Here’s a question for you, posted by a commenter at The Guardian — “please do take as much time as you need to show the last time GOP won a presidential election without using anti-black race baiting.”
Well, let’s see — Bush v. Gore 2000, Bush surrogates no doubt working under Karl Rove’s direction took out McCain as an opponent in South Carolina by spreading a story about McCain’s alleged black love child, who is actually an adopted daughter. (Where is that child now, btw?) In the general election campaign I’d have to think about it, but perhaps one of you readers can come up with an example.
Bush I, 1988 — Willie Horton
Reagan, 1980 — Welfare Cadillac Queen
Nixon, 1969 — Ran against Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs and racial equality in more subtle ways. I’ve already written about Nixon’s 1972 RNC convention acceptance speech and how the first half of it was a regular cornucopia of race baiting.
Eisenhower, 1952 — I’m drawing a blank. I was only one year old for that election, though.
Anyway — Bob Herbert gets it exactly right. Just read what he says.
A question that lingers in my mind is how many Cadillac driving welfare queens could be supported by one days civilian security expenditure in Iraq? Now our current welfare queens are exclusively white males driving Hummers and oversized SUV’s and going by the name of Blackwater. They make more money before 5 AM, by doing nothing, than most working class Americans made all week.
Who would have thought that being a thug would prove to be such a lucrative career field?
You’ll notice that the Republicans don’t mention Eisenhower much. He was chief of staff of the army in the postwar period, that is, in charge of integrating the army, among other things. As president he integrated the schools in Little Rock, pretty much on the grounds that it would be wrong not to.
Also got us out of Korea and did not get us into any other wars. Keep this guy out of sight.
I’m really sick to death of this entrenched habit of taking two or more completely separate events and then making them out to be the identical event. (I think it was Berkeley who argued quite affectively that there really is no such thing as cause and effect in that we are unable to know the link, only what we observe as two events one following the other.)
The most recent, and ultimately deadly, example of what I call ‘atavistic’ reasoning is the justification for invading Iraq and killing Saddam because look what happened when we didn’t nip Hitler in the bud.
Today’s political race-card playing is today’s only, unique, one-of-a-kind never seen before and never to be seen again. Geeze, when was the last time a black man stood a good chance of being elected president of the US and here we are camparing the Willie Horton ad run to discredit a white candidate as though it somehow has some bearing on race-card ads being run today to defeat Obama? Ridiculous.
PS –
In 1952, the racists were still in the Democratic party, although they were frantically signalling their availability to the Republicans. Stevenson’s running mate was from Alabama, although certainly not one of the wool-hat boys of Talmadge and his gang.
So, the last elections in which the Republicans did not run a racist campaign were the Eisenhower campaigns, although no doubt it was there under the surface.
Well, let’s see — Bush v. Gore 2000, Bush surrogates no doubt working under Karl Rove’s direction took out McCain as an opponent in South Carolina by spreading a story about McCain’s alleged black love child, who is actually an adopted daughter. (Where is that child now, btw?)
Her name is Bridget McCain. The McCains adopted her from a Bangladeshi orphanage. She is 16 years old and attending a private school in Phoenix.
In the general election campaign I’d have to think about it, but perhaps one of you readers can come up with an example.
Well, would you count the systematic disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida by Jeb? I would. And it was even worse, though never reported by the media, in Tennessee.
This is as good a place as any to voice my lament that we don’t have enough clearly disinterested white voices speaking or writing eloquently on the topic of racist dogwhistles. Jim Crow didn’t begin its death throes until after large numbers of whites came down to march in solidarity with the blacks. As eloquent and moving and true as Bob Herbert’s columns on the topic are, many will dismiss them because he’s black, and that sucks, but, unfortunately, that’s the way it is in this country. You don’t have an NYT op-ed column, Maha, but you are definitely doing your part.