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OK, which strategic genius in the Republican Party thought it'd be a good idea to have Haley Barbour out in front talking about politics and race?
[Former] Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, one of his party's elder statesmen and leading strategists, today accused Democrats of playing the "race card" in accusing Republicans of making race a subtext of the campaign.
Democrats have argued heatedly that Mitt Romney's unexpected new focus on welfare policy, his reference to President Barack Obama's birth certificate, and his embrace of Donald Trump -- who campaigned on the latter subject -- represent thinly-coded appeals to working-class white resentment of a black president.
"Name a campaign in the last 25 years where the Dems didn't play the race card," Barbour told BuzzFeed. "Surprise!"
I suppose this was inevitable. As Romney, feeling as if he has no choice, begins to incorporate racially-charged attacks into his campaign plan, it was only a matter of time before his allies started this style of pushback.
Indeed, the rules of the discourse are simple: Republicans are allowed to exploit racism for political gain, Democrats are not allowed to notice. If Dems do notice Republicans playing the race card, Republicans will respond by accusing Democrats of playing the race card.
But for a moment let's put all of that aside, It's one thing to try to defend Romney's racially-charged attacks, but the party's "race-card" messenger is Haley Barbour?
This is, after all, the former Mississippi governor who kept a Confederate flag autographed by Jefferson Davis in his office. In 2010, Barbour told the Weekly Standard he doesn't recall the segregated Mississippi in the midst of the civil rights revolution as being "that bad," and he praised the white supremacist Citizens Council in his hometown of Yazoo City for keeping the community calm during the civil rights era. (Citizens Councils were known for touting "racial integrity" and fighting for segregation through economic coercion.)
This is the arbiter on the propriety of racial politics? Seriously?
Update: Long-time Maddow Blog readers may recall our previous coverage, including this fact-checking item that underscores Barbour's poor memory when it comes to race relations.
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Yes. He's the perfect arbiter on the propriety of racial politics and you're totally a racist for suggesting otherwise.
(And yes, there is still an urgent unmet need for a sarcasm font.)
he's as much of a "perfect arbiter" as Sherrif J.W. Pepper is. (stereotypical southern sherrif in James Bond movies). :)
Yeah, about the same as Trump accusing dems of playing the class card.
Orwellian surrealism. This has all got to be coordinated with some pharmaceutical company's readiness to bring happy pills on to the market the day of Romney's inauguration.
Orwellian surrealism. You nailed it.
no, definitely kafka.
If you were playing the race card and you wanted white people, even clueless, stupid white people, to know you are playing the race card, who would you pick to deny you are playing the race card?
If Haley Barbour didn't already exist the Romney campaign would have to invent him.
Actually, no. There's a specific protocol for this situation developed over decades for how a politician engaging in dog whistle race-baiting(or even loud, shrill, very audible to humans whistle race-baiting that our degenerate useless press writes about as if it was a dog whistle lest someone accuse them of bias) responds when their caught. First you have your spokesman deny it. Then you have the spokesman put on his more in sorrow than anger denunciation. Then you bring out the black guy to give his official seal of blackitude coolness to the whole campaign.
This is why they put up with psychos and opportunistic buffoons like Allen West, Allen Keyes, Herman Cain, and Artur Davis. Those guys are tolerated and nurtured--though never allowed to rise above the House of Representatives level--specifically to act as front men when the GOP wants to do some race-baiting.
The fact that they're trotting out Boss Hogg rather than someone from their token black stable to defend their party against these scurrilous, baseless charges, which is what the playbook says to do at this stage, is fascinating. I suspect they're haggling over price.
The economy's doing badly, President Obama hasn't found a way to get Congress to cooperate, and Romney is still polling behind the president. Gosh, how will he win?
Voter suppression, bald faced lies, and churning the republican fund-raising machine, which means bringing up stuff that the general population could care less about. Racist nonsense, the birther thing, abortion, punishing women for ... being women, and we should expect lots of fear-mongering about the evil gays. That alone should be reason to reject President Obama.... Gays are so scary!
yeah, no better arbiter to talk about race than Govenor Foghorn Leghorn who tried to whitewash - literally - THE WHITE CITIZENS COUNCIL.
Since '64, the only prominent GOP politician, who could talk about race relations with ANY INTEGRITY, was Jack Kemp. Unfortunately, he's dead.
Actually, I recall a popular Michigan governor and presidential candidate who walked out of the '64 Republican convention during Goldwater's acceptance speech because they weakened their support for civil rights and took a hard turn. He had some cred on the topic. Same guy who set the precedent of presidential candidates releasing multiple years of tax returns.
