Krugman-Seeking Willie Horton-The GOP Agenda Is All About The Color Of Your Skin

[kpete]

Krugman
Paul Krugman is alone behind the firewall today. He says that the Republicans have a problem because demographic changes have made their race-based electoral strategy less effective. His column is titled “Seeking Willie Horton.”

Seeking Willie Horton

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The people who run the G.O.P. are concerned, above all, with making America safe for the rich. Their ultimate goal, as Grover Norquist once put it, is to get America back to the way it was “up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over,” getting rid of “the income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that.”

But right-wing economic ideology has never been a vote-winner. Instead, the party’s electoral strategy has depended largely on exploiting racial fear and animosity.

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So now we have the spectacle of Republicans competing over who can be most convincingly anti-Hispanic. I know, officially they’re not hostile to Hispanics in general, only to illegal immigrants, but that’s a distinction neither the G.O.P. base nor Hispanic voters takes seriously.

Today’s G.O.P., in short, is trapped by its history of cynicism. For decades it has exploited racial animosity to win over white voters — and now, when Republican politicians need to reach out to an increasingly diverse country, the base won’t let them.

more at:
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/krugman-3/