To pretend that Republicans didn't immediately welcome all the southern racists into their party with open arms, legislative efforts and lots of dog whistles when then (D)'s decided to drop racism in the 1960's is disingenuous. It's no accident of history that the former (D) "solid south" is now the (R) solid south, thanks to adopting all the racists there. Lincoln would be horrified.
I'd simply point you to Lee Atwater, (R) political strategist:
"You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”"
Entire 42 minute interview HERE:
thenation.com |
