News > Politics > Quality Race Baiting

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TUESDAY AUGUST 5 2008 6:00 AM

The Republicans are masters of using race to stir up white anger and fear to win elections. They play the race card, as it is referred to by hacks, and are more subtle and effective with it each year. Playing the race card is just a palatable way of describing their racist bullshit. I dont know how long the GOP has been doing this, my memory only goes back to Reagan, who was a master at riling up the master race.

In 1980, Reagan gave a campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, during which he said,

I believe in states' rights.

It was obvious to anyone with a brain that Reagan was signaling white racists that he was on their side. After all, he was speaking the city where three civil rights workers were killed in 1964 and any retard knows what "states rights" means in the South.

If you dont buy that connection, then dont forget Reagans many quotes about a welfare queen driving a Cadillac, or his claiming that the Voting Rights Act had been humiliating to the South, or his help keeping Bob Jones University from losing its tax exempt status because of a ban on interracial dating, or his opposition to a holiday for Martin Luther King. Reagan was not just a terrible president, but he was also a straight-up racist asshole.

On July 31st, just days before Reagan went to Neshoba County, the New York Times reported that the Ku Klux Klan had endorsed Reagan. In its newspaper, the Klan said that the Republican platform reads as if it were written by a Klansman. Reagan rejected the endorsement, but only after a Carter cabinet official brought it up in a campaign speech.

This was the plan, called the Southern Strategy, encouraged by Richard Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips.

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are.

Thats the plan they have followed, ever since. Bush used the famous Willy Horton ad against Michael Dukakis quite effectively.

Oh, my God! A black man!

But the country has changed. That kind of overt bullshit would not go over well in many places now. Im not saying it wouldnt still go over great in many states, because it would. But the number of people it would turn off across the nation would not make the ad effective today. And theres the new problem: The Democratic candidate is a black guy. That means the Republicans have to walk a very fine racist line. And they are doing it very well, so far.

The John McCain tactic seems to be to create ads most whites wont consider racist, but blacks will.

Thats obviously a racist ad. Its subtle, but if you dont think showing two young white women in an ad with a black man, and tossing the word FOREIGN up on screen with the black guys face isnt racist, then you are a fucking moron. Unfortunately, when blacks become upset and claim it is racist, McCain can scream innocence and say hes a victim of the race card. Poor rich, white guy. Sadly, Obama fell right into the trap.

They're going to try to say that I'm a risky guy, they're going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he's got a funny name and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they're going to send out nasty emails.

Thats a pretty innocuous statement, but just commenting on the ad put him in a negative light, according to polls.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the nations voters say theyve seen news coverage of the McCain campaign commercial that includes images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and suggests that Barack Obama is a celebrity just like them. Of those, just 22% say the ad was racist while 63% say it was not.

The reason for that is simple; there are more white people than black people. This is about how people relate and most of us don't relate to racism, subtle or otherwise.

In a dispute about race, the McCain campaign knows it will end up with the larger half. For the most part, most white people's experience with race isn't one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism). For this reason, in a political conflict over race, the McCain campaign has the advantage, because saying the race card has been played is actually the ultimate race card.

Considering McCain is a doddering old fool, who has taken the least popular stance on nearly every position, his only chance to win is by using race. The Republican machine knows exactly what it is doing and they are doing it well. The race is tightening. Obama has stupidly moved away from his base, while Republicans are drawing theirs together. Democrats should be very thankful that McCain is a senile old man.

The debates could be devastating. Dont forget, Reagan and Carter were tied in the polls going into the final debate, just one week before the election. You can be certain McCain will look horrible in the debates, but the damage may already be done with the race card. And Republicans, when you bunch that ballot for McCain this year, know you are supporting racism. Know that you are a vile, filthy person who supports the worst in mankind.

FearTheReaper is a comic, writer and actor. You can read more of his nonsense at his blog, Stop All Monsters.

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Comments

motorfirebox

Pittsburgh, PA

March 2004

AUG 09, 2008 04:48 PM

SockPuppet said:
No, I'm not saying that at all; I don't think it requires him to do anything, necessarily. I'm saying that his position generates expectations among other people. Almost everyone who pays any attention to it, in fact.

i think those expectations are exactly what the fight against racism has to overcome.

SockPuppet said:
Again, it depends how it's done, and what it's done for. Exposing the nature of the campaign which engaged in that baiting might be worth votes. I agree it could easily be counterproductive, though. If I was a paranoid person, I might think that baiting like that was specifically designed to push the candidate into a response which would be inherently divisive, both in the short term - deliberately, for electoral advantage - and the longer - as collateral damage.

it does indeed matter how it's done. in this case, it was either done well, or not at all. in either scenario, i really think the best response is no response.

