Brian Seltzer pointed out that the slogans, catch-phrases, and “dog whistles” are used by unethical political operatives and parties intended evoke negative instincts and emotions and rile people up, and to cut off serious and/or critical thinking. He is absolutely correct. Today, the Republican party, its members and operatives were almost refusing to carry on genuine dialogue and constructive action to solve our nation’s problems. Instead, they are flooding the media, their gatherings, and their speech with an endless array of such dog whistles as “work”,” government overreach”“attacks on our gun rights”, “critical race theory,” et cetera, etcetera, ad nauseum.

We see the results of such demagoguery all across our nation – in the events of January 8th, in school board meetings, in threats to public officials simply carrying out their duties, and an ever increasing array of aggressive incivilities by the “buyers” that malevolent tripe. We must do everything we can to call out, counteract, and stop the willful use of such malevolent devices of incitement.

How do we do that? We do it by calling E VERY example of such behavior whether in print, in direct speech or in the media. At EVERY case, we need to ask the issuer of such dog whistles to explain what he or she intends the term of mean, why he or she has chosen that term and not another, and if he or she feels any responsibility for the vicious behavior that is incurred by use of the dog whistle. We need to ask why the person has chosen he term and tactic instead of attempting to pursue constructive action to deal with the needs of our people and country. And, we need to do that in public. In other word, we need to make the person feel guilty and uncomfortable for having made the attempt.

We also need to flood the media with examples of such uses of dog whistles and explain exactly what the issuer is trying to accomplish by use of the term, pointing out how each such use is trying to undermine our nation and our constitutional democracy. We need to demand how that each and every media interviewer ALWAYS holds the feet of any such dog whistle user to the fire of legitimate public scrutiny and criticism.

When such unethical user of such devices uses social media to pass on their attempts, we need to respond on those sites by flooding those social media with well-designed posts which clearly and forcefully denounce and ridicule each such attempt. We also need to ask the social media platform why they are allowing people to post such attempts at incitement based on falsehoods.

Let’ each and every one of us, individuals and organizations, strategize to do these things and ACY ---NOW!!