More Racism, Please

Atlantic Monthly by Matthew Quirk | Oct. 16, 2008 (Opinion)
Race-baiting and anti-Muslim bigotry on the campaign trail are vile and loathsome. Let's hope they never go away.

What went wrong with McCain’s attacks? The audience’s shouted slurs ruined the classical Republican approach of plausibly deniable racism. Imagine if at the old boy's country club someone said, “Well, I’m not sure the Cohens would fit in here.” Wink wink. And his buddy responded, “Oh yeah. You mean because they’re Jews, right?” It ruins the ruse, like the sitcom stooge who asks “Hey, why are you kicking me under the table?” Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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Dwight Rousu
3.8
 by Dwight Rousu - Oct. 17, 2008

More quirky journalism than quality journalism. While incisively identifying the "plausibly deniable racism" strategy of the neocon campaign meisters, the authors somewhat glib anticipation that they will be good for getting votes for Democratic candidates ignores the greater problem that fanning the flames of racial hatred are a bad thing for the country. A bit too edgy.

the GOP base didn’t get the memo on how to bash Obama as a secret Muslim—i.e. implicitly. So the attacks backfired, turning the GOP’s carefully hedged strategy into out and out racism that the press and independent voters couldn’t ignore, with disastrous consequences for McCain.

The base reacted as hoped, but were not skookum enough to hide the racism and hate. But can the hate be put back in the bottle?

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