Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newt Gingrich. Show all posts

16 May 2011

That's no dog whistle

When New Gingrich calls Barack Obama "the food-stamp president," should that be interpreted as a racist dog-whistle, as some cable-news anchors are suggesting?  No amount of GOP standard-issue proselytizing about the benefits of tinkle-down economics can hide the fact that applying the term "food stamp" to a non-white politician is just plain racist.  Yes, white people do use food stamps, but when politicians invoke that term -- or any other phrase that implies poverty -- they're almost always hoping that potential voters first think of African Americans.  It's racist code, and that makes it red meat for racist neo-Confederates who invariably support demagogues like Gingrich.

Of course it's not a dog whistle, you cable-news morons.  Its a f*cking bullhorn, mounted atop a f*cking SUV that's clogging up a busy freeway at rush hour, blaring its f*cking racially-coded message to commuters who'd rather be listening to music.