Knowing several hard-line conservatives, one of whom once said to me, "How could you vote for a guy named Barack Hussein Obama?", I'm more than convinced that President Carter was correct in his assessment.
I tend to believe that the nincompoopery we're hearing from wingnuts about czars and Nazis (who suddenly embrace biracial culture) is merely cosmetic, masking what we generally know to be true about race.
From a more strategic point of view, the far-right is absolutely employing the Southern Strategy which, in the modern Lee Atwater context, is about subtleties and code language rather than coming right out and saying the nasty words (see also my book and the chapter titled 'The Great Fear of 2008').
I mean, there's nothing to figure out here. The Sunday show people seemed to entirely forget one of the major tactics of the modern Republican Party. The Southern Strategy is no secret. Those who invented it and those who continue to use it have been quite explicit about its efficacy, and there's no indication they plan to quit.
But if that wasn't enough, there's new research from Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler who discovered:
As evidence of the link between health care and racial attitudes, we analyzed survey data gathered in late 2008. The survey asked people whether they favored a government run health insurance plan, a system like we have now, or something in between. It also asked four questions about how people feel about blacks.
Taken together the four items form a measure of what scholars call racial resentment. We find an extraordinarily strong correlation between racial resentment of blacks and opposition to health care reform.
Among whites with above average racial resentment, only 19 percent favored fundamental health care reforms and 57 percent favored the present system. Among those who have below average racial resentment, more than twice as many (45 percent) favored government run health care and less than half as many (25 percent) favored the status quo.
No surprises, but scientific data is always helpful.
One thing you can say about Limbaugh lately is that he's at least being a little more honest than most. What with the segregation talk and all.