SockPuppet said:
Absolutely. But I'm afraid that that sensitivity already exists, in some quarters, and if McCain's campaign hasn't taken account of that, then they are utterly inept.

considering that most people don't think there are any racist undertones to the ad, i don't think it's the McCain campaign that's making the mistake.

SockPuppet

I'm lost

July 2006

AUG 09, 2008 05:07 PM

motorfirebox said:

i think those expectations are exactly what the fight against racism has to overcome.

it does indeed matter how it's done. in this case, it was either done well, or not at all. in either scenario, i really think the best response is no response.

SockPuppet said:
Absolutely. But I'm afraid that that sensitivity already exists, in some quarters, and if McCain's campaign hasn't taken account of that, then they are utterly inept.

considering that most people don't think there are any racist undertones to the ad, i don't think it's the McCain campaign that's making the mistake.

Fine. We agree to disagree, then.

Clidna

Canada

January 2005

AUG 10, 2008 08:31 PM

DoktorSleepless said:
I noticed when you quoted Obama saying "They're going to try to say that I'm a risky guy, they're going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he's got a funny name and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they're going to send out nasty emails." you left out the next sentence. You know, the one where he says "Did I mention he's black?" I guess that would be to racist for you to put in your column. You aren't racist, are you? No, I'm sure you're not.

Bravo on the frequent use of the word "fuck", by the way. I find that really helps to make an intelligent, well thought out point.

New to reading FTR, are we? And bravo on pointing out his use of the word "fuck", by the way, I find that it really helps to make an intelligent, well thought out point.

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

AUG 12, 2008 09:48 AM

Hey! Look at those magazine covers. Why would you put a white woman's face in there to distract from the point that Obama is a celebrity? That's odd.

Hey, four white women LOVING Obama. That's odd. Don't black women like Obama?

We're getting closer and closer to this...

Even the press is starting to notice.

Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video

August 12, 2008 9:30 AM

How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?

One...two...three...four...sure are a lot of young white women in this thing....

Why do you think they put so many young white women professing their love for Obama in what is clearly an anti-Obama video? What would possibly be negative about young white women liking Sen. Obama?

When asked, the McCain campaign says they took the video from local news packages, but of course that doesn't explain anything.

- jpt

UPDATE: McCain campaign senior adviser Mark Salter writes to say: "All we are suggesting is 'the kids think he's dreamy. But should he be president?'"

Quirky

Birmingham, AL

October 2005

AUG 12, 2008 10:20 AM

dogwhistle - (n.) (sing.) a political message that only a targeted few understand and interpret.

The late Republican strategist Lee Atwater refined Wallace%u2019s formula to help make the GOP the de facto party of white supremacy in the South. Blogger Digby recently quoted Bush the First%u2019s far-right-hand man as having said, %u201CYou start out in 1954 by saying, %u2018Nigger, nigger, nigger.%u2019 By 1968, you can%u2019t say %u2018nigger%u2019 %u2014 that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like %u2018forced busing,%u2019 %u2018states%u2019 rights%u2019 and all that stuff.%u201D Or, to restate the axiom, for every affirmative action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Even Hillary Clinton was not above playing the skin game, as when she remarked in May that her opponent%u2019s %u201Csupport among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans%u201D was weakening. It wasn%u2019t enough to gain her the nomination, but it opened the door for John McCain%u2019s campaign to break out the dogwhistles.

The dogwhistle: an ideal description of a phrase or a meme that only certain parts of the electorate can discern. As Digby put it, %u201CWhen Karl Rove sends out McCain%u2019s minions to spread the word %u2018presumptuous%u2019 all over the place, the idea is to signal the racists among us that Obama is %u2018uppity.%u2019 It doesn%u2019t mean that if you think Obama is presumptuous that you are a racist. You might just think, %u2018yeah, he%u2019s acting like it%u2019s in the bag already.%u2019 But racists hear that %u201CObama is an uppity black man.%u201D

SockPuppet

I'm lost

July 2006

AUG 12, 2008 02:44 PM

This is going to run and run. Not that I'm surprised.

ckdexterhaven

USA

December 2005

AUG 12, 2008 04:03 PM

FearTheReaper said:
Hey! Look at those magazine covers. Why would you put a white woman's face in there to distract from the point that Obama is a celebrity? That's odd.

I know you're trying desperately to find anything that can even remotely be considered racist, or race related, but that one's really a stretch.