Going After Young White Virgins
by digby
If you don’t understand what’s going on with all this, you need to read up on South Carolina’s favorite son Lee Atwater. Watch it with the sound off for the full effect:
A reader sent me this observation:
Remember that [Atwater’s] concept was to replace overt racism with covert racism. The Republicans, in their relentless pursuit of every line of attack on what seemed to be impregnable victory of Obama Democrats in Nov. ’08, hit on a brilliant variation: clown-like black political dupes who would stimulate the conscious & unconscious racism of voters. Michael Steele is the prince of these: his gaffes are not mistakes but subversions of Obama made by inverse mirroring of his strengths. Down at a grosser level they found Alvin Greene, & they did in the state where Lee Atwater learned his craft. Steele and Greene are new twists on the Willie Horton and McCain/black-baby scripts.
I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s an interesting thought. Regardless of whether or not it’s planned, I tend to agree that this has been the effect.
h/t to RP