The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias gets it completely wrong in his critique of Paul Krugman's op-ed in today's New York Times.
Yglesias says that the columnist is "pretty wrong" when he wrote:
"And if you look at the political successes of the G.O.P. since it was taken over by movement conservatives, they had very little to do with public opposition to taxes, moral values, perceived strength on national security, or any of the other explanations usually offered. To an almost embarrassing extent, they all come down to just five words: southern whites starting voting Republican.
And Krugman goes on to argue, successfully, that they starting voting Republican because of race.
Instead, Yglesias argues that Conservatives and Republicans have gotten the votes of
white southerners precisely because white southerners like conservative positions on taxes, moral values, and national security.
Yglesias's commenters do a great job of pointing out how wrong he is on both taxes (think of George Wallace's Populism) and national security (remember Richard Perle's former boss, Sen "Scoop" Jackson.") Amazingly, he writes that racism was an important, overwhelming factor when southerners voted for Democrats, while it was insignificant when they voted for a Republican. Sorry, Matt, race is either a big issue or not. But I was even more surprised that he relied so heavily on "moral values" issue.
Yglesias simply swallowed the Republican claim to superior moral values lock, stock and barrel, as well as the myth that they are somehow more important in the South. Never mind the facts. A child born to an unwed teenager is far more likely to come from Mississippi than from Massachusetts. Divorce is far more common south of the Mason Dixon line than to its north. etc etc
Rudi Giuliani, the leader of the Republican pack, is a man devoid of values. Some may call it a messy personal life - but when your wife has to go to court to bar you from bringing your newest mistress into the family home, it's beyond messy. He does however have a long record of racial divisiveness. If Yglesias has forgotten, he should google names like Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismund, Amadou Diallo.
The only way one can agree with Yglesias is if you too agree that racism and segregation constitute a moral value. For this is the "value" that attracted white southerners to the Republican party.
(h/t memeorandum)
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