Epiphany Time: McCain vs. Bush (GOP Primary 2000)

[Montauk6]

It just hit as I was playing Zuma and listening to Ike Newkirk (best way to start your Sunday morning, btw: http://www.790thezone.com/Multimedia/ListenLive-1.asx).

OK.

Republican seem to every now and then try to court black voters to "come back" to the party, correct? The idea is, "hey, don't believe all that hype about us being racist and working against you; we WELCOME you."

That would be an accurate summary of these olive branches offered by Mehlman and Co., right? If I'm wrong, stop me here.

Fine.

So, WHY, as recently as 2000, would the Bush Strategists (Rove N Da Fellaz), in fear of losing North Carolina, feel that spreading the LIE that McCain fathered an illegitimate BLACK child would resonate among voters that, we're told by the GOP leadership, is not racist?

[Benhurst]

1. I'm pretty sure the smear was used in South Carolina, not

North Carolina. Your point about the racism of the Republican leadership is still valid, though.

[Montauk6]

3. I always get the Carolinas mixed up, sorry.

Thank goodness nothing happens in the Dakotas. :spank: :silly: ;-)

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Southern Strategy.

The Republicans have been following a racist policy since 1960 to court all those Southern Democrats who were not too happy about the Liberal change in the (Dem)party. The Liberals in the party were responsible for a dynamic change, not only in the party, but in this country when they supported civil & equal rights for everyone.

The Republicans did well with this strategy. They cultivated a very strong white group of people, which, you might say has been the very base which this administration has counted on to support some very bad foreign policy decisions. Racism was harnessed politically. You bet. What you described in the McCain case was the Southern Strategy. They were attracting the white racist voters.

And, yes, they play both sides:


(1) The Southern Strategy: The way the Republicans cultivated the white vote in the Southern Strategy was very subtle. They couldn't come out and say they hated blacks and minorities, instead, they talked about ending social programs, like welfare. Welfare Queen became synonymous for single black woman, without a job taking our tax dollars. They were subtle. They had to be, or they would have lost the important black vote they knew they would eventually need once the demographics in this country changed.

(2) Cultivatng the black vote: They do this by appointing black beards to high profile positions. Like Powell, Rice and Clarence Thomas. By harnessing a select few, they give the illusion that they are open minded. And now they are cultivating the black vote through another way. Through their common religion the Republicans have found common ground with blacks by targeting a group they all could agree to hate: Gays.

I've said it many times before. Hate is a bonding experience in America.

[Montauk6]

4. The Southern Strategy, EXACTLY!

It's like when the police higher-ups here in NYC bragged that Officer Volpe's conviction in the brutal assault on Abner Louima PROVED that there was no Blue Wall or Blue Shield or whatever it's called.

I would beg to differ. Because if there were no Blue Wall or Blue Shield or whatever, why would ANY rogue cop have it in his/her mind that they could get away with whatever nastiness they do?

Getting back to the GOP, if they were sincere about wanting Black Americans to return, wouldn't they prohibit as a party rule anything smacking of "Southern Strategy"? Esp. since they're SOOOOOO into principles over expediency :sarcasm:? Shouldn't they sweeten the pot a BIT MORE??? They don't even do that!!!

Here's their strategy (in deed as well as somewhat in words): "OK, black folks, we're not gonna do a damn thing for you. The Democrats aren't doing a damn thing for you but at least you know where we stand.* So come on over back to the party and stop being such ingrates; we freed you after all! And no we're not racists, look at Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell. Lincoln was a Republican. So, get over it!"


* The "you know where we stand" idea was actually offered to me by one of my fellow black conservative comrades back when I was in the life; I had voiced my extreme displeasure of David Duke, who was running for Louisiana governor, on one of the local call-in shows in Detroit, and my then-friends let me have it. One of the little seeds that started sprouting the agonizing reappraisal in my mind.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Endemic cognitive dissonance is the problem.

The American indians called it a forked tongue. Some say it's talking from both sides of the mouth. Others call it business, and still others call it politics.

The bottomline is that they're only interested in results. They will say whatever they need to say at the moment to get those results. So don't waste your time looking for anything in them or their policies that even resembles integrity or honesty.

That's the problem with this country. Too many people WANT affirmation of their belief system, so they trust anyone who tells them what they want to hear.

[akarnitz]

6. George Wallace's success in the 1968 elections

is what prompted the the rethugs to adopt the Southern Strategy. Dems
didn't start taking the hits down south until the late 70's.

Industrialists up north(mostly rethugs, themselves), however, have been using these divide and conquer tactics for nearly a century to halt unionization. They played on the fears and to the racism of the white working class. They recruited african americans from the south as strikebreakers when the unions were forming up in the early 20th century, this after having recruiting whites from the south. Quite a volatile mix: these folks weren't that far removed from the Civil War,
in which so many poor whites died for a Confederate cause, which, frankly, was against their better interests. This southern white working class had been convinced(seemingly) by the slaveholding class
that freed slaves would supplant the white workers. If I were an unenlightened, under-educated dirt farmer I might also fight to remain on the middle rung of the ladder, rather than accept relegation
to the lowest. Gravity, you know, causes that shit to fall, and if you're on the middle rung your head may be covered with it but it takes a while before it builds to your knees(metaphorically speaking).

I'm a lifelong Michigander(you, too, Montauk?) and I see the results of these racially divisive tactics all over the urban areas of my state. Segregation is rampant everywhere, not just Metro Detroit and Flint. Lansing, Muskegon, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor/St. Joseph(possibly the ugliest example of it) and my beloved hometown of Grand Rapids are fraught with it.

Here in G.R. we, of course, have had quite a bit of "white flight" to the sub-(and lately the exo-)urbs. However, the vast majority of the population of the city proper remains caucasian. So you'd think we might have a decent public school system, right? Not so. We now have "white flight" to the parochial schools, so that now, when there's a millage issue for the public schools, you hear comments such as, "Why should I pay more taxes to send THOSE kids to school? I'm paying to send my kids to Catholic Central and nobody else's taxes are paying for THAT!" So millage referendums fail, programs get cut, teachers are laid off and a lot of kids get crappy educations. Then what? Draw your own conclusions.

Okay, sorry about the lengthy rant. To sum it up, I'd say that "Southern Strategy" is just a dressed up phrase for "Racial Fears Strategy" because it plays on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.

[Montauk6]

7. Born and raised in Metro D; moved to NYC in 96

Just so you folks know, when I pose these little chat points, I'm well aware of what's going on beneath the surface. It's just that I wish (with more forlorn hope day by day) people who are in (or should be in) a position to challenge don't/won't bring up these questions to debunk these liars.

[Mr Rabble]

8. Nail on the head. nt

[Time for change]

9. Possibly * isn't racist himself but

he figures that a good proportion of Republican primary voters are, so he may as well take advantage of it.

[elperromagico]

10. Quite simply put, you stick with what works.

Political candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, have capitalized on racism in the South for generations.

If Bush v. McCain had happened in the 60s, the Bush campaign might well have put out flyers featuring badly-forged images of McCain meeting with people like Elijah Muhammad or McCain sitting among a group of black children.

And it would have worked a treat.

The only difference now is that the racism has gone underground. Instead of flyers or inflammatory speeches, you now have push-polling and subtle innuendo.

But it still works a treat.