In an MSNBC interview, Salon editor Joan Walsh said she believes Republicans are playing on “racial animus,” and white voters vote based on their animus toward President Barack Obama. Given Walsh’s earlier election year rhetoric, it might be easier to list the people Walsh doesn’t think are racist. (RELATED: Salon’s Joan Walsh ‘No Accident’ Ebola Victim Was In ‘Rick Perry’s Texas’)
If you’re going to accept it’s perfectly okay for Republicans to trash the president, to go to red state Democrats in particular and tar them with an association with the president to play on that racial animus, I’m not saying it’s the only thing or the most important thing, but it’s there. If it’s all okay for Republicans to do that, Democrats have been very cowardly, somewhat understandably, not entirely, about saying, “Yes, we voted for this man. We support this man.”
…
The Republicans are narrow-casting their message to white voters, and Democrats are trying to reach African-American, they’re crucial, Latinos, as well as white voters… In the long run, the fact that the Democrats rely on a very broad base of the country is great for Democrats. In the short run, it’s easier for Republicans to narrow cast to white voters, they reliably vote, they turn out, they’re inspired by animus against the president.