Krugman blasts racist GOP as party to make America safe for the wealthy

[BurtWorm]

through appealing to white voters by "exploiting racial fear and animosity." The new crop, he argues, are no less slaves to their party's hypocritical electoral strategy than the previous generation.

It's a must read:

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

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.

Ronald Reagan didn’t become governor of California by preaching the wonders of free enterprise; he did it by attacking the state’s fair housing law, denouncing welfare cheats and associating liberals with urban riots. Reagan didn’t begin his 1980 campaign with a speech on supply-side economics, he began it — at the urging of a young Trent Lott — with a speech supporting states’ rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.

And if you look at the political successes of the G.O.P. since it was taken over by movement conservatives, they had very little to do with public opposition to taxes, moral values, perceived strength on national security, or any of the other explanations usually offered. To an almost embarrassing extent, they all come down to just five words: southern whites starting voting Republican.

In fact, I suspect that the underlying importance of race to the Republican base is the reason Rudy Giuliani remains the front-runner for the G.O.P. nomination, despite his serial adultery and his past record as a social liberal. Never mind moral values: what really matters to the base is that Mr. Giuliani comes across as an authoritarian, willing in particular to crack down on you-know-who.

[EVDebs]

1. Irony: TR was an R who adopted EVDeb's campaign platform for change

Maybe GOP should read more about the Ludlow Massacre and watch Matewan, John Sayle's great flick, this Labor Day !

[AX10]

2. Exactly why Rudy Giuliani is still the GOP front runner.

[tabasco]

3. Thank you for posting Krugman!

He is brilliant!

[madhoosier]

4. They'll all have to step to the back of the racist bus

They'll all have to step to the back of the racist bus when Fred Thompson gets aboard the republican Presidential campaign.

Back around 1988 on the TV series Wiseguy Fred portrayed Knox Pooley, a charcter fashioned after the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan. Fred's multi-episode portrayal was the story line that followed Kevin Spacey's roll as Mel Profit.

From wikipedia;

While Pooley's organization, the "Pilgrims of Promise," is both racist and anti-semitic, the character himself is portrayed as hypocritical and amoral. Vinnie quickly brought down the organization, but the slippery Pooley escaped prosecution and was last seen in Florida, selling condominium timeshares to Jewish retirees. The story suggested Pooley was nothing but a chiseler, Hollis the dangerous one.

[rurallib]

5. Thank you so much for that site.

Now I can read Krugman and not have to wait for someone to post it.
I have always said that the GOP (and the old southern Dems) whole strategy was based on racism and sexism. Krugman really lays it out.

[KAT119]

6. Burtworm, many, many thanks for posting this site for reading (free)

the great Paul Krugman's column. As a Princeton Professor, he teaches about finances so clearly.

His recent reversal article on the "It's A Wonderful Life"( w/ Jimmy Stewart) titled "It's A Miserable Life" re our present financial meltdown was so excellent.

Krugman 'called' this current $ meltdown back in March '07 titled: "The Big Meltdown" saying if this and this happens--this will result--which IS exactly our current financial conundrum which will last all the rest of this year and well into '08....

I don't have free blog sites for these articles (his past NYT columns), but Google does. (Sorry)....

PK is a true genius!!

[BurtWorm]

7. De nada.

:hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. This should go to the greatest.

I wish there was some way to send the soundbite that Republicans are pro-Anglo-American as well as pro-rich. It's both. You see, that's why the blue collar anglo-American continues to vote against his financial interest. Even if he isn't rich, and never will be under a Republican value system unless he too learns to game the system, the racist tones of the Republican platform appeal to him. If only White Republicans can see that this is what their party is all about, it would certainly make things that much easier for us at the family get togethers come Thanksgiving, because there would be no doubt that you can't be Republican *and* a Christian at the same time. It's philosophically impossible to do.

[Karenina]

9. "Are you sure you want to recommend this thread?"

Hey, Java, I'm kicking it too.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Americans KNOW that - they LIKE that. That's why they're willing to put up with....

... the pro-rich part. Just so long as them negroes don't get NUTHIN - they'll put up with anything for that.

[Vox_Reason]

11. Too bad I'm late to the party...

...and can't recommend this one. It shines a very bright light on the GOP, that's for sure.

There's a very clear racist undercurrent to much of the GOP message starting with Reagan. They saw the writing on the wall, looking at demographics curves, and realized that soon they'd be in a tougher and tougher spot.

"How are we going to get poor whites whose backs we trod upon to become such fatcats to vote against their own interests and keep us and our buddies rolling in dough?"

"RACE BAITING! Of course! Some jingoism, some nativism, some racism, and all those couch slugs will get off the couch, dust off the cheetos and drop a ballot for us as a way of sticking it to their black boss and their latino co-workers without starting a fistfight on the job site."

(Burns voice)"Exxxxxxxxcellent!!"