Failure of Southern Strategy
Krugman is very good today.
I’ve never liked the term “Southern Strategy” since it suggests something about the North, East, and West that isn’t true — namely that race doesn’t figure prominently in people’s voting habits.
It seems to me that the core modus operandi of virtually all the Republicans I’ve ever known is either an overt or politely euphemized resentment that their money would go to what Krugman calls “Those People.”
When defending their votes most of these people mindlessly parrot a vague and contradictory caricature of free market principles that they’ve learned to utter so that they can continue to have the respect of polite society. But it seems to me that this manner of talk just serves to conceal a base selfishness and a profound anxiety over race and class.
And, of course, it was precisely this race- and class-based fear and resentment that Lee Atwater exploited in his “Southern Strategy” which swept Reagan into office. Krugman, however, argues that it’s no longer 1981 and it never will be again. We’re a different country now. The Southern Strategy was a “grand ride” but it ends in a “cul-de-sac.”
And those Americans who find themselves entertained by Barack The Magic Negro CDs are rapidly accelerating down a the dead-end alleyway of history.
