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Heads, You're a Racist. Tails, You're a Racist!
Ross Douthat —
... , I'm been somewhat baffled by the McCain campaign's decision to spend its final weeks accusing Barack Obama of being a "spread the wealth" liberal, given that this is more or less how Obama has been campaigning all year long: Taxing the rich to pay for health care and and middle-class tax cuts isn't his domestic agenda's dirty little secret; it is his domestic agenda! But now, thanks to John Judis, the McCain strategy becomes crystal clear: ...
All From the Same Script
Talking Points Memo —
From John Judis ...
I mention the Bradley effect because I think, too, that McCain and Sarah Palin's attack against Obama for advocating "spreading the wealth" and for "socialism" and for pronouncing the civil rights revolution a "tragedy" because it didn't deal with the distribution of wealth is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe "spreading the wealth" as giving their money to blacks. It's the latest version of Reagan's "welfare queen" argument from 1980. It if it works, it won't be because most white Americans ...
The Party of Race
Matthew Yglesias —
John Judis writes:
I mention the Bradley effect because I think, too, that McCain and Sarah Palin’s attack against Obama for advocating “spreading the wealth” and for “socialism” and for pronouncing the civil rights revolution a “tragedy” because it didn’t deal with the distribution of wealth is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe “spreading the wealth” as giving their money to blacks. It’s the latest version of Reagan’s “welfare ...
The catalyst
Political Animal —
... , persuasively, that McCain is exploiting this guy because "Joe The Plumber" is "a white guy who's about to have his pocket picked by a black guy. It doesn't have to be true." John Judis raises a similar argument today. ...McCain and Sarah Palin's attack against Obama for advocating "spreading the wealth" and for "socialism" and for pronouncing the civil rights revolution a "tragedy" because it didn't deal with the distribution of wealth is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe "spreading the wealth" as giving their money to blacks. It's ...
Spreading the aspersions
The American Scene —
... on John Judis’s contention that McCain intends the “spread the wealth” and “socialism” tropes to roil up the old racist associations with welfare. Judis says he things the phrase “is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe ‘spreading the wealth’ as giving their money to blacks.” Noam Scheiber ...
A timeline of epiphany
Nitpicker —
October 16th, the McCain campaign begins talking about Obama's tax plan as "socialism." October 22nd, John McCain releases an ad calling Obama's tax cut plan welfare and "government handouts", meanwhile suggesting his own such plan is reform. The socialism charge is really about race, says John Judis on October 29 at 10:01 AM: It's the latest version of Reagan's "welfare queen" argument from 1980. It if it works, it won't be because most white Americans actually oppose a ...
"See No Evil" Conservatives
The Anonymous Liberal —
... and perceptive conservative thinkers when the discussion turns to the use of racially-charged rhetoric in political campaigns. In the Lee Atwater era, for instance, legions of non-racist conservatives managed to convince themselves that there was no racial subtext whatsoever to anything Republicans were saying or doing, even though Atwater and others later admitted that this was exactly what they were doing. The same "see no evil" phenomenon is alive and well today. In a post over at TNR, John Judis echoes a point I've been making here: I think, too, that ...
Of course it's about race
Political Animal —
... from yesterday, John Judis made the case that the McCain campaign's argument about "spreading the wealth," "socialism," and "redistribution" is ultimately about race. The argument, Judis said, "is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe "spreading the wealth" as giving their money to blacks. It's the latest version of Reagan's 'welfare queen' argument from 1980. It if it works, it won't be because most white Americans actually oppose a progressive income tax, but because they fear that Obama will inordinately favor blacks over them." I ...
Brainster's Blog — Lib Bloggers Prepping the Race Card John Judis: I mention the Bradley effect because I think, too, that McCain and Sarah Palin's attack against Obama for advocating "spreading the wealth" and for "socialism" and for pronouncing the civil rights revolution a "tragedy" because it didn't deal with the distribution of wealth is aimed ultimately at white working class undecided voters who would construe "spreading the wealth" as giving their money to blacks. It's the latest version of Reagan's "welfare queen" argument from 1980. It if it works, ...
"Socialist" a Code Word for Black:
The Volokh Conspiracy —
... that McCain-Palin's invocation of "socialist" to describe Obama's economic policies was a code word for black. Well, here are the less obscure John Judis of The New Republic and ...
Race and Redistribution
Matthew Yglesias —
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes:
Anyway, there’s been a pretty lively debate raging between Yglesias, Douthat, Judis and Feeny. It’ll probably come as no surprise that I mostly agree with Douthat, if with a significant twist. It’s not that I put it past McCain’s people to race-bait, it’s that I really don’t care.
I think I should revise and extend my remarks on this score. “Race-baiting,” however defined, is not really the issue. Indeed, I tend to ...
