Republican Party

Republicans In Full Racial Wedge Mode

Via Digby, Howard Fineman writes:

If we had any sense, the fall elections would be about just one thing: the economy. But we do not have any sense. We are facing what Wall Street would call the “triple witching hour.” Republicans have their finger on three social-demographic hot buttons. The first is illegal immigration (in proposing a review of the 14th Amendment), and the second is Islam in America (in objecting to the mosque at ground zero). They won’t be able to avoid pushing the third, race, even if they wanted to, given that the two leading congressional Democrats facing ethics charges are African-American.

I understand the distinction in each of these three areas, but I agree with Digby's assessment of Fineman's one error here. All three wedge issues are about race. The first two are about brown people of different ethnicities, and, of course, the third is about black people.

But this is the modern Republican Party. All about race. It's the party of Palin, Bachmann, Steve King, Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich -- a party where substance is irrelevant and fire-eating wedge politics are everything.