Part One:
Our guest is Joe Lowndes, professor of political science at the University of Oregon. He describes Oregon’s long history of past racism. Did you know that, even before statehood, Oregon prohibited black people into the state, whether as slaves or as free blacks?
In more recent decades, a large progressive population has flourished in the state, and has demonstrated in the streets, multiracially, against racism and police use of excessive force. (Only 6% of Oregon’s population today is African-American.) Additionally, some anarchist groups including Antifa have become active in parts of the state.
We discussed the ways in which this variegated history affects the current news about Trump’s federal militia — made up of elite Border Patrol units, DHS, and Marshal’s Service — engaging in military operations against US citizens who are demonstrating in support of Black Lives Matter and an end to police brutality. An important distinction is being missed by most of the media coverage (and by the political speeches on the subject):
The overwhelming majority of the protestors in Portland are peaceful, nonviolent, and united — all races, protesting in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. In contrast, after these protestors go home for the night, the federal troops come out and provoke more confrontations, including on the property of the federal courthouse. (But the feds have also gone roaming onto the city’s streets and seizing protesters who have nothing to do with federal property.)
Unfortunately, however, the overwhelming majority of the news coverage about Portland shows only the few instances of aggressive protesters, making the troops appear as if their presence is merely to control a “mob’s” chaos.
Part Two:
We speak with Tyler Moran, Director of the Immigration Hub. Her group recently published the results of voter polls which showed that many centrist voters (including independents) are *values voters,* persuadable by arguments that address their values. Democratic candidates can be successful with these voters, not only by opposing Trump’s hateful mantras and demonizing of “the other,” but also by uplifting the candidate’s support for fairness, humanity, and family.
For example, true “family values” would favor keeping immigrant families together, not separating them. The value of fairness militates against ending the DACA program, which helps undocumented people who, through no fault of their own, were brought into the US when they were very young children. Similarly, voters can relate to the concept that we are all human and all interdependent, regardless of where we came from, as exemplified by senior citizens in long-term-care facilities forming deep bonds with their caretakers (whether documented or not).
We connect the dots between the militance that DHS and Border Patrol deploy on the Mexican border and the current news in Portland, Oregon (and other US cities). The very same Border Patrol officers — especially their elite BORTAC squad who undergo Marine-type training in overcoming “the enemy” — have been showing up in US cities and putting down US protesters. These troops have learned, from their training and years at the border, to blind themselves to the humanity of the people they’re confronting and instead to behave as violently as soldiers do in a hot war.
