From the article linked.
Replacement theory has become mainstream among Republicans
Meanwhile, the rhetoric of replacement theory has become increasingly prominent among some Republicans. Party members have espoused tenets of replacement theory, and
some have supported it by name, to help bolster anti-immigration sentiments and policies.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump repeatedly employed the arguments and tropes that form the basis of replacement theory — that white people were facing “white genocide” as a result of an “invasion” from foreigners. “We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!” Trump tweeted in 2018. The former president’s latest presidential campaign posted more than 2,000 ads that featured the word “invasion,” according to a New York Times analysis.
Following Trump’s fearmongering that a
migrant caravan of Central Americans was on its way to the US’s southern border, other lawmakers adopted the language. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has
repeatedly tweeted
about an
invasion that lawmakers need to take action against.
Former Iowa Rep. Steve King, who was in Congress from 2003 to 2021, constantly voiced fears about replacement. In 2017 he
tweeted, “We can’t restore our civilization with someone else’s babies,”
once retweeted a Nazi sympathizer’s fears about migration, and celebrated Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán for denouncing “mixing cultures.”
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has perhaps become the foremost champion of replacement theory on the right. In about 400 episodes of his show since 2016, according to a New York Times analysis, he shared ideas about replacement. He even used the idea to defend the people who carried out the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. “In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from faraway countries,” Carlson said on his program last year in response to the Haitian migrants who arrived at the border.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
defended Carlson’s interpretation of replacement theory on Twitter, saying the news host was “correct” in his analysis of “what is happening to America.”
There’s some evidence that these ideas are resonating with Americans. A large poll conducted by the Associated Press and NORC in late 2021 found that about one in three US adults thinks that there is a plot underway to replace US-born Americans with immigrants. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe that native-born Americans are losing economic, political, and cultural influence because of immigration.
Replacement theory has a long history, but no longer lies dormant — if it ever did — in the past, or in the black holes of the internet. The conspiracy allows white supremacist violence to remain “
the most persistent and lethal threat” in America, as long as the country fails to
root it out.
