North Carolina state house speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican seeking to deny Kay Hagan a second term in the U.S. Senate, is under fire after video surfaced of him lamenting that the “traditional” population of North Carolina and the United States is on the wane–a definition that apparently doesn’t include blacks or Latinos.
Early on Tuesday, Talking Points Memo’s Daniel Strauss discovered that on September 28, 2012–a little more than a month before the Republicans took complete control of North Carolina state government for the first time since Reconstruction–Tillis paid a visit to “Carolina Business Review,” a weekly public policy program produced by North and South Carolina’s PBS member stations. Early on, host Chris William asked Tillis about how his party could better sell itself to minority voters. The following exchange ensued:
William: Let’s start fairly broad with the Republican Party. You watch? and probably see many more? polls than I do or we do in general. When you watch what’s happening in presidential politics. When you see this shift that Hispanics used to be in the Republican Party and now they’re clearly on the other side of the aisle ?when you see all of these things that have transpired, what do you think about? what is going on in the Republican Party?
?Tillis: Well I think it has more to do what’s going on in the demographics of this country and recognizing that and then having a platform and a message that resonates. If you take a look, you mentioned the Hispanic population ?the African American population, there’s a number of things that our party stands for that they embrace. I think we have to do a better job of communicating it. I think we have to do a better job of being out there in between elections, garnering support for the things that we’re trying to advance. And I think that we need a focus on limited government and free markets which is something that’s appealing to everybody. That kind of work will position us for those growing sectors. The traditional population of North Carolina and the United States is more or less stable. It’s not growing. The African American population is roughly growing but the Hispanic population and the other immigrant populations are growing in significant numbers. We’ve got to resonate with those future voters.
Watch the whole show here. The relevant exchange lasts from the 2:45 mark to the four-minute mark.
So let’s see if we’ve got this right. Tillis says that there’s a lot in his party’s platform that should naturally attract blacks and Hispanics–but then turns around and says that they aren’t “traditional” Americans or “traditional” North Carolinians. This isn’t just a dog whistle. This is a dog whistle being blown into a megaphone. You mean to tell me that even though my mom’s side of the family has lived in North Carolina for at least three centuries, we’re not “traditional” North Carolinians because we’re black? I wonder if Tillis would be willing to say that to the faces of the black and Latino members of the state house. Almost as staggering is that William didn’t press him on it, or that this didn’t surface before the 2012 elections. Had we in North Carolina known about it then, chances are that things would have gone a lot better for the Democrats in November 2012.
According to People for the American Way, the phrase “traditional Americans” has long been used among anti-immigrant and white supremacist activists. The phrase has even made its way into “mainstream” right-wing talk. For instance, on election night 2012, Bill O’Reilly claimed that changing demographics meant “it’s not traditional America anymore.” From the looks of it, that phrase is the equivalent of what “European finance” is among “polite” anti-Semitic circles.
Seen in this light, Tillis’ attempt to talk his way out of this is downright laughable. His communications director, Daniel Kaylin, fired off this response when TPM asked the Tillis campaign for clarification:
“‘Traditional North Carolinians’ refers to North Carolinians who have been here for a few generations. A lot of the state’s recent population growth is from people who move from other states to live, work, and settle down in North Carolina. Thom Tillis for example.”
Don’t insult our intelligence, Thom. You weren’t saying a thing about how long people have lived here, and you know it.
Hagan didn’t take long to pounce. In a blistering press release, her campaign pointed out that this was but the latest instance where Tillis has been caught “separating, dividing and conquering North Carolinians.” The quote referred to Tillis being caught on tape at a 2011 campaign appearance saying that his fellow Republicans needed to “find a way to divide and conquer” people on government assistance.
Had this video surfaced in 2012, it’s safe to say it would have bitten Tillis and his friends hard, and they wouldn’t have made nearly the killing they did at the polls that year. Better late than never, I guess.
Let us know what you think of Tillis’ offensive remarks at the Liberal America Facebook page!
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
