dagblog - Comments for "The Death of the Dog Whistle"

Eh - I wouldn't get too

Orion — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:44:27 +0000

In reply to The Death of the Dog Whistle

Eh - I wouldn't get too worked up about Ryan's comments. Words are easy to discern - "voters from urban areas" doesn't mean the same thing as "urban voters," I think. It's always voters from urban areas that propel liberal Democrats - that's where not only minorities live but upper middle class liberal whites as well.

Oh it is soooooooooo very

Richard Day — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:50:58 +0000

In reply to Dick wins - Line of the

Oh it is soooooooooo very wonderful when someone gets my point.

hahahahah

In the lead-up to the

Anonymous Peter Schwartz — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:50:22 +0000

In reply to You're right about those

In the lead-up to the infamous remarks, it is fascinating to witness the confidence with which Atwater believes himself to be establishing the racial innocence of latter-day Republican campaigning: “My generation,” he insists, “will be the first generation of Southerners that won’t be prejudiced.” He proceeds to develop the argument that by dropping talk about civil rights gains like the Voting Rights Act and sticking to the now-mainstream tropes of fiscal conservatism and national defense, consultants like him were proving “people in the South are just like any people in the history of the world.”

It is only upon Professor Lamis’s gently Socratic follow-ups, and those of a co-interviewer named “Saul” (Carter hasn't been able to confirm his identity, but suspects it was the late White House correspondent Saul Friedman), that Atwater begins to loosen up—prefacing his reflections, with a plainly guilty conscience, “Now, y’all aren't quoting me on this?” (Apparently , this is the reason why Atwater’s name wasn’t published in 1984 but was in 1999, after his death).

He then utters his infamous words. The interlocutors go on to kibitz about Huey Long and barbecue. Then Atwater, apparently satisfied that he'd absolved the Southern Republican Party of racism once and for all, follows up with a prediction based on a study he claims demonstrates that Strom Thurmond won 38 percent of South Carolina’s middle-class black vote in his 1978 Senate campaign (run by Atwater).

“That voter, in my judgment,” he claims, “will be more likely to vote his economic interests than he will anything else. And that is the voter that I think through a fairly slow but very steady process, will go Republican.” Because race no longer matters: “In my judgment Karl Marx [is right]... the real issues ultimately will be the economic issues.” He continues, in words that uncannily echo the “47 percent tape” (nothing new under the wingnut sun), that “statistically, as the number of non-producers in the system moves toward fifty percent,” the conservative coalition cannot but expand. Voila: a new Republican majority. Racism won't have anything to do with it.

It's a week after elections -

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:39:33 +0000

In reply to You're right about those

It's a week after elections - everyone's all remorseful for the obligatory soundbite/talk show. They'll be kicking sand in scrawny guys' eyes by Turkey Day, no worries. Ryan will be rehabilitated; Romney will be laid on the altar as the guy who wasn't conservative enough to win the election. And about them urban areas...

You're right about those

Anonymous Peter Schwartz — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:19 +0000

In reply to It's interesting to hear the

You're right about those points, Doc...no question.

However, I think the printed quote leaves out some of the nuance in what he was saying. He's still "all in" in using the dog whistle and stirring up racial animosity, no question, but there seems to be a bit more to it. Not an exonerating "bit," but...

I hear he had something of a "death bed conversion," and he may have been moving toward that a bit here. Of course, I'm only speculating here, based on one or two "notes" I thought I heard.

That Jindal bit about how

Michael Maiello — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:36:59 +0000

In reply to The Death of the Dog Whistle

That Jindal bit about how Romney wanted the voters to like him even though he doesn't seem to like a whole bunch of voters is pretty biting. You can't get away with that divisive garbage any more, not a national scale, though it probably still works in more local races.

Dick wins - Line of the

Qnonymous — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:15:09 +0000

In reply to This is all a

Dick wins - Line of the day.

He's so full of fellow-feeling for the (defeated) Republicans these days that he's even cutting Ryan some slack.

Good to see, Dick! hahahahahahaha

Republicans did not face

AnonymousRm — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:56:54 +0000

In reply to The Death of the Dog Whistle

Republicans did not face aggressive push back when they launced attacks on Blacks. They then moved on to Hispanics. Because the racism was couched as debate about immigration, "Self-deportation" slipped under the radar. They then moved on to attacking women. Multiple states have bills that are designed to end funding to Planned Parenthood. The Komen Foundation balked at stem cell research.

the GOP has a multi-pronged attack on those who are not wealthy white males. They have the support of about half the country. They will aways have a reliabl base that makes it important to remain engaged and actively combat the GOP intrusion on our rights.

In what somebody called the

NCD — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:19:05 +0000

In reply to The Death of the Dog Whistle

In what somebody called the 'Revolving Door of Remorse' Mitt will, like former GOP champion Dubya, be absent at the next GOP Convention.

Ok but Bush managed to get

artappraiser — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:59:02 +0000

In reply to The Death of the Dog Whistle

Ok but Bush managed to get re-elected partly by appearing very inclusive, still playing some kinder, gentler notes (Islam is a peaceful religion, we got to do something about immigration besides walls, etc) and just ignoring the loud dog whistling elsewhere in his party, rather than denouncing it. And his half-Hispanic nephew just filed for starting to run for office And plenty of Hispanic Republicans have ideas about what to do and have been working on it

It doesn't necessarily mean death of the Republican party if some of its loudest keep dog whistling, just sayin.' Dems have always had their loudmouths turning off large groups of people, too. I think thinking that Limbaugh et.al. dooms them is mighty cocky thinking. It doesn't take winning all the minority vote for them to win things.