Twenty-six phrases that have been called dog whistles:

  1. Community Violence

  2. Urban Violence

  3. Urban Crime

  4. All Lives Matter

  5. Family  

  6. Tough on Crime

  7. Illegal Immigrants

  8. Black-on-White Crime

  9. Freedom

  10. Personal Responsibility  

  11. States’ Rights  

  12. Make America Great Again

  13. Big Government

  14. Prayer in Schools  

  15. Food Stamps

  16. Job Creators

  17. School Choice  

  18. Activist Judges

  19. Critical Race Theory

  20. Islamic Terrorism  

  21. Tax Cuts  

  22. Law & Order

  23. Increase Military Spending, plus anything that is…

  24. Anti-China

  25. Anti-abortion

  26. Anti-LGBT

The Democracy Labs’ explanations for why some of the above phrases are considered dog whistles: 

School Choice: “School choice for Republicans is a code word for segregation and allowing discrimination.”

States’ Rights: "Means that states should be free to implement discriminatory racist laws without the federal government intervening.”

Critical Race Theory: “Code to derail efforts to promote talks about racial diversity equity and inclusion in the public schools there.”

Tax Cuts: “Don’t worry we are going to cut welfare but we’ll also give you liberty and freedom from the welfare state. As you know rich white people love creating jobs for poor black people.”

Job Creators: “Means people who own businesses that employ other people. For conservatives this really means rich people.”

Shariah Law: “Claims that brown Muslim people are infiltrating our country so be afraid and vote for politicians who will support the right wing.”

My take on why the 26 phrases are considered dog whistles (main objection only):

Racist or Xenophobic: Community Violence, Urban Violence, Urban Crime, Black-on-White Crime, Tough on Crime, Law & Order, Food Stamps, Anti-China, Islamic Terrorism, Illegal Immigrants  

Promotes interests of corporations and the rich: Job Creators, Tax Cuts, Big Government (as a criticism), Increase Military Spending, Make America Great Again

Dismisses or minimizes the systemic oppression of blacks: All Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, Personal Responsibility   

Against policies or laws that would help victims of oppression: Big Government, States’ Rights, Activist Judges, School Choice,   

Undermines Moral Authority of Government: Freedom, Family, Prayer in Schools, Anti-abortion, Anti-LGBT

A few questions:

  1. How does one know what another person really means when they say something?

  2. A single phrase may express multiple thoughts and associations, some of which are less than admirable. But the bad thoughts and associations may be secondary to the speaker’s main message. If so, would the phrase still be a dog whistle?

  3. What Republican or conservative concerns and policy preferences have not been called dog whistles?

  4. Are dog whistles just phrases that reflect opinions associated with a political adversary?

  5. If bad people use certain phrases, are those phrases necessarily tainted?

  6. If you know that bad people use a tainted phrase but you use the phrase anyway, is that necessarily an expression of solidarity with the bad people?

  7. Can the values of bad people and good people overlap?