(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Stefanik's echo of 'great replacement' rhetoric offers clues to her national ambitions — and her changing district [1]
['Https', 'Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms', 'Jonathan Allen', 'Adam Edelman', 'Jonathan Allen Is A Senior National Politics Reporter For Nbc News', 'Based In Washington.', 'Adam Edelman Is A Political Reporter For Nbc News.']
Date: 2023-12
OGDENSBURG, N.Y. — In the wake of Saturday's mass shooting in Buffalo, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has drawn national attention for echoing the kind of white nationalist "great replacement" theory rhetoric purportedly embraced by the suspect.
But Stefanik — who recently accused Democrats of conspiring with pedophiles to provide baby formula to immigrants and promoting lax border policies in order to bring about a "permanent election insurrection" — is a prominent advocate for creating a path to citizenship for undocumented farm workers here in her district and across the country.
While Stefanik often says she opposes "mass amnesty," House conservatives say that's exactly what would ensue if the bill she backs becomes law.
The contradiction highlights key tension points in a Trump-era political transformation that has catapulted Stefanik from moderate back-bencher to chair of the House GOP Conference, the party's No. 3 leadership post in the chamber. Now, as she eyes a promotion to party whip if Republicans win control of the House, political insiders are wondering whether she has changed in pursuit of power or if power has revealed her.
“Her rhetoric has certainly changed,” said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., a member of Stefanik’s freshman class in the House in 2015. “I don’t know if her views have changed.”
But here in Stefanik’s district— a vast expanse of farmland stretching across 15,000 square miles of northeastern New York — from Glens Falls north to the Canadian border — most Republican voters simply don’t care whether she’s shifted.
They see a congresswoman focused on the practical needs of New York's 21st Congressional District, including ensuring a stable farm-worker population, and on gaining influence for them.
“She’s upfront and honest and she says what she thinks, and not what she thinks you want to hear. She’s the same Elise she’s always been, she fights for us, for our farms and our hospitals,” said Sid Bogart, a 74-year-old retired corrections officer from Lisbon, a small town in St. Lawrence County.
Interviews with nearly a dozen voters and local Republican officials across New York’s “North Country” revealed a constituency that largely contends Stefanik hasn’t moved to the right. Still, some said their own views had shifted — and applauded Stefanik for keeping pace with them.
Investigators on Monday work the scene of the shooting Saturday at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, N.Y. Matt Rourke / AP
Though Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron is not from her district, Stefanik has become a focal point for critics because she has used her platform as the House GOP’s designated chief communicator to articulate incendiary tropes about immigration.
In a Facebook ad last fall, Stefanik accused Democrats of staging a “permanent election insurrection by granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.”
That rhetoric plays to Trump’s false allegations of election fraud in his 2020 defeat. And it borrows from the “great replacement” theory, which is cited in what appear to be Gendron’s writings. That conspiracy theory generally holds that a Jewish-led cabal of liberals is trying to take power by replacing white voters with nonwhites by any means necessary, including immigration and inter-racial marriage.
While the shooter targeted Black citizens, critics in both parties say that Stefanik has been playing with fire by amplifying the grievances of white nationalists.
“The replacement theory [that GOP leaders] are pushing/tolerating is getting people killed,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a frequent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter this week. He named Stefanik as one of four fellow House Republicans he thought should be “replaced” for promoting the theory.
Her ramped-up rhetoric on immigration, deployed as a political cudgel against Democrats, has coincided with her rise in GOP leadership ranks. That's a stunning turn for a lawmaker long viewed as a moderate in tone and substance who had distanced herself from some of Trump's most brazen immigration policies.
Once a critic of Trump's plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — “not the best model," she said — Stefanik now blames an influx of undocumented immigrants in part on President Joe Biden’s decision to stop construction.
"ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION has skyrocketed under Joe Biden’s watch," she wrote on Twitter in March. "Secure the border now and FINISH THE WALL."
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/stefaniks-echo-great-replacement-rhetoric-offers-clues-national-ambiti-rcna29203
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
