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Open thread Sept. 1, 2017

Dan Crawford | September 1, 2017 7:37 am

Comments (8) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
8 Comments
  • EMichael says:
    September 2, 2017 at 10:38 am

    Populism is the new States Rights.

    “In an analysis of recent polling, my colleague William Saletan observes that, across a number of questions gauging racial animus, Republicans generally (and Trump supporters specifically) are most likely to give answers signaling tolerance for racism and racist ideas. Forty-one percent of Republicans, for example, say that whites face more discrimination than blacks and other nonwhite groups (among strong Trump supporters, it’s 45 percent). Ten percent of Republicans and 19 percent of strong Trump supporters have a favorable impression of white nationalists, while 13 percent of the former (and 17 percent of the latter) say it’s “acceptable” to hold white supremacist views.

    And, importantly, you see these ideas expressed not just in polls but on the ground, as well. In 2014, Ed Gillespie ran for Senate as a Virginia Republican in the mold of figures like John Warner and Bob McDonnell—conservative but not a bomb-thrower. The kind of Republican politician who could make ground in Northern Virginia and other Democratic-leaning parts of the state. Gillespie tried to run that campaign in this year’s Republican primary for governor, and he might have won without trouble if not for the presence of Corey Stewart, an otherwise obscure county official who backed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and challenged Gillespie as a Trump-like figure. Vocally standing in defense of the state’s Confederate monuments, Stewart ran as the candidate of white anger and racial resentment, and he almost won, losing by fewer than 5,000 votes.

    Gillespie learned his lesson. In an August ad against his Democratic opponent Ralph Northam, he blasts “sanctuary cities.” In the past month, he’s hired a former Trump campaign aide—Jack Morgan, infamous for his warning that the country is on the brink of a second civil war—and has pledged to defend Confederate statues from local efforts to remove them. Donald Trump may have lost Virginia to Hillary Clinton, but Virginia Republicans are committed to the president and expect the same from their candidates.

    It’s true that it’s rare for a president to lose anything more than a small minority of his partisan base. But Gillespie’s recent turn shows there is more than simple partisanship at play. There’s nothing about partisanship that forces a figure like Gillespie to go beyond simple Trump support to embracing the most inflammatory, racially reactionary parts of his appeal. In theory, it should be possible to maintain allegiance to Trump without pantomiming the resentment that fuels his presidency.

    But this isn’t true in practice. Signaling allegiance to Trump requires embracing white identity politics, because those beliefs reflect the views of many Republican voters.

    White identity politics have always been dominant in American life, one of the key forces that shape much of the nation’s political and social landscape. It’s not that Trump is new; it’s that he’s explicit, and in making his open appeal to white identity and its supposed endangerment, he has raised its salience. Before Trump, white resentment was part of Republican politics. In the age of Trump, it increasingly defines it.”

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/08/trump_s_phoenix_rally_was_an_embarrassing_therapy_session.html

    The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    IAN HANEY LÓPEZ:

    “Sure. I mean, I think it’s important to note that it starts—that it starts with George Wallace, in the sense of saying, listen, this isn’t—there’s nothing inherent in Republicanism that’s associated with racism. We need to be very clear about that. In fact, in 1960, before all of this really got underway, 29 percent of African Americans identified as Republican, right? Both parties in 1960 were similarly supportive of civil rights. But what happens is, politicians begin to look around for a way to get elected, and they realize race baiting can do that.

    And so you have George Wallace, a Democrat. He runs as a racial moderate initially in 1958, and he loses. After he loses, he has this incredible moment. He’s about to give his concession speech, and he turns to his cronies, he’s leaving the car, and he says to his cronies, “No other son of a bitch is ever going to out-nigger me again.” And what he means is, “I’ve just lost to somebody who ran as a racial reactionary. I’m going to run as a racial reactionary.” And that’s what he sets out to do, and when he does, he wins. And it’s this moment where it becomes clear: Using race can help you win elections.”

    https://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/14/dog_whistle_politics_how_politicians_use

    By the way, if you want to understand politics in the US, you have to read his book

    Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class Reprint Edition
    by Ian Haney López (Author)

    • run75441 says:
      September 2, 2017 at 12:44 pm

      Wallace was a left over Dixie-Crat from the Truman era.

  • coberly says:
    September 2, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    EMichael

    you are pretty much right. but you have to think how much of this is a reaction to the overreaching by the other side.

    you know, the poke em in the eye when they’re down side.

  • EMichael says:
    September 3, 2017 at 8:45 am

    Cob,

    I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.

    You mean like the Civil Rights Act was an overreach? The Voting Rights Act was an overreach?

  • coberly says:
    September 3, 2017 at 11:37 am

    EMichael

    No. Bussing was overreach. neurotic insistence upon “pc” language is overreach, taking down statues of Robert E Lee is overreach, going crazy about christmas decorations in “public” places is overreach, calling for “reparations” is overreach,,.

  • EMichael says:
    September 3, 2017 at 11:55 am

    How many Americans were affected by bussing?

    Describe pc language in relation to this topic.

    Totally disagree about the statues which were erected almost entirely as a reminder to put people in their place.

    Have no idea why Christmas decorations are involved.

    Agree about reparations, but fairly sure that is solely the work of a teeny, tiny amount of people and has had no effect on anyone in the entire US.

    By the way, these voting patterns extend from a time where the vast majority of the things you mention that somehow caused this “reaction” did not exist, and extend to a time where some of these things do not exist(see bussing).

    Ranks right up there with the thought process(sic) that whites are discriminated more than blacks or browns.

  • coberly says:
    September 3, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    ranks right up there with people who can’t imagine that what they do in one place does not affect how people think in another place.

  • EMichael says:
    September 4, 2017 at 9:27 am

    maga on

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