EUCLID, Ohio — At the top of J.D. Vance’s campaign last April, he ran a political ad that pointedly asked, “Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans?” It was his way of drawing attention to the crisis at the U.S. southern border, and his desire to finish construction of a wall to secure the border between the United States and Mexico.
Now that he has been elected a U.S. senator, I have no real sense of how Vance really feels about Mexicans. I was surprised to learn recently that his wife was the child of Indian immigrants. Upon finding that out, I wondered: Would he talk as jarringly about immigrants and refugees from other countries, as he did about Mexicans?
Vance’s campaign rhetoric echoed that of former U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who a year ago around the holidays shocked me with his political ads. Many of them pointedly referenced “illegals” coming to the United States for “freebies,” and labeled socialists, liberals, and “the left,” casting people as “us” versus “them.” He ultimately suspended his primary campaign in early February 2022.
Moreno’s political advertisements seared my ears, knowing that he immigrated from Colombia as a child and was a high-profile, highly lauded entrepreneur and luxury car dealer in Northeast Ohio, whose company name is on buildings, including the Cuyahoga Community College and Bernie Moreno Companies Parking Center in Cleveland. In 2017, Moreno received a Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio Humanitarian Award for improving relations among diverse groups.
The politics of our time are ironic, if not surprising, given what I perceive as a proliferation of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across schools, companies, and individual organizations. On paper, being inclusive and respectful of everyone, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity, is the right thing to do. However, our public airwaves, social media and print publications are littered with divisive rhetoric and race-baiting verbiage that is so common, we often fail to see it for what it is.
Among polarizing politicians, there is little mention of U.S. policies and actions that, over time, contributed to political and economic unrest in countries south of the United States border. Nor is there much acknowledgement of what leads people to flee to the United States in the first place. The dynamics and human realities are far too complicated for soundbites to discuss fairly.
Unfortunately, in our current political climate, racism serves as a means to an end, particularly among more conservative candidates running for public office. More than 2.1 million Ohioans looked right past Vance’s use of the word “hate” to elect him as Ohio’s newest U.S. senator over Democrat Tim Ryan, by an even wider margin than was projected. Who knows if anyone thought twice about Vance’s question — “Do you hate Mexicans?” — before voting. We’re conditioned, it seems, to move on the day after an election, even amid election deniers, without cognition of overstepped bounds or harsh rhetoric.
Stark communication is the nature of our political beast, which feasts on a putrid electoral culture, without accountability for extreme language or personal attacks. Yet, economic development, equitable access to health services and education, public safety and fair and effective immigration policies and procedures concern us all. What is polarizing and absolutist campaign rhetoric achieving, other than cementing extreme differences at either end of our country’s political spectrum?
Local writer Raquel Santiago is a frequent guest columnist on social and political topics.
Recently, I worked in a holiday bazaar, (wo)manning the booth of a friend who has a sassy towel and handmade girls’ accessories business. Among the pithy towels, one drew repeated chuckles. It said, “I promise I am nicer than my face looks.” I’ve questioned whether politicians are nicer, and more effective, than they sound. With U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, and now U.S. Senator-elect J.D. Vance, I have my doubts. In J.D. Vance’s case, the truth remains to be seen.
Raquel Santiago is a Euclid resident and a former health care reporter and media relations specialist. She worked as a fellow for Literary Cleveland last summer.
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