Republicans' racist dogwhistling

Republicans' racist dogwhistling

By today's standards, George Bush Sr's Willie Horton furlough ad was subtle. Today's Tea Party conservatives skip the scruples

Diane Roberts
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 October 2010 17.00 BST

Carl Paladino is mad. Mad, as in angry. Also, mad, as in barking.

The Republican who wants to be governor of New York doesn't give speeches; he pitches hissy-fits in which he inveighs against the liberals, foreigners, homosexuals, environmentalists, Muslims, Marxists and members of the "lamestream media" dragging America down to perdition. Like his Tea Party posse, Paladino wants to "take America back". Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Christine O'Donnell and Joe Miller, running for the US senate from Nevada, Kentucky, Delaware and Alaska respectively, have also sworn, more or less belligerently, to "take America back".

(read more) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/04/republicans-us-midterm-elections-2010

that there are no longer any rules which apply to campaigning. If racist works, then racist it will be. They are the spiritual heirs to George Wallace ('I can out-nigger any man') and Lee Atwater (Willie Horton), but relieved of any of the societal constraints that Wallace and Atwater had to navigate. The sad part is that they pay absolutely no price for this vicious and cynical political calculation. Perhaps a Democrat resurgence November 2 may try to put the genie back in the bottle, but even in that unlikely instance the change will only be temporary. The 'Southern Strategy' of Nixon and Ronnie Raygun is alive and well in 2010.

....but if the violent threats from the right continue, innocents may get killed first, unfortunately.

"Obama is not so much an agent of change as he is a reflection of change. And the demographic and generational changes in America will make this a better place in the next half-century.

I used to be a teacher and I think the kids are alright.

The reason the nativists and anti-immigration crowd is so livid is that they are essentially correct in their assessment that the Obama election is a harginger for the future. They may make a mild counter-attack in 2008, and/or in 2012, but demography is destiny, and there just aren't enough pissed off old white people to get the job done."