Could The Racist GOP Target Obama?
Posted at 11:32 am on Tuesday, December 12, 2006, in Uncategorized, and tagged 2008.
Recently I blogged that it may be more difficult for the GOP to implement racist campaign tactics if Barack Obama were the democratic nominee for president. This led to an interesting point by a reader, namely that, although it would be more difficult to employ overtly-racist tactics, the skill and guise of the GOP could (and would) still be able to implement covert racist tactics. (Thanks chuck.)
That is most likely true — the GOP is so very much racist (as a national party), and will use the fears and prejudices of the electorate to get their candidate (or keep their candidate) in office. However, I think the game would be changed a bit for the GOP campaign team if the Democrats nominated an African-American for president.
Right now, the GOP uses “racist tactics” against white opponents by saying that the democratic candidate is “for affirmative action,” “against states’ rights” (in other words, for equal rights), or “soft on crime” (even if the candidate is not). This has been a great success for the GOP since the sixties, and is referred to as the “Southern strategy.“
However, if the Democrats nominate Obama, a black man, the GOP’s campaign against Obama would go from “He’s for affirmative action!” to plainly “He’s black!” And probably very quickly. In the age of the constant news-cycle, blogs and YouTube, it would be the greatest attack on the American ideology if these tactics weren’t exposed by the press and the American people didn’t repudiate and reject the GOP accordingly. But that doesn’t mean it will happen.
That being said, the U.S. in apparently incapable of electing a northeastern liberal as president. Why would the U.S. be ready for a black president? Or female? Times have changed, but have they changed enough?
No related posts.
December 12th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
I can’t honestly say that the GOP is completely racist in their outlook: they actually have an organization for African-American Repubs at nbra.com, and even an elite magazine called “The Black Republican.” I assume it’s an elite magazine, since it must have the world’s smallest number of subscribers.
More seriously, though, if the Repubs were to use their variation of the “Southern Strategy,” I think it would clearly show the desperation of their party. If the best argument you can think of against someone is his race, that doesn’t put you in the best light, does it? I also think such tactics would receive a mixed reaction among US voters. Some voters would say “So what?” while others would think the world is ending. I would just hope that enough people have the good sense to repudiate such asinine tactics. But fears are strong things, and the Repubs have been playing to them since 9/11–ask Karl Rove about their success.