In the dead of winter, 1776, the patriot pamphleteer Tom Paine issued a ringing support for his fellow revolutionaries. The first shots of the Revolution had been fired at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and the Declaration of Independence had been signed in Philadelphia that summer. The British did not take the actions of the upstart colonists lying down. Throughout the summer and fall of 1776 they beat Washington’s army on Long Island and in New York City, and caused them to retreat across the entire colony of New Jersey. During that period, the Continental Army shrank from 23,000 to about 5,000 when they began to winter at Valley Forge. The American Revolution was very close to being snuffed out by the British Empire. It was only with the surprise victory at the Battle of Trenton (December 26) that the tide began to turn.
Three days earlier, Paine had published his pamphlet THE CRISIS. He had travelled with Washington’s army as it retreated across New Jersey and had seen morale crumble. He determined to use his pen to reverse the trend of pessimism.
“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
It is doubtful that Washington’s men read that pamphlet at Valley Forge before the Battle of Trenton but that pamphlet plus news of the success at Trenton flew around the 13 colonies and reversed the pessimism that seemed destined to end the Revolution.
[Details here.]
Why do I bring this up in relation to the stories from Springfield, Ohio about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets? It is because Trump and J.D. Vance have chosen to bring the issue of “illegal immigration” front and center by MAKING UP FAKE STORIES about what is going on in Springfield. Their gaslighting of the American people represents a similar crisis for American democracy to what the winter of 1776 at Valley Forge meant for the nascent American Republic. Today we definitely are in “times the try men’s [and women’s] souls!”
According to the Wall Street Journal, on the day before the Presidential debate (that would be September 9) J.D. Vance went public with the story that Haitian immigrants were stealing pets and eating them. Trump followed up at the debate. These stories were false and Vance had been told that in no uncertain terms the day before.
“Vance's campaign gave [the Wall Street Journal] the name of a woman who claimed a Haitian had indeed taken her cat in August. The Journal arrived Tuesday evening [unclear if this is September 10 or 17 because the story was published the 18th] to find cat Miss Sassy had returned a few days later and her owner Anna Kilgore had apologized to her Haitian neighbors, …”
[Details including this quote, here. See also.]
Did Vance apologize? Did he retract his story? No. He doubled down. He defended his need to “create stories” in order to focus attention on the problem of illegal immigration.
[See the entire interview with CNN here.]
Vance’s story and Trump’s broadcasting it to millions of viewers has led to bomb threats, great fear throughout the Haitian community in Springfield, and a big increase in the belief among that Maga cult that Haitians are eating cats and dogs in Springfield. These are indeed “times that try [men’s and women’s] souls!”
When the reporter caught Vance admitting to “creating stories” he tried to back track by saying he created the “media focus” but that the stories came from constituents. But we know from the Wall Street Journal story quoted above that OTHERS OF HIS CONSTITUENTS WHO ARE OFFICIALS WITH ACCESS TO INFORMATION debunked those stories and when he did the interview, he knew that. When asked later whether he should have vetted the stories from his constituents he said, NO – that the media needed to do that – WHICH THEY DID – including the story of the woman whose cat was NOT EATEN but in fact came back within two days.
And he kept talking about illegal immigrants. The Haitians in Springfield are LEGAL. They are either citizens, green card holders or people with “temporary protected status” (TPS) Kamala Harris had NOTHING to do with them coming to Springfield except indirectly as a member of the Biden-Harris administration which had granted them TPS. In fact, they were invited to come to Springfield by employers looking for workers.
[TPS was created by law in 1990. For details including numbers of TPS people’s country of origin see https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-temporary-protected-status]
So get this. Vance knew the “information” he was getting from “his constituents” was false but felt it was okay to make stuff up ---- demonizing a hard-working LEGAL community of immigrants --- putting them and members of an entire American city at risk from bomb threats and fascist proud boys marching down main street! And this was important because it would CALL ATTENTION to the “problem” of illegal immigration (of which there is very little in Springfield, Ohio!)
I mean this is REALLY REALLY SICK. At first when Trump said Haitians were stealing and eating pets everybody laughed --- and started making fun of him. But after the bomb threats and the fear that ran through that Haitian community, THIS IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER.
Instead, it is a clarion call to action to fight back against what Vance and Trump are doing – And of course we know why they are doing it. They want to divert attention from issues in the campaign like the deaths of women in states that restrict abortion rights and the authoritarian promises hidden in the 900 pages of Project 2025. And tragically, it seems to be working. It has dominated many news cycles.
This is why I started this mini-essay with the quote from Tom Paine. What are we, the good people of America going to do about it?
The Mayor of Springfield says these charges are false. The Governor of Ohio – A REPUBLICAN named Mike DeWine says they are false. The news reporters interviewing Vance fact check every lie he tells ---
For those who didn’t watch the You Tube, here’s a couple of direct quotes:
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m gonna do.
“It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. Her policies did that. But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’s policies.”
Let’s unpack this. Kamala Harris (the Vice President) is accused of letting in a gigantic flood of illegal immigrants. What has that got to do with the PERFECTLY LEGAL immigrants who have been highly sought after by employers in Springfield, Ohio, seeking to keep their factories running?
Since the 1970s, Springfield’s population has shrunk by 20,000 people. Beginning in the previous decade and accelerating during and after the COVID pandemic, anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 new immigrants arrived. (Vance’s number 20,000 is a gross exaggeration!). They took jobs that had gone begging, opened businesses of their own and led to the beginning of a revitalization of the city. They were all entitled to work and they did so openly.
So Vance is clearly lying ---and unlike Trump who is definitely losing it, VANCE KNOWS BETTER. He a politician whose words might get people killed as he riles up the MAGA base with these ridiculously false and dangerous stories.
So, what can the true patriots do in these “times that try men’s and women’s souls?”
There are examples from similar stressful times in our history. Back in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King called on representatives of the clergy to come down South and participate in the massive voting rights demonstrations. Back in 1989, Oprah Winfrey took her television show to Forsyth County in Georgia where in 1912, three black men were lynched and the entire black population was driven out of town. When Oprah came down in 1989 it was still lily-white 70 years later.
I call on Oprah Winfrey to take her television show to Springfield, Ohio and let the local people tell the truth about their city. I call upon faith -based leaders to go there and create a set of interfaith services celebrating the WELCOME that most of Springfield Ohio’s citizens have rolled out for their new neighbors and fellow workers from Haiti.
I call on Senator Sherrod Brown, running for re-election in Ohio to go to Springfield and show solidarity. I call on President Biden and Vice President Harris to do what the REPBULICAN GOVERNOR of Ohio has already done --- go to Springfield to organize a giant rally to denounce the lies of JD Vance and Donald Trump.
These are INDEED the times that try men’s and women’s souls. But we Americans can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And unlike Washington’s army at Valley Forge, we don’t have to risk our lives --- just spend some time spreading the word and urging political and religious leaders to ACT!
[There is a brilliant summary article which delves into some of the historical echoes of today when people from the mountains (Vance’s “Hillbilly” relatives) moved to Ohio and other mid-western places and were looked down upon because of their strange habits. It is comprehensive and well worth reading]
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.