The End of Code Words?

There was a time when racist and sexist code words always seemed to work come Election Day. Well, they're not working now.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Sen. George Allen called an Indian-American "Macaca," and it was seen all over the country on YouTube. That was the turning point that sunk his re-election campaign in the "Red" state of Virginia.

Republicans tried to hold the Congress in 2006 with a blizzard of anti-immigrant ads. They lost Latino votes. They lost white votes. They lost the Congress.

Preceding the Iowa caucus, some surrogates for Sen. Hillary Clinton used code words like "drugs" and "madrassa" in reference to Sen. Barack Obama. They were called out on blogs, forced to apologize, and Obama went on to victory.

In New Hampshire, Clinton faced a wave of misogyny. The "Iron My Shirt" heckler was exposed on YouTube. Chris Matthews displayed condescension and disrespect to her on MSNBC. Former Sen. John Edwards was seen as criticizing her expression of emotion. Women rallied to her side, and Clinton went on to victory.

There was a time when people criticized the use of racist and sexist code words, but lamented that they always seem to work come Election Day. Well, they're not working now -- thanks to our growth as a country, combined with the power of the blogosphere to quickly spread proper shame.

Folks in the political establishment that continue to traffic in bigoted politics better quickly learn the lesson, for their own sake.

I discussed the above in additional detail on today's installment of the LiberalOasis Radio Show. You watch that segment below, and listen to the full podcast (including a preview of the Michigan primary with MichiganLiberal.com's Eric Baerren) by clicking here.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot