My Tuesday column underscores why Romney's use of the Southern Strategy is important, and why it should disqualify him as a serious presidential candidate.
Yesterday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Chris Matthews was utterly relentless against Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus regarding Mitt Romney's unapologetic and obvious use of the Southern Strategy. Although Matthews didn't use the specific name of the strategy he called the recent and repeated use of racial dog-whistles what they are: the race card.
For several weeks now, Romney's campaign has been pushing a complete and total lie about the president's record on welfare reform. In the absence of any legitimate criticism of the president's actions (actions that were repeatedly requested by Republican governors including Mitt Romney, and in no way interferes with welfare-to-work requirements), the only remaining explanation for the ongoing perpetuation of this proven lie is to inject the "welfare" dog-whistle into the minds of white, conservative Southerners who are prone to hold the racist notion that unemployed free-loading black people who don't pay taxes are lined up for their Obama Checks, while hard-working white tax payers are footing the bill. Romney achieves the same goal when he mentions the president's "birth certificate." He reinforces the lie that the president is foreign -- his African name and allegedly murky background prove that he's not a real American. Like them.
In the video, however, Priebus (of course), Mika, Joe and NBC Anchor Emeritus Tom Brokaw disputed the fact that Romney's remarks and ads were racial. Meanwhile, Mika winced and seemed nervously concerned about the exchange as if she's not really the co-host of -- shocker! -- a political show in which people debate politics and often become passionate about an issue or observation. A column for another day.
Nevertheless, this "who... us?" reply from the Republicans whenever they're called on their racial politics is only slightly worse than members of the press who believe they're too serious to entertain the idea that one of the two major political parties in America is exploiting the racist hatred, fear and resentment of certain conservative voters. Continue reading here.