CT Blue

Just read this, which was a shame as I had been considering writing something to the same effect, but now I feel like a bit of a cheater.

Anyway, I too have been watching the Steve Scalise “controversy” with some amused bemusement, as I really can't see how retaining a racist in a leadership position could possibly have a downside for the Republicans. They have been the party of racism for 50 years now, and, ever since we entered our “post racial” period with the election of a black president, they have been more obvious about their racism than ever before. If there were ever any doubt of that, it should have been dispelled by the Fox coverage of, and Republican reaction to, the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers, not to mention the more politically significant attempts to restrict black voter participation both through the work of a partisan Supreme Court and state legislatures that have enacted voter suppression laws, the entire object of which is to suppress black votes. In the short term, they can only gain by reinforcing their white male base's conviction that the Republican party works for them, instead of the corporate overlords the Republicans really serve. Cue Dylan's Only a Pawn in Their Game, as relevant now as the day it was written.

What is truly laughable are the press reports that say the Scalise incident might interfere with Republican attempts to broaden their appeal to minorities. To which, one must ask: what attempts to broaden their appeal to minorities? No fair counting things that Republicans say that minorities should like. What have they done that actually furthers the interests of minorities in any respect? What have they actually proposed that fits that description? In order to do any such thing, they would have to do something that furthered the interests of the bottom 99% as a whole, and that is something they simply will not do. They can reap those poor white votes and screw those poor white voters only so long as they can convince them that “they've got more than the blacks, don't complain”.

When I was in college I took a sociology class from an excellent professor. Among the things he pointed out was that the groups least likely to be conned by a prevailing ideology are those groups that are on the outs. The Jews were surely the most likely group of Germans to see Hitler for what he was. In this country, minorities, particularly blacks, are far more likely to see through governmental bullshit than whites. They are therefore far less likely to buy into Republican PR aimed at getting their votes than are whites. I mean, how many blacks believe Fox is fair and balanced. Now, how many whites? Far easier to just prevent them from voting.

So, what the Scalise incident demonstrates, above all else, is the fact that racism is gradually becoming more respectable. For a while there, Republicans really felt the need to pretend that they were not racists, while they sent coded racist messages to the electorate. They have found, in recent years, particularly with the election of a black president, that there really is no down side to coming out of the closet. At this point you might say they are where Tim Cook was about six months ago so far as his sexual orientation was concerned. They are not declared racists, but everyone knows they are, and they feel no urgent need to deny it.