This is shaping up to be the most racially polarised US election ever

[n2doc]

Gary Younge

As Republicans were promoting themselves as a multiracial party from the platform in Tampa two weeks ago, an ugly incident on the convention floor suggested not everyone had got the memo. From the podium a range of speakers of Haitian, Mexican, Cuban and Indian descent spoke of how their parents had overcome huge barriers so they could succeed in the US. In the audience, a successful black woman who works for CNN was being pelted with peanuts by a convention-goer, who said: "This is how we feed the animals."

The tension between the projection of a modern, inclusive, tolerant party and the reality of a sizeable racially intolerant element within its base pining for the restoration of white privilege is neither new nor accidental. Indeed, it in no small part explains the trajectory of the Republican party for almost the last half century. In his diary, Richard Nixon's chief-of-staff, Bob Haldeman, described how his boss spelled out the racial contours of a new electoral game-plan to win southern and suburban whites over to the Republican party in the wake of the civil rights era. "You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks," Nixon told him. "The key is to devise a system that recognises that while not appearing to."

This could be the final hurrah for what became known as Nixon's southern strategy in what is shaping up to be the most racially polarised election ever. Black support for the Republican party literally cannot get any lower. A recent Wall Street Journal poll had 0% of African-Americans saying they intend to vote for Romney. At 32%, support among Latinos is higher but still remains pathetically low given what Republicans need to win (40%) and what they have had in the past – in 2004 George W Bush won 44%. As a result, the party of Lincoln is increasingly dependent on just one section of the electorate – white people. To win, Romney needs 61% of the white vote from a white turnout of 74%. That's a lot. In 2008, John McCain got 55% from the same turnout. "This is the last time anyone will try to do this," one Republican strategist told the National Journal. And Republican consultant Ana Navarro told the Los Angeles Times: "Where his numbers are right now, we should be pressing the panic button."

There are two main reasons for this panic. The first is that the "system" Nixon referred to is now recognisable by most – particularly with a black president in the White House. As people have become more attuned to the frequency of the dog whistles, the tone has necessarily become more shrill. During the primaries, Rick Santorum told a crowd in New Hampshire: "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." Newt Gingrich branded Obama "the food stamp president". Just a few weeks ago, in a clear nod to the "birthers", who insist Obama was not born in the US, the party's nominee, Mitt Romney, went to Michigan and joked: "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised." This is rhetorical peanut throwing. When everyone can hear it, you've transitioned from a dog whistle to a straight-up whistle.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/09/us-most-racially-polarised-election-white

[pampango]

1. So true: "The tension between the projection of a modern, inclusive, tolerant party and the reality

of a sizeable racially intolerant element within its base pining for the restoration of white privilege is neither new nor accidental. Indeed, it in no small part explains the trajectory of the Republican party for almost the last half century. In his diary, Richard Nixon's chief-of-staff, Bob Haldeman, described how his boss spelled out the racial contours of a new electoral game-plan to win southern and suburban whites over to the Republican party in the wake of the civil rights era. "You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks," Nixon told him. "The key is to devise a system that recognises that while not appearing to."

"The demographics race we're losing badly," said Senator Lindsey Graham, acknowledging the problem. "We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term."

Describing the evolution of the Republicans' racial appeal, the late Lee Atwater, one-time chair of the Republican National Committee and member of the Reagan administration, said in 1981. "You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger'. By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' – that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing [and] states' rights. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites … obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'nigger, nigger'."

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Interestingly, it has been suggested JFK may not have won in 1964.

Because of his Admin. supporting Civil Rights.
Robert Caro's latest bio of LBJ during the Kennedy Admin offers evidence of the serious impact of
Civil rights legislation on the (then planned) 1964 re-election run of JFK.

[sarcasmo]

3. I will stand by my statement. The Republican convention looked like a Klan rally.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. I don't necessarily agree and here's why

The most obvious fact being that an African American actually WAS elected President and the 13% AA population certainly couldn't have pulled that off by them (our) selves. AND most importantly, the victory wasn't due to a 3-way race (with a major 3rd party candidate siphoning off votes from the opposition) or some other plurality of the electorate (i.e., the winner got >50% of the vote).

What's notable is that the racism has been more overt of late... And I say "of late" because we have been there before - whether an AA was on the ballot or not. The ugliness has always been there and always will be. It's just that in modern times, the proliferation of more forms of "media" has served to magnify the issue many many times over the racism spewed in the past, that was once relegated to rallies and leaflets, with occassional news articles and audio and/or film footage, and alot of physical confrontation and travails.

What's different is the crazy talk and psychobabble (not all of it race-related) considered by the media as being "legitmate enough to broadcast or publish", rather than marginalized, like was done in the past. Tabloid and scandal journalism has always been around but it was what it was. But now, almost all news has been reconfigured to be tabloid fodder (much of this actually due to market competition and a quest for maximum financial return from a shrinking pie) and that had essentially destroyed any semblance of media accountability and integrity.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. But WOULD Obama have won had McCain not happened to have a dark-skinned

adopted daughter, and not wanted "to run a f--king campaign that my kids can be proud of", according to the only barely fictionalized script of the movie "Game Change" (see below)?

And, if Romney-Ryan fall farther and farther behind in polls as November nears, aren't experienced advocates of more openly racist attacks on President Obama last time, such as McCain adman Fred Davis, likely available on short notice?

From http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-real-bias-of-game-change/article/1171531 :

"The real bias of 'Game Change'
Byron York. Washington Examiner, March 10, 2012

In the movie, McCain is portrayed at his best when he rejects the suggestion from some aides to tie Obama to the fiery minister best known for his 'Goddamn America!' declaration. 'John, if there ever was a time to run a Rev. Wright ad, this is that time,' McCain adman Fred Davis tells McCain in a scene early in the movie. 'It's the single best weapon we've got.'

'I'm going to run a f--king campaign that my kids can be proud of,; McCain answers angrily. 'And that precludes attacking a black reverend.' So it didn't happen. Later, McCain's resolve is tested as he falls farther and farther behind Obama in the polls. 'We've got to make this about Obama,' campaign manager Rick Davis tells McCain in a meeting. 'We've got to get tough, and we've got to get negative.' 'If we go this way, Rev. Wright is still the best play we have,' adds Davis.

Again, McCain rejects all proposals to bring up Wright. 'Any of you ever been accused of having a Negro child out of wedlock because your adopted daughter was born in Bangladesh?' he asks the advisers. ... As the scene plays out, Davis tries to humor McCain. 'South Carolina, that was an ugly primary, but this isn't the same thing,' Davis says. 'I mean, Rev. Wright really did say those things.' 'That may be true,' McCain answers. 'But there's a dark side to American populism. Some people win elections by tapping into it. I'm not one of those people.'"

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. excellent article. True about "the dog whistle" being more obvious