Sociology can help us understand why JD Vance (and Trump) continue to push lies about Springfield, OH. If you have been following the spiraling story about people in Springfield OH eating pets, sociology can help make sense of what's going on.
During the debate with Kamala Harris, Trump said, "they are eating our dogs..."
Since then, the Trump campaign, especially JD Vance, have doubled down on those claims. But, yesterday on CNN, Vance seemed to inch closer to the truth
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Sunday reiterated false claims about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of residents in Springfield, Ohio. www.cnn.com |
He told Dana Bash,
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” the Ohio senator said.
Bash replied, “You just said that this is a story that you created.”
A 2018 article from Hall, Kim and Sivan in the American Sociology Review, titled The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue explains that people are willing to support lies if they believe that the system is flawed and the lies represent their beliefs. Trump has tapped into the belief that the political system in the US is, at the very least broken, but perhaps even illegitimate. As long as Trump continues to be successful at convincing the populace that the system is illegitimate, countering the lies will not change people's minds about whether to support him.
The feeling that the system is illegitimate precedes Trump's political career. During the last fifty years, the American middle class had been decimated. High paying blue-collar jobs have moved outside of the country, unions have seen their jobs and power decline, large swaths of the industrial midwest have seen small cities and towns struggle. This has shown up in the finances of the majority of Americans. Wages have remained stagnant (or even declined) for the vast majority of American households despite that the number of households with both parents working has more than doubled over the same amount of time. In other words, American families are working far more hours for less money.
At the same time, the price of healthcare, housing and college education have gone up expeditiously. Joan Williams also explains succinctly how these dynamics have shaped the middle majority of Americans.
At the same time that this hollowing of the middle class was taking place, the US was embracing diversity. The 1965 Immigration Act began a diversification of the US resulting in a far more diverse population than ever before in US history. Before 1965, the vast majority of all immigrants to America were from Europe:
Additionally, the decades before the 1965 Immigration Act saw historically low rates of immigration because of the results of World War II:
Another way that the US was embracing diversity during this time was through civil rights. The last fifty years has seen a push to realize the ideals of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Arlie Russell Hochschild's 2016 book, Strangers in their Own Land explains the way the decline of the middle class combined with a rise in rights for minority groups has lead to a feeling of illegitimacy about the American system. She began the book in 2011 studying the rise of the Tea Party, the Far-right conservative reaction to President Obama's presidency. Her book explains that Americans who have felt the pinch financially over the last 50 years view the push for civil rights as anathema to their plight. Regardless of whether this is true or not, Russell finds that it is a "deep story" that many Americans believe, essentially, proving the Thomas Theorem, if people believe something is real, then it has real consequences.Trump, and by default Vance, has capitalized on these dynamics. They have tapped into the idea that the American political and economic system has been working against Americans for the past 50 years. Essentially, that system is a result of BOTH Democrat and Republican policies, so Trump has been able to convince a large swath of Americans to abandon both of these parties and instead follow him. Additionally, he has convinced Americans to scapegoat the growing diversity of America - anyone who is not a part of the 1950s majority is to blame for the difficulties of the last 50 years.
And so, as Vance explained to Dana Bash, there are very real issues in America (the declining middle class) that are not getting covered by the media so he will make up stories (the decline is the fault of immigrants) to get the media to cover the stories. But what Vance won't tell America is that he and Trump only intend to use those made up stories to gain power for their own benefit. They do not intend to rebuild the middle class. What they also won't tell Americans is that the middle class was built during the 1940s-1960s because of the GI Bill which was the largest government-funded socialist policy in history. The marginal tax rates of the 1950s were as high as 90%! These taxes financed government-sponsored loans for college, small businesses, and mortgages. They financed construction projects like the interstate highway system, airports, and other public works. This was government working for the middle class - not a lying demagogue working for his own benefit.
Related:
From PBS, Vance continues fueling false rumors about migrants in Ohio as community receives threatsFrom The Ohio Capital Journal, Why the far right lies about immigrants Springfield, Ohio’s immigrant influx is a success story, not a scandal. But when powerful people don’t want to share prosperity, they lie.
From America's Voice, Dehumanizing Anti-Immigrant Lies and Real World Violence – Threats to the Haitian Community and Beyond
From The Guardian, Haitian immigrants helped revive a struggling Ohio town. Then neo-Nazis turned up,
Springfield’s immigrant community was targeted by far-right extremists months before Trump shared racist rumors
Immigrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers and the Crisis at the US Border
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