By Brian Daitzman
Congressman Clay Higgins is no stranger to controversy. On September 25th, his latest outburst on X (formerly Twitter) set a troubling standard. Referring to Haitian Americans as “thugs” and implying they don’t belong in the United States, Higgins exposed more than just personal animus—he offered a glimpse into the GOP’s ongoing embrace of white nationalism. This transformation, decades in the making, has shifted from covert dog whistles to blatant displays of racial hostility.
Higgins’ comments, while grotesque, are symptomatic of a broader political shift that began in the mid-20th century with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, extended through the War on Drugs, and culminated with the ascent of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. What was once subtle and coded has now become an explicit endorsement of white grievance, and figures like Higgins represent the modern face of this ideological shift.
Nixon’s Southern Strategy: The Beginnings of Coded Racism
The GOP’s pivot toward white grievance politics began with Richard Nixon in the late 1960s. After the Democratic Party’s embrace of civil rights, Nixon saw an opportunity to win over disaffected white voters in the South. Knowing that overt racism would not play well in the post-Civil Rights era, Nixon’s advisers crafted the Southern Strategy. They leaned into coded language like “states’ rights” and “law and order,” which, while seemingly innocuous, were designed to appeal to white Southern voters who felt threatened by the successes of the civil rights movement.
Lee Atwater, a strategist for Nixon, later made the GOP’s strategy plain: “You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘n*****, n*****, n*****.’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘n*****’—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now.” Atwater’s words reveal the core of this strategy: the use of abstract language to mask racist intent while still delivering the message.
Nixon didn’t stop with his strategic use of language. His administration launched the War on Drugs, a “tough on crime” initiative that disproportionately targeted Black Americans. John Ehrlichman, a top Nixon aide, later admitted the underlying purpose of the War on Drugs: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” The War on Drugs wasn’t about protecting Americans—it was about political control, particularly over communities of color. This marked the beginning of mass incarceration, which continues to disproportionately affect Black and brown Americans today.
From Nixon to Reagan: Fueling Mass Incarceration
Ronald Reagan continued Nixon’s racially coded policies, doubling down on the War on Drugs. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed during Reagan’s administration dramatically increased incarceration rates, particularly among Black Americans. Under the guise of combating crime, Reagan’s policies deepened the racial divide, particularly by criminalizing non-violent drug offenses. The effects of these policies—devastated communities, broken families, and a criminal justice system overwhelmed with people of color—are still felt today.
Despite the increase in incarcerations, the drug problem did not improve. Instead, Reagan’s policies fueled a crisis of over-policing and disenfranchisement. These measures were not only ineffective at addressing drug use, but they also entrenched a system that criminalized Black and brown communities for generations.
Trump and the MAGA Movement: From Coded Racism to Bullhorns
By the time Donald Trump arrived on the political scene in 2016, the shift from coded language to explicit racism was complete. Trump’s campaign began with the infamous claim that Mexican immigrants were “rapists” and “criminals,” signaling to white Americans that the xenophobia of previous decades was no longer hidden—it was to be worn as a badge of honor. Throughout his presidency, policies such as the Muslim ban and family separations at the southern border made clear that racial and ethnic minorities were no longer just targets of rhetoric but of government action.
Perhaps one of Trump’s most harmful contributions to white grievance politics was his promotion of the birther conspiracy. By claiming that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., Trump legitimized the racist underpinnings of the movement that sought to delegitimize the country’s first Black president. Trump’s persistence in pushing this lie, amplified by conservative media like Fox News, cemented white nationalism as a cornerstone of his political identity. His ability to elevate such unfounded claims into national discourse emboldened those who had long harbored these views in secret.
Higgins and the Modern GOP: A Radical Shift
Clay Higgins, a former sheriff turned congressman, exemplifies the radicalization of the modern GOP. Known for his tough-on-crime rhetoric in viral Crime Stoppers videos, Higgins built a persona as the “Cajun John Wayne,” leveraging racially charged narratives to enhance his public profile. In Congress, his extremism has only grown more pronounced. His embrace of conspiracy theories, like the baseless claim that the FBI used “ghost buses” to infiltrate the January 6th insurrection, further illustrates his alignment with the far-right fringes of the GOP.
Higgins’ recent outburst about Haitian Americans reveals how fully the GOP has adopted this explicit embrace of white grievance. No longer confined to dog whistles, figures like Higgins now lead the charge in broadcasting their views without shame. His comments aren’t just offensive—they reflect the normalization of open racism within the party.
The GOP’s Demographic Anxiety and War on Democracy
So why do figures like Higgins feel emboldened to spout such dangerous rhetoric? The answer lies in demographic shifts. By 2045, white Americans are projected to become a plurality, and for many within the GOP, this represents an existential threat. In 2015, minority births outnumbered white births for the first time in U.S. history, a trend that terrifies a political movement deeply invested in maintaining racial hierarchies.
This demographic panic has translated into political action. Since the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican-led states have passed a series of laws designed to suppress the votes of minority communities. These measures—voter ID laws, restrictions on mail-in voting, and cuts to early voting—aren’t just about winning elections; they’re part of a broader strategy to slow the country’s demographic changes.
Clay Higgins and the Future of the GOP
Clay Higgins is not an outlier within today’s Republican Party. His racist tirade and embrace of conspiracy theories are representative of a larger movement that has taken root within the GOP. Decades after the Civil Rights Act, the GOP has moved from subtle dog whistles to open racism, a transition embodied by figures like Higgins.
As America becomes more diverse, the GOP’s reliance on white grievance politics may ultimately prove unsustainable. However, for the moment, Higgins and his ilk represent a party clinging to an outdated and dangerous vision of America. If we fail to call it out for what it is, this descent into extremism won’t just damage the Republican Party—it will imperil American democracy itself.