Good point!
Haley Barbour being the proprietor for "racial politics" is like saying Don Vito Corleone is the proprietor for "private enterprise" - but you have to appreciate the irony, hubris, sarcasm, and nerve of it all.
Well, Stom Thurmond is dead, and Trent Lott wasn't available.
This is as good as it gets.
So? Being dead didn't stop Strom Thurmond from serving out the last four years of his final Senate term. They just carted the body from committee room to committee room and out onto the floor and he cast his vote just like his colleagues who weren't corporeally challenged. No reason they couldn't have used him on this as well.
This is part of a years-long campaign by conservatives to redefine "playing the race card" from its actual meaning of invoking race to stir up racist support and instead pretend that it means any mention of race whatsoever. As long as journalists uncritically report their declarations and never mention that it isn't what "playing the race card" means, they will succeed.
To these guys, Orwell is an instruction manual.
Most people are still not paying attention. So, like the mule and the 2x4. . .
Indeed, the rules of the discourse are simple: Republicans are allowed to exploit racism for political gain, Democrats are not allowed to notice. If Dems do notice Republicans playing the race card, Republicans will respond by accusing Democrats of playing the race card.
Republicans want us to point out the racist subtext in their birtherism/welfare lies. They expect Dems to attack on this issue, knowing that many cling to the Republican Party when they're attacked for being racist simply because they don't like their tax dollars being used to benefit black people (aka: "welfare queens").
It might behoove Democratic leaders and pundits to avoid getting into the debate over whether such lies are racist (of course, they are), and instead, remain focused on the fact that they are lies.
Wow, just last night I was watching "If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise," Spike Lee's sequel to his Katrina documentary. There was Haley Barbour, in shirtsleeves, talking about federal help and going on about how the good people of Mississippi took the disaster and just got up, dusted off, and went about their business, rebuilding their lives.
Yesiree, the folks of Mississippi weren't *whiners* and *victims*....like some *other* people......
If you are honestly going to apply the "southern strategy" to this election, who would be better to push it than one of the originators of the policy?
Have to chuckle about this Hurricane Isaac, since I don’t think God is really giving any personal message about it. Except that it is an act of nature and observable effects of Global Warming that can be categorized and analyzed for the effects of Global Warming in comparison to other similarly sized hurricanes as temperatures change. Of course, in considering the effects of this hurricane, it would be more considering ourselves lucky that it isn’t one that can be much more devastating that can very much happen, especially with rising climate temperatures.
And if there was a message from God about anything, it would probably be on how and what we are doing to our very own planet and we should take care of it better.
I wonder how much oil this will churn up from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Imaigne those rich Republicans walking onto the beach in Tampa wearing dirty oily brown bikinis.
What, Boss Hogg was busy?
Barbour is to racial politics as Santorum is to women voters--a subtle joke being perpertrated on the voters. But nobody is laughing.
I'm starting to be of the opinion that all of this catering to the racist white vote is now mostly to create a problem after the election. If President Obama wins in November, I think that we are in for a very unpleasant time thanks to the radical right ginning up such nonsense as the birther crap and the welfare lies. In that independents and Democrats have noticed this tactic and have called them on it, they are desperate to claim that this is not what is happening at all. For them, they simply must claim that someone else is using the "race card", and they are simply innocent victims. Alas, that they cannot seem to grasp the concept of recording media.
Having Barbour address the issue of politics and race, harkens back to pre-civil war when Land Owner legislators and Plantation lobbyists were offering up the argument that slavery was good and benevolent toward black people.
You don't have to yell "Ni**er!" when you have a guy you know grew up with that word and still uses it (privately, the one thing these guys have learned about race relations in the past 50 years) talking about race. His mere presence is "playing the race card".
Apparently, Santorum is a slow learner:
Another Santorum Slip
You can see the "nig-CLANG" moment, at about 12 seconds into this 18 second video clip, when Santorum remembers that he's speaking before cameras, not just a "friendly" (wink wink nudge nudge) audience... disgusting.
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
My wife is certified white by the Maxwell Museum in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico, but I had to sadly inform her that only one the two of us watching your show tonight is really white (I'm non-hispanic white.) Romney doesn't need her vote and she's OK with that. He won't have mine either. We love you Rachel. However, our toy poodle and our Westy are white. They aren't big Romney fans either!
We are Americans first. I think it is ridiculous and racist that blacks would unanimously vote for Obama just because he is black. You want to talk racist....there you go. What if 100% of whites voted for Romney? That will never happen because most see themselves as Americans first not "White Americans" or "European Americans." Just an observation from a highly educated and observant American.