U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s gubernatorial campaign hinges on white Louisianians’ fears of a black “thug” lurking around every corner.
Instead of releasing a campaign ad detailing why he would be the best candidate to fix the state’s issues, Vitter’s first attack in the runoff was a dogwhistle attempt to rile up racial resentment in potential voters.
Vitter is too ashamed to proudly display the ad on his YouTube account, but it can be found on Politico.
The ad cites a speech Democratic frontrunner state Rep. John Bel Edwards made at Southern University. In the speech, he said, “We will be number two in the nation in incarceration rates when I’m finished because it’s going to require us to take 5,500 inmates out of our prisons.”
The narrator in the ad states, in a menacing voice, that Edwards is seeking to release “5,500 dangerous thugs” from prison to prey on Louisiana’s wholesome
communities. The image accompanying these words is a white man in the background and a black man in the foreground, sitting in a shady, smoky drug den.
No matter how many white faces are present, the word thug is always associated with black people.
The Daily Beast notes Rush Limbaugh is “quick to call President Obama a Chicago Thug” and Top Conservatives on Twitter, or #tcot, is famous for its savage views of unarmed black men and women as deserving of being shot for participating in thuggery.
The merits and outcomes of Edwards’ plan are noteworthy.
These prisoners are going to become working, functioning members of society and will have to go through an extensive process to make sure they are the best candidates to bring back into society.
This plan is a smart, practical approach to alleviating the state’s record as the top spot for institutionalizing people into the criminal justice system in the world. This proposal is part of the new bipartisan criminal justice reform movement and should not be hindered by political pandering from those who never have to worry about answering to their non-violent offenses.
Vitter has a proven track record of having an interesting relationship with the “serious-sin” of not telling truth.
In his own master plan, “Together, Louisiana Strong,” Vitter’s slippery record with the truth appears again. He proclaims his wife’s former work as a prosecutor gives him the knowledge to understand the need to “reform criminal justice so we don’t warehouse young, non-violent offenders with hardened criminals so that the only skills they’ll learn are those they’ll use against us.”
In his 2010 run for re-election to the U.S. Senate, Vitter ran an ad declaring then-Rep. Charlie Melancon a friend of criminal “illegals.” Just as the NAACP has called on Vitter to cease running the thug ad, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana urged Vitter to “stop running a race-baiting, anti-immigrant attack ad on his opponent.”
His response at the time claimed the ad did not stereotype but instead was based in sterling factual forthrightness. His campaign’s response to the NAACP this time is that Edwards and Obama want to “release dangerous thugs as defined by Merriam-Webster who’d threaten ALL of our neighborhoods.”
Like a petulant tween troller on Twitter, his campaign’s use of caps-lock is a ridiculous attempt to defend the indefensible.
The governor’s race needs to be about which candidate will present the best plan to ensure all of Louisiana finds its way out of the muck created by Jindal. Attacking your opponent for providing concrete details on your proposals is sanctimonious finger-wagging at its worst.
If Vitter hopes to slow Edwards’ momentum, he needs to find a much better tactic than appealing to the worst fears of the few.
Garrett Hines is a political science senior from Monroe, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @garrettH_tdr.