Friday, June 13, 2008

Race No Longer a Political Tool?

Paul Krugman has written a great column, "It's a Different Country," about the use of race as a tool of political division. He makes the case that without it, much of the right-wing agenda makes no sense.

Example: fear of "Big Government" which of course was a Reagan staple & has been used to divide and conquer ever since. The reality: Americans support the biggest domestic programs: Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Reagan used to imply that the problem with big government was money wasted on "them" - welfare queens, etc. But Clinton's reform of the welfare system blunts that argument significantly.

Krugman's basic argument is that if Obama wins in November, it won't "transform America" so much as it will show that American has already been transformed.

Given the recent racism I've seen from Fox media surrounding the Obama campaign I'm not so sure... but we'll see!

No comments: