Button Up
by digby
Howard Fineman almost has a moment of clarity:
If we had any sense, the fall elections would be about just one thing: the economy. But we do not have any sense. We are facing what Wall Street would call the “triple witching hour.” Republicans have their finger on three social-demographic hot buttons. The first is illegal immigration (in proposing a review of the 14th Amendment), and the second is Islam in America (in objecting to the mosque at ground zero). They won’t be able to avoid pushing the third, race, even if they wanted to, given that the two leading congressional Democrats facing ethics charges are African-American.
Uh, Howard. It’s the same button.
Lee Atwater observed long ago that the right needed to develop racist dog-whistles once it became publicly and legally unacceptable to express racist sentiments. There have been many permutations over the years. There’s always something.
Here’s how I like to put it:
1955 – They are an inferior race
1965 – They are lazy workers
1975 – They make old white customers uncomfortable
1985 – Affirmative action means their diplomas are bogus
1995 – They are a litigation risk for discrimination claims
2005 – They are racists who discriminate against white people
Now we have a black president and he is widely believed to be a secret Muslim, thus conflating the terrorist threat with white fears of black and brown social equality.
It’s getting more desperate and bizarre, which I think would surprise even Atwater, who assumed it would die out as it became more obscure. But it’s still there and it still has power, particularly in a right wing populist framework.
I’m a little surprised at how crude it is, but unleashed beasts tend not to have many social graces.
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