Whites Fearing 'Replacement' Should Stop Killing Themselves

There is no doubt that the United States is becoming more diverse, with a rise in the multi-racial population from 9 million to 33.8 million since 2010. Those who identify as “white-alone” are still the majority at 61.6 percent, but there has been a 8.6 percent decrease, according to the 2020 Census.

Yet the fringe “white replacement theory” — that minorities, immigrants and Democrats conspire to replace white conservatives— is becoming mainstream. According to a new YouGov poll, 61 percent of former President Trump voters and 53 percent of Fox News viewers believe it is true.

In reality, no grand conspiracy is even needed.

Since 2016, more whites have died in this country than have been born, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. They are diminishing their own ranks, in part by embracing policies that hit especially hard in Republican-dominated states.

Instead of playing the victim, conspiracy believers should take more responsibility for their own situations. That would require a rejection of fear-mongering and a willingness to demand more from the state and federal lawmakers they support. Consider several policies that encourage their own demise:

Embrace of COVID conspiracies

COVID-19 infections first hit minorities, many working in essential service jobs, the hardest. Yet over the past year, during the Omicron variant, the death rate for white Americans has been 14 percent higher than the rate for Blacks and 72 percent higher than the Latino rate, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control.

Various studies have already shown that, of the more than 1 million lives lost, deaths were higher in states and counties that heavily voted for Trump, who downplayed the danger of the virus. Too many of his supporters opposed vaccine and mask mandates as political stunts or sinister experimentations.

The Pew Research Center found that 33 percent of Republicans still had not received a vaccine in January, compared to 10 percent of Democrats. Another Pew survey showed that Republicans were less likely than Democrats (39 percent vs. 79 percent) to say they wore masks inside stores most or all of the time.

Such resistance helped right-wing activists lay the groundwork for the current push against racial and gender discussions in schools and other cultural issues. But it has also meant that an estimated 320,000 Americans could have been saved through vaccination, according to recent analysis by Brown University.

Opposition to Medicaid expansion

Lawmakers in 12 GOP-dominated states have refused to sign up for expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, passed during the Obama Administration. That has left more than 2 million people with no option when it comes to health insurance.

South Dakota lawmakers recently demonstrated how far they would go to deny this care. To tank a citizen-pushed November ballot initiative for expansion, they proposed that initiatives must receive 60 percent of the vote, rather than a simple majority. Primary voters rejected by a 2-to-1 margin this anti-democratic effort backed by conservative billionaire Charles Koch.

Opposition to Medicaid expansion is not about money. The COVID-19 relief bill passed by Democrats in 2021 included extra financial enticements: the federal government covering 90 percent of the costs of the newly eligible, and an additional 5 percent of those already enrolled.

So, the resistance is either rooted in the fact that it was a Democratic proposal or in GOP lawmakers’ lack of interest in ensuring health care for everyone.

Meanwhile, people in blue states with expanded Medicaid now live an average of seven years longer than those in red states — the largest gap ever recorded, according to a 2020 study by Syracuse University’s Milbank Quarterly.

Inadequate demand for family support

Right-wing activists often cast anti-abortion, anti-immigrant and anti-LGTBQ policies as a pro-family platform that would help preserve the white, conservative population.

Yet the national birthrate has declined for the sixth straight year, especially among white women. And surveys reveal fewer adults even plan to have children, in part because of financial reasons. This is happening even as abortion rates are at their lowest and there has been a stark drop in net migration.

If the goal is to increase the population, the best approach is to pass social policies that help families — something other industrialized nations have long discovered. Government programs are not charity; they are reasonable investments to strengthen the country.

For example, President Biden’s Build Back Better plan included subsidized pre-K, child care, monthly child tax credits, paid family leave, affordable housing and health care reforms. Any combination of those benefits would have lessened the financial burden on families.

The proposal stalled in the Senate without any overt, organized pressure from Republican voters. Nor has there been any push for GOP lawmakers to propose a pro-family agenda.

Obsession with firearms

The recent mass shootings at a New York grocery story and a Texas elementary school reinforce the dangers of this country’s lax gun-safety laws. According to the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report released in September, the nation saw a nearly 30-percent increase in murder in 2020, with the loss of more than 24,000 lives.

It was the largest single-year jump since the FBI began recording crime statistics 60 years ago.

Murder rates are, on average, 40 percent higher in the 25 states Trump won in 2020, compared to those won by Biden, according to analysis by Third Way, a center-left think tank. Eight of the 10 states with the highest murder rate have been GOP-controlled for decades.

There has also been an increase in suicides by firearms, especially among white men who have higher rates of gun ownership. In 2020, white males accounted for 30 percent of the population but 72 percent of all firearm suicide deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University study.

Laws on the purchase and availability of increasingly deadly weapons have been blocked by the political clout the firearms industry, despite citizen support — even from gun owners — for more safety measures.

It is encouraging that a bipartisan group of senators just reached an agreement to draft legislation to enhance school-safety, expand mental-health treatment, remove guns from those guilty of violence against a dating partner, and add scrutiny of purchasers age 18 to 21.

If these efforts result in new laws, it could mean that the concerns of average citizens, not just big donors, are beginning to have some impact on lawmakers.

Perhaps this will be an opportunity to dismiss “divide and conquer” politics that distract from the changes needed to guarantee all Americans the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

What that requires is to stop falling for conspiracy theories that portray groups of people as either victims or enemies, rather than as partners in improving our democracy.