Posted on 11/19/2007 8:22:06 PM PST by neverdem
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of commentaries about Ronald Reagan’s legacy, specifically about whether he exploited the white backlash against the civil rights movement.
The controversy unfortunately obscures the larger point, which should be undeniable: the central role of this backlash in the rise of the modern conservative movement.
The centrality of race — and, in particular, of the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support of Democrats to overwhelming support of Republicans — is obvious from voting data.
For example, everyone knows that white men have turned away from the Democrats over God, guns, national security and so on. But what everyone knows isn’t true once you exclude the South from the picture. As the political scientist Larry Bartels points out, in the 1952 presidential election 40 percent of non-Southern white men voted Democratic; in 2004, that figure was virtually unchanged, at 39 percent.
More than 40 years have passed since the Voting Rights Act, which Reagan described in 1980 as “humiliating to the South.” Yet Southern white voting behavior remains distinctive. Democrats decisively won the popular vote in last year’s House elections, but Southern whites voted Republican by almost two to one.
The G.O.P.’s own leaders admit that the great Southern white shift was the result of a deliberate political strategy. “Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization.” So declared Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaking in 2005.
And Ronald Reagan was among the “some” who tried to benefit...
--snip--
Thus, Reagan repeatedly told the bogus story of the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — a gross exaggeration of a minor case of welfare fraud. He never mentioned the woman’s race, but he didn’t have to...
Gods, guns, and gratuitous sex?
Kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
Krugman is kraptastic.
Can’t go wrong with those three. ;-D
“More than 40 years have passed since the Voting Rights Act, which Reagan described in 1980 as “humiliating to the South.” “
I’m wondering if Reagan really said that. Anyone know?
Besides there nothing wrong with being cooncerned about crime where people have reaped the pro-criminal court rulings of the 60's and 70's sowed.
This goofball obviously never visited the Detroit area, or he'd never have called that story "bogus."
"Typical," maybe, but not "bogus."
The Republican philosophy on racial minorities is to assimilate them into mainstream society. The Democrat philosophy is to keep them barefoot, pregnant and registered to vote.
Krugman.
What an *sshole.
I’m so sick of white racist, sexist, homophobic hatemongers stereotyping everyone....
Dear Mr. Krugman,
did you know that every human is born genetically black? Some of us happen to carry recessive mutations for creating less melanin in the dermis, hence light colored skin.
What you really need to address is cultural attitudes, you know, like stealing is OK and rape is an every day fact of life. That’s where all the real differences lie.
“The Republican philosophy on racial minorities is to assimilate them into mainstream society. The Democrat philosophy is to keep them barefoot, pregnant and registered to vote”
We have a WINNER!!
welfare cadillacs were so regular that fuzzed up ones were on Clint Eastwood movies in the day................
Klugman is a Clymer
He didn't have to? Why? So a Keynesian Socialist like Krugman could just fill in the blanks to suit his own agenda 20 years later?
Unlike left wing Dims, right wing conservatives and libertarians are color blind. Nobody gives a crap if a person is orange, green or purple with pink poke a dots.
And Hitlery accuses Republicans of throwing mud.......
Krugman does not understand southern white people. I can assure him it is the whitey welfare queens that get people riled up also. It is not race it is welfare abuse. I see it everday. I think those is the South notice it more can we KNOW our neightbors more than those in the cities. He is a NY liberal and has NO ideas what the country between the two oceans think. And I also got news for him. The Democratic party changed on God, Guns and Gays. And it is not just white men who know this.
No, Krugman is so astute that the NY Times should make his stuff available only on a pay site.
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