As campaign season rolls along, Republicans everywhere have been using dog whistle language, and sometimes direct statements, to demean minorities. Republicans seem unable to function without the politics of fear and hate. One Republican candidate for the US Senate faced a terrible dilemma. He could not attack black people, because Michigan has such a large black population, so he went after Asians instead.

…Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R) aired his first campaign ad of the cycle Sunday night, and Asian-American groups are crying foul.

The spot accuses Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) of helping China by increasing the national debt…

…Claiming an opponent will send or has sent jobs to China is hardly a new threat in Michigan politics. Democrats have used such attacks. One of the most famous ads of the 2010 cycle, from the third-party group Citizens Against Government Waste, featured a Chinese professor of the future talking about the collapse of the United States.

But the broken English and stereotypical music in Hoekstra’s ad have provoked a backlash.

“Really, really dumb,” Republican strategist Mike Murphy said over Twitter. “I mean really.”

The Michigan chapter of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote, a nonpartisan group, called the ad “very disturbing” in a statement. A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the ad “blatantly racist.”

A group of Detroit black ministers joined in, arguing that the spot is “no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect.”… [emphasis original]