Daily Kos Blogger: If You Don’t Believe Our Polls, You’re Probably a Racist
Apparently, Daily Kos blogger Dante Atkins did not appreciate being reminded that his website was one of the few to predict a Martha Coakley victory in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, or being called insane, or dangerous, or, worst of all, insignificant.
That’s how Fox News responded to the Daily Kos blog’s latest research findings in their Republican Poll co-conducted by nonpartisan group Research 2000. Short version: an overwhelming number of Republicans think Barack Obama is a socialist Kenyan who hates white people (oh, and they seem to like the idea of Dick Cheney making an encore political appearance as president).
After the results were made public last week, Karl Rove appeared on the O’Reilly Factor last week to attack both the poll’s results and methodology, citing their inaccurate Coakley/Scott Brown poll as reason to be skeptical, as well as the site’s frequent use of profanity. He rounded out his point by reminding the audience that most Republicans are just “ordinary Americans” that like the President personally but object to his politics. O’Reilly further dismissed the site as a home for “fearmongering” and “radicalism”, though he admitted that he thinks “these Kos people are insane… I traffic a little in that way, too.” While he did ask Rove for an alternative estimate of radicals within the Republican Party, Rove managed to deflect the question.
This appearance inspired a 1300+ word diatribe from Atkins, who concluded that any attacks on this poll are rooted in, of course, racism. While he accedes that the heads of the conservative movement are probably not racist, he argues that they peddle in racist rhetoric because it attracts a nameless, ignorant horde that they manipulate for their own benefit. He cites the birthers– namely, the oh-so-reliable Orly Taitz— as an example. But then he commits what should by now be considered a cardinal sin in the world of left-wing punditry: equating her with Glenn Beck. “After the onslaught of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Jerome Corsi, and even Orly Taitz, the base was sufficiently radicalized.” Beck thinks the birthers are an elaborate sideshow created by the Obama administration, which means any mention of them from the left plays straight into his theory.
Devoid of any significant evidence for the accusation of racism (outside of the laughable birthers), Atkins creates some out of thin air, arguing that the Republicans are actually speaking in code. Yes, you might be hearing them say “we need lower taxes,” but what they really mean is “we need to keep the black man down.” He calls it “dog-whistle” politics:
“Republicans have been playing dog-whistle politics ever since Lee Atwater theorized on how to use taxes as a subliminal code for racism, but getting people to believe that a highly popular and historic President is a Bolshevik racist Muslim who is ineligible to hold his office and wants the terrorists to win? That requires a totally different frequency and amplitude.”
Which means that anything Republicans say, from “health care reform can wait” to “when are you going to lunch?” is subject to racial reinterpretation. It opens the door for the left to attack from all sides, since the “taxes=racism” narrative is said to be comparatively simple and obvious in comparison to the games the Republicans are playing now.
Shame that Atkins lets a legitmate point fall through the cracks amid his wild accusations: Rove does skirt O’Reilly’s question of just what percentage of the American right are radicals, and if he can’t offer an alternative answer to the Kos poll’s results, it’s hard to refute them. What Atkins presents instead is a laundry list of recycled extreme left-wing paranoia triggers that goes beyond hurting Atkins’ legitimacy to sullying that of the poll he aims to defend.
