Romney Welfare Ad: "Toxic Racial Stereotypes" Says Philly Inquirer Columnist

The American Debate: Despicable and desperate

Lying is endemic to politics, but Mitt Romney may have pioneered a new low this week. His TV ad attacking President Obama's welfare policy collides with empirical fact, but that's not the worst of it. Aimed at working-class whites, it also implicitly traffics in toxic racial stereotypes.

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When I listen to Romney on this issue and see that ad, I am reminded of what the writer Mary McCarthy famously said of Lillian Hellman: "Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the."

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What a shame that the GOP nominee has seen fit to slum in this manner. It's bad enough that the welfare ad bears no resemblance to factual reality. What's worse is that he has dredged up the racially coded tactics that Republicans employed so often in the '80s and '90s, including Ronald Reagan's loaded references to "welfare queens" and George H.W. Bush's TV ads equating crime with blacks. Romney is traveling the same low road, tapping the old stereotypes about how Democrats supposedly want to shovel taxpayer money to shiftless welfare recipients - now with a black president wielding the shovel.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20120810_The_American_Debate__Despicable_and_desperate.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/10/1118533/-Romney-Welfare-Ad-Toxic-Racial-Stereotypes-Says-Philly-Inquirer-Columnist