Reagan and Race Redux.

Yesterday I wrote an overly long post about David Brooks' veiled attack on Paul Krugman regarding Reagan's use of race while speaking in Philadelphia MS. I suggested that perhaps Mr. Brooks had made an honest mistake because of his apparent ignorance of Reagan's history of using race.

Mr. Krugman responded elegantly and indirectly to Mr. Brooks, suggesting that it might have been an 'innocent mistake" of Mr. Reagan's - albeit, a 'mistake' which he made "again, again and again."

In fact Mr Krugman and I are the mistaken ones - because Brooks quite intentionally was trying to rewrite history, and Reagan clearly and actively chose to use race in order to advance his political career.  It's the Republican way.

h/t memeorandum

Comments

[Rick]

Invoking racism when cornered and devoid of ideas; it's the Democratic way.

[Tod]

Why can't a Republican be wrong without a Democrat being right. Reagan doesn't have to be acting like a Republican, he was acting like someone who wanted to win the presidency, knew his audience and pandered to them.

[Rick]

You miss the point Tod. Real racism is profoundly evil. When we begin to nuance the definition we provide cover for real racists. When sitting on a bunk with women’s panties over your head is defined as torture you are giving cover to the real torturers of the planet. Can you not grasp how important this is? Every time you jump through hoops and bend and stretch and purposely misinterpret to define people like Reagan and Lott as racist, you are providing cover for real racism in places like Sudan where dark skinned folks are slaughtered and sold into slavery because they are inferior. The word racist in America has been devalued to the point where it is little more than a playground insult. It is a political word here that is tossed about by fools like Sharpton and Jackson because it fuels their financial base. It is then repeated ad nausea by the American left because it makes them ‘feel’ good. If you are black and believe that you are superior to whites, then you are a racist. If you are white and believe you are superior to blacks, then you are a racist. All the other name calling is utter foolishness and participants do far more damage than they can ever imagine. But if it makes you ‘feel’ better, by all means, have at it. But, you’re never going to hear ‘your mother wears combat boots’ from me. Most of us grew up and moved on.

[bbbustard]

Thanks for the comments guys - Rick generally hates to respond directly to my questions, so I'm particularly grateful that he agrees that he is opposed to nuance.
Subtle racism is still racism. But the irony is that there was nothing subtle about racism in Philadelphia,MS. Last month in New York's upper west side, there was a memorial service for Carolyn Goodman, mother of Andrew.
But no one is calling anyone a racist here - what I've been writing about is historical fact -- that the Republican party had a "Southern Strategy" which used race to garner votes.