Robert Parry: Fleecing the Angry Whites

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Fleecing the Angry Whites
January 8, 2012

Exclusive: Subtly and not so subtly, Republican presidential contenders are playing the race card again, hoping to win over the votes of angry whites by implicitly blaming the shrinking of the middle-class on preferential treatment of blacks and other minorities, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry


Since the days of Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy,” the Republican Party has wooed angry whites with coded messages designed to play to racial prejudices – and that pattern has come back strong in Campaign 2012 as the GOP seeks to rid the White House of a black Democrat.

Usually, the dog whistle comes in appeals to “states’ rights” and allusions to “welfare queens,” but sometimes the implicit becomes explicit, as occurred when former Sen. Rick Santorum blurted out, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.”

This comment was directed to white Republicans in Iowa, some of whom nodded knowingly, receiving the message that President Barack Obama wanted to take their hard-earned money and give it to shiftless blacks. It’s a message as old as time in America and it apparently helped boost Santorum into a virtual tie with GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.

However, Santorum quickly came to regret his caught-on-video frankness, realizing that many Americans find such blatant appeals to racial prejudice offensive. So, he proceeded to lie about what he actually said, claiming absurdly that he never said “black people” – that he “started to say a word” and then “sort of mumbled it and changed my thought.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/08/fleecing-the-angry-whites/

[noiretextatique]

1. when i criticized cosby's ignorant comments here, i was told to "go to school and get a job"

so this passage from the article really resonates with me.

"This message resonates with many Americans, especially whites, because it panders to their rose-colored personal mythologies that they and their parents climbed the economic ladder solely due to their hard work and grit. It’s always an easy sell for politicians to flatter people by saying “you made it on your own.”

Yet, for the vast majority of Americans, the reality is quite different. Especially after the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal government took the lead in creating the social and economic framework that undergirded the nation’s later success."

[Number23]

5. What??! You saw that on DU??! Psshaw, I say. Pssshaw.

I've been told a million times that there is no liberal racism. SURELY you simply misunderstood what was being said to you.

Happy New Year btw!

[noiretextatique]

13. hell to the yes!

right here on DU. Happy New Year

[Solly Mack]

6. I remember that.

[nxylas]

9. "Rose-tinted personal mythology"

When I read that, I immediately thought of that 53% site.

[Uncle Joe]

2. This is an excellent column by Robert Parry.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[JoePhilly]

3. Could be called ... "GOP puts down the dog whistle, picks up the Bull Horn." nt

[peace frog]

10. More like "GOP amplifies the dog whistle with the bull horn"

[supernova]

4. Thank you

The RW takeover of this country since 1980 is the great unreported story of at least my lifetime.

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R

[RainDog]

8. k&r n/t

[Historic NY]

11. The notion freedom isn't free should resonate....some states wanted it all w/o paying a dime.

"Gen. George Washington despised the notion of “state sovereignty,” which the states had cited during the Revolutionary War and afterwards as an excuse not to contribute promised funds to the Continental Army. “Thirteen sovereignties,” Washington wrote, “pulling against each other, and all tugging at the foederal head, will soon bring ruin to the whole.”

Its still playing out today.

[LarryNM]

12. While the Truth is

He should not want to make wealthy people's lives better by giving them everyone else's money