This week’s Liberal Media Scream features a key MSNBC guest who said Republicans are trying to “disappear” nonwhites and liberal migrants from voting rolls.
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Saturday featured a guest who charged “the politics of Republican redistricting really reflects a kind of ugly logic of removal” in which “they’re trying to disappear certain voices and populations.”
Cristina Beltran, associate professor at New York University’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, said, “Stephen Miller couldn’t do it, or Trump couldn’t do it” — but following new census numbers, they will try through redistricting.
Beltran, author of the book, Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy, said that “the GOP really can’t make the nation whiter, so they’re using redistricting to strip citizens of their power and to make Congress look less like America.”
From Saturday morning’s Velshi on MSNBC:
ALI VELSHI: Cristina, when people — the census shouldn’t surprise most people who follow, like you do, population and demographics in America. But, I think that the conclusion is counterintuitive. Most people say, ‘Well, if the census says we’re more diverse, our representation should get more diverse.’ In fact, it is likely to get less diverse.
CRISTINA BELTRAN: Exactly, exactly, and I think that’s a real challenge here is that the census, one hand, is telling us something we already know: That America is a deeply multiracial nation, but the politics of Republican redistricting really reflects a kind of ugly logic of removal, right? Where they’re trying to disappear certain voices and populations, right? And so, I think they’re trying to disappear a lot of Americans politically, right? Stephen Miller couldn’t do it, or Trump couldn’t do it in their politics in a complete way, though they tried with anti-immigration politics, but the GOP really can’t make the nation whiter, so they’re using redistricting to strip citizens of their power and to make Congress look less like America.
Brent Baker, vice president of research and publications for the Media Research Center, explains our weekly pick: “The only ‘ugly logic’ here is from Ali Velshi and MSNBC in their decision to feature a guest with such an ugly take on a standard practice after every census when the party which dominates in a state gets to do some ‘gerrymandering.’ It’s hardly the nefarious deed suggested by Beltran and hardly unique to one party. But leave it to MSNBC to give it a racist tinge while tossing in some vitriol toward Donald Trump and Stephen Miller.”
Rating: FOUR out of FIVE screams.
