In the lead-up to the midterms, Orange County’s GOP doubled-down on an anti-sanctuary strategy to rescue its endangered Congressional reps. It failed. And for the first time in our lifetime, Orange County will enjoy zero Republican members of Congress. It’s a sharp rebuke to the politics of hate that have inundated the political airwaves.
In tough political moments, the Breitbart administration has consistently turned to the one issue Trump feels at home with—agitating anti immigrant fervor. Republicans facing tough re-election battles were thrilled to join the circus.
Nowhere was the anti-sanctuary strategy more apparent than in the orchestrated campaign against Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act.
Enacted by a wide margin, the Values Act is the strongest anti-Trump law in the country. And because of it, California law today ensures most state resources are not commandeered toward mass deportations. From the far-away swamp in Washington, DC, it must have seemed an easy target for the GOP to agitate its right-wing base. It was a calculation that youth, and Latinos, wouldn’t call his bluff, as Ron B says.
It seemed OC enough – a band of roving anti-immigrant agitators bullying cities to say they oppose sanctuary. But the “hate circus” had more of Trump’s DC than OC. It counted on high-ranking GOP officials, policies engineered by well-known hate groups FAIR and its think tank CIST, and on 24-7 coverage by Fox News and some tweets by Trump himself. Even Undersheriff Don Barnes couldn’t help himself, rallying against the specter of California Values.
But it was a bad bet. The Trump-inspired, anti-sanctuary strategy failed to save even one GOP Congressional seat in Orange County. Not only that, it’s possible the strategy could further backfire, both in federal court and in the court of public opinion. Very sad.
Perhaps it was too divisive. Perhaps OC residents realize that enabling a hate circus is a bad look. Americans are tired of the dangerous rhetoric that many see as responsible for recent violence. FAIR has long been associated with white nationalists by non-partisan organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI’s arrest of a fledgling paramilitary group in Huntington Beach over their complicity in the violence in Charlottesville is a reminder – these political stunts are playing into a quite nefarious agenda.
Ultimately, it is Orange County’s young, progressive, and immigrant communities that are giving us a new vision for the OC, and dragging the county into the modern age.
When white nationalists descended on Los Alamitos with bullhorns and hate speech, we witnessed two very different visions for Orange County. One motivated by fear and a despicable contempt for immigrants, and another lifting up the California values of inclusion and equality. Immigrants and youth countered the anti-sanctuary hate with upbeat music about the immigrant experience, with Korean drumming and cumbia dancing. It was a beautiful vision of families and friends celebrating California for what it is and what it can be.
The result, Orange County today is a step closer to the California consensus. It is by no means a progressive bastion, but – like Arizona – finally moving away from the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Trump will keep rallying folks with old white supremacist slogans, like “America First,” and betting on white nationalism. The real question is what the rest of America will rally around. What will the rest of us bet on?
I’d bet on the youth, on immigrant communities, and on everyday people speaking up. I would bet on courage and resilience and decency. And if you’re in the golden state, maybe don’t bet on the hate circus. Because if the midterms were a practice run, we’re all warmed up.
Salvador Sarmiento is Director of Campaigns at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network