A fascinating debate over race and the Democrats has erupted in the left precincts, and blogblood is being spilt all over the place. See this post in Tapped, the blog of the liberal The American Prospect, for the latest installment and links. (Link via InstaPundit, who also indirectly linked to this post by linking to Geitner Simmons‘ reference to it.)
Briefly, Tapped took Dems to task for overreaching when they shout that all Republicans are racists and that opposing anything on the NAACP agenda (see its “Scorecard” here) is by definition racist since the NAACP agenda has become indistinguishable from the Democrats’ agenda.
Hesiod, who wants “to go after the questionable race-baiting practices of the [Republican] party, such as voter intimidation and neo-Confederate apologisism,” [sic] recognizes that “on issues such as affirmative action, there are legitimate philosophical and policy arguments against those policies that don’t have anything to do with appealing to, or winking at, racist elements within the GOP.”
To ultra Dem blogger Atrios, however, “[t]he ideas expressed by Tapped and Hesiod represent the worst kind of paternalistic liberalism,” which is one of the nicer things he said about them.
Be sure to read as many of the 70+ comments on the Atrios post as you can for an interesting composite picture of current committed Dems. Virtually all of them support Atrios, most in fact going ever farther over the top than he/she does (Atrios is anonymous). One who doesn’t is the previously quoted Hesiod, whose comment reveals some of the contortions in this debate:
“Paternalistic” my ass.
I think their tactics will backfire, and I’m not going to apologize for saying it.
I think tiptoeing around the poor political judgment of leaders like Kweisi M’fume as the real paternalism.
The object of this game, despite what you might think, is to win.
I play to win. Not to appear a “principled” loser.
That’s for fools like Ralph Nader, the “principled defender of liberal ideals,” who got us into this mess in the first place.
Hit the GOP where they are weakest, and where you can do the most damage to their constituent coalition.
That means, exposing the neo-confederate sympathizers, voter intimidation and fraud tactics, and racially coded messages.
When the NAACP elevates an issue into one of racial justice, opposition to that issue automatically becomes infused with racial overtones, and the GOP can oppose it, and be perceived as standing up to the “black” agenda.
It reinforces the problem. It doesn’t cure it.
Hmm. Let’s see if I’ve got this. When the NAACP loads its “Scorecard” with issues having nothing to do with civil rights (as usually understood), such as higher minimum wage or more teachers in the classroom or opposition to vouchers, it infuses them with racial overtones, allowing the Republicans to win points (with racists? But he just objected to that characterization) by opposing the black agenda….
Outsiders may have a hard time following this debate, but at least its interesting.
UPDATE [1/1/2003] – See Geitner Simmons‘ characteristically perceptive comments on this tempest in a Tapped pot.
Well, the intra-right battle isn’t over yet; here’s a pro-Lott anti-Blogosphere op-ed from the Chicago Sun-Times.
(As far as the liberals, my money is on Hesiod, even though s/he can’t spell.)
Andrew – Thanks for that reference to the Sun Times article. I found it highly unpersuasive, but quite interesting. O’Sullivan is not the first two suggest (at least by implication) sort of a double standard in historical forgiveness. Everyone agrees Southern Democrats created and sustained segregation, and then slowly abandoned it in the years after Lyndon Johnson. It has now been 20-30 years since Southern Dems were associated with segregation, and no one today spends much time castigating them for it. The Nixonian “Southern Strategy” of appealing to Southern racists, which started in 1968 and carried on arguably through the 1970s, is not quite as old, but still old. Now that Helms and Thurmond are gone there are no Southern Republicans of any stature left who do not adhere to the colorblind principle. But if current history is a guide, as a party they will have a harder time living down the Southern Strategy than the Dems did segregation, and it appears that it will take much longer. In part that’s because the civil rights movement and its supporters have had a good deal of success in branding as racist any opposition to anything that the civil rights movment calls civil rights. But as Hesiod and Tapped say, that has also fueled caused people to be labeled as against civil rights when they aren’t.
The Nixonian “Southern Strategy” of appealing to Southern racists, which started in 1968 and carried on arguably through the 1970s, is not quite as old, but still old.
Some people might claim it continued through the 1980s, 1990s, and perhaps into the 2000s. Can you point to particular events (before the Lott mess) that show the Southern Strategy was abandoned? Certainly Mr. O’Sullivan thinks it continued. On his (risible) view, Lott and Company went to meetings of white supremacist organizations in order to console the crowd about the end of Jim Crow, while really supporting civil rights in their hearts.
Now that Helms and Thurmond are gone there are no Southern Republicans of any stature left who do not adhere to the colorblind principle.
Do I think there are Southern Republican office-holders who wish to re-establish Jim Crow? Indeed, I do not. But, to borrow from another thread, I think “I support the Confederate Flag” is a “code word”, and I think the last two elections show that Republicans are willing to solicit votes from people whose views on race are identical to Helms’s and Lott’s. (I’m also waiting for a credible explanation of why Sen. Jim Sasser was associated with the egregious Mayor Marion Barry–that’s the single worst vote I have ever cast–during a time that Barry was out of office!)
Some people might claim it continued through the 1980s, 1990s, and perhaps into the 2000s. Can you point to particular events (before the Lott mess) that show the Southern Strategy was abandoned?
Indeed, some do. But what they tend to mean by “appealing to Southern racists” is appealing to people who oppose racial preferences, etc. The George Wallace racist agenda died well before Wallace himself did. The Dems continuing to beat this dead horse are the modern equiavalent of the Republicans “waving the bloody shirt” for decades after the Civil War as a way of demonizing the opposition and imposing party loyalty. The entire Southern Partisan crowd would fit in one large living room. It’s my guess that there are fewer card-carrying neo-Confederates among the Republicans than there are anti-semitic followers of Al Sharpton, Cynthia McKinney, et. al. who are still Democrats in good standing.
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