Candidates from both parties are making their final appeals to voters two weeks before Election Day. For some Republicans, those closing statements have included racist tropes and echoes of the “Great Replacement” theory. Numerous GOP figures went from exalting Kanye West as a free speech martyr to abandoning ship in a matter of days after the rapper went on a string of anti-Semitic rants. In the recent past, rhetoric that pushed the boundaries of hate speech was usually limited to primary season. Now, it is increasingly infecting general election campaigns as well.
Peter Loge is an associate professor of media and public affairs and the director of the GW Project on Ethics in Political Communication. In his view, candidates would not resort to racist rhetoric if voters made it clear they disapprove of it.
“It’s up to the voters to say ‘America is better than this, America can be better than this.’ We can put aside our policy differences and stand for a unified vision of what the promise of America can be.
Unless voters do that, we’re doing to continue down a really scary path.”
WATCH: Professor Loge discusses the rise of campaign hate rhetoric
If you would like to schedule an interview with Professor Loge, please contact GW Media Relations at [email protected].