dog-whistly

comparative dog-whistlier · superlative dog-whistliest · alternative dogwhistly · alternative dogwhistley · alternative dog-whistley

1. informalOf, relating to, or characteristic of dog-whistle politics.

   The dog-whistley Make America Great Again has given us Donald J. Trump, the great white hope, undoer of all-things-Obama.

   2018, Dana Andersen, "Letter: Dems ‘blew it’ alright", Post Independent (Glenwood Springs, CO), 20 February 2018

   2 more examples

   But the difference between the "bimbo ad" (which was also a Republican production) and the McCain advert is that the former was explicit in its miscegenation message, whereas the latter is more, well, dog-whistly.

   2008 August 1, Melissa McEwan, “McCain blows the dog whistle”, in The Guardian

   While there are reasons to complain about fireworks—they're loud, they can hurt people and cause fires—the tenor of the collective complaint becomes racialized and dog-whistly, spiked with cries for "law and order."

   2022, Jeremiah Moss, Feral City: On Finding Liberation in Lockdown New York, unnumbered page