Haitians who he falsely claimed have illegally settled in Springfield, Ohio. And this time the rumor is that they are callously stealing and eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats, as well as wild geese.
The idea that immigrants are stealing and eating family pets feels just as wild-eyed and scary as his 2018 rhetoric that thousands of dangerous migrants were invading to steal white jobs and commit crimes. And the angry, reflexive response feels the same too. Bomb threats and fears of violence have caused Springfield’s elementary schools to close and college classes to move online. The Republican governor has had to call out extra law enforcement to protect Springfield’s citizens and schools. The Republican mayor was forced to cancel Springfield’s annual arts fair because it highlights cultural diversity – and that isn’t safe to celebrate right now.
The panicky, xenophobic rhetoric is the same: Scary outsiders are coming to harm “real” Americans’ way of life. The source is the same: Donald Trump and his henchmen. Even the reason is the same: Trump needs to scare his base into turning out for him at the polls. The only thing that could make these stories more horribly parallel is actual violence against Springfield’s citizens.
READ: Election Officials Across the Country Prepare for Threats with Panic Buttons, Bulletproof Glass
I had hoped that six years of seeing the deadly consequences of whipping up fears about immigrants would change Trump’s rhetoric, now amplified by his running mate JD Vance, and still unrebutted by his Republican party. The past week’s torment of Springfield’s residents has ruled that out. It appears that no amount of pleading with Trump and his MAGA followers will change their fear tactics. So, I will continue to pray that the good people of Springfield will be spared the agony that the good people of Pittsburgh have had to endure. And I will write letters like this one to try to shine a light before it’s too late.
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