To the Editor:
Re “Bigger Than Bush” (column, Jan. 2):
I applaud Paul Krugman for telling obvious if unsettling truths about the racist strategy behind the G.O.P.’s rise to power—not to mention the racist impacts of its policies.
When Ronald Reagan railed against welfare queens, the understood enemy wasn’t suburban white women. When Senator John McCain sneered about transferring the wealth, he played to a well-ingrained (and utterly erroneous) perception that the main beneficiaries of government largess are able-bodied, lazy minorities.
The savage irony will come next year when G.O.P. leaders complain that we can’t afford to address the most basic needs of America’s poor—for health care, education, food, heat and shelter. They’ll count on no one mentioning the trillions they had us collectively borrow to finance tax cuts for rich white people. And unlike Mr. Krugman, the major networks and most newspapers won’t even hold G.O.P. leaders accountable for their hypocrisy. It’s not decades of Republican racism that appall me. It’s a mainstream media so cowed they let them get away with it.
David A. Scott
Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 2, 2009
Note from KBJ: Oh my god! David A. Scott has cracked the code!
Note 2 from KBJ: Paul Krugman refers to "the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric." Can't a person be anti-government without being racist? Two can play this stupid game. Henceforth, let's refer to "the totalitarian subtext of pro-government rhetoric."
