Should-Read: I think this is wrong. I very much hope this...

Should-Read: I think this is wrong. I very much hope this is wrong. Especially for the Republican Party's sake, I very much hope that this is very wrong:

Sean McElwee: Pandering to Racists Won���t Get Democrats Anywhere: "In the early years of realignment after Barry Goldwater���s overwhelming loss, some prominent Republicans argued that the Republican Party should court black voters...

...and many actually put the model into practice, with varying results.... Eventually Republicans decided to follow the path that one party official outlined in 1963, which was detailed in a book by Robert Novak. ������Remember,��� one astute party worker said quietly over the breakfast table at Denver one morning, ���this isn���t South Africa. The white man outnumbers the Negro 9 to 1 in this country.������ Over the past 30 years, the parties have diverged, driven by elite strategies: with Democrats tying racial liberalism to economic liberalism and conservatives using racist appeals to undermine support for the welfare state.

This process has taken time, because most Americans don���t pay close attention to politics, and because political attitudes are set early in life and remain sticky. The Republican Party is full of people who subscribe to racist views, while Democrats are increasingly liberal on issues of race. The result of this realignment is that Republicans are less concerned about alienating their base with racial ads.

Summarizing their recent research showing that explicitly racist appeals are no longer enough to change respondents��� views on policies, political scientists Nicholas Valentino, Fabian Neuner, and Matthew Vandenbroek conclude that ���Many of our subjects simply did not reject political arguments that explicitly derogate Black Americans.��� It���s clear that Republican politicians have internalized this lesson. In New Jersey, Kim Guadagno is running Willie Horton���style ads in a race she���s almost certain to lose. In Virginia, white male House of Delegate candidates are sending out racist mailers attacking Latina candidates over non-existent sanctuary cities. And elected Republicans like Steve King openly flirt with white-supremacist rhetoric. It���s hard to claim, as some political scientists once did, that candidates would face electoral penalties for explicit racism. And it���s about to get much worse...