This kind of thinking has long been latent (and patent) among Republicans, just not so overt in most instances. Here's Lee Atwater discussing Republican strategy back in their salad days:
"You start out in 1954 by saying, "N*****, n*****, n*****." By 1968 you can't say "n*****"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N*****, n*****""
The main difference here is simply that Mr Knotts is unable to be so subtle. I'm glad we're seeing the (appalling) true colors of the Republican party; perhaps everyone will finally wake up to their use of race to divide Americans while they enrich their country club colleagues.
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