From "crack pipes" to "critical race theory": GOP's 2022 midterm strategy is overt racis

[Nevilledog]

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Amanda Marcotte
@AmandaMarcotte
Because there is literally no bottom for Republicans, they're going all out on crude, blunt racism for the midterms. And if you think it's gross now, it's going to get real bad before this is over, I fear.

salon.com
From "crack pipes" to "critical race theory": GOP's 2022 midterm strategy is overt racism
Without Trump on the ballot, Republican appeals to racism are getting cruder and more blatant
11:31 AM · Feb 11, 2022

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/11/from-crack-pipes-to-critical-race-theory-gops-2022-midterm-strategy-is-overt/

Nothing speaks more to how the modern GOP is centered around tickling the racist lizard brains of white conservative Boomers than the sudden reemergence of the term "crack pipe." The actual crack epidemic wound down literally decades ago, back when Donald Trump was still divorcing his first wife. But the audience for Republican propaganda is still stuck in the 1980s, the last time many of them had a full head of hair, and so here we are, with the term "crack pipe" suddenly exploding all over social media, search algorithms, and, because this really is the worst timeline, a grossly named federal bill.

The situation, which I regret even having to write about, is as idiotic as it is disturbing. As Jon Skolnik reported for Salon, Health and Human Services was planning on passing out a paltry "$30 million to nonprofit groups nationwide as part of a plan to reduce drug-related harm," mainly by preventing opioid overdoses. The opioid epidemic is affecting rural white communities as much as anyone else, making it impossible to turn into a racist moral panic. So instead, Republicans seized on a minor provision allowing clinics to provide "safe smoking kits," which can be used for many different drugs, including opioids. But, because of racism, the right-wing press ran with the outdated term "crack pipe," and, in case you are too dense to hear the dog whistle, most even insisted that the provision was there to "advance racial equity," which is a flat out lie.

Their audience loves any excuse for racist jokes, so Republicans ran with it, with odious Fox News segments falsely claiming President Joe Biden wants to close the "crack gap." And it wasn't just the usual suspects in right-wing media, either. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., usually pretends at being more moderate and open-minded — remember when he used to pretend he liked hip-hop? But in a fit of racist exploitation, he rushed forward with the Cutting off Rampant Access to Crack Kits (CRACK) Act. It should be noted that Rubio's leading Democratic opponent is Rep. Val Demmings, a Black woman and the first female head of the Orlando Police Department.

Welcome to what promises to be the next 8 months of culture war politics. Donald Trump made naked racism popular in the GOP again, but somehow things have gotten even less subtle since he lost the 2020 election. It's as if, without Trump on the ticket, Republicans feel that they need to announce "WE ARE INCREDIBLY RACIST" in 20-foot letters, lest their voters, not known to be fans of subtle rhetoric, miss the point. Usually, the needle that the right likes to thread is to signal racist intent while propping up some plausible deniability so they can act all huffy and outraged when liberals point out that they're being racist. But in recent weeks there's been a real eff-it approach in GOP circles, with the subtext and insinuation being abandoned for in-your-face racism.

*snip*

[Botany]

1. In very white and in very rural areas of W.V. the # of drug deaths and addicts are staggering.

Heroin, oxy, pills, T-3s, and fentanyl are the drugs of choice.

[Caliman73]

2. Yes. That is a tragedy. However, Black and Brown people smoking crack is because they are bad.

See how that works?

Racism is having a resurgence since Trump dropped the mask. Mitigation strategies are being turned into this racist culture war because Conservatives have absolutely NOTHING to offer anyone except to scare White people into thinking that Black and Brown people are going to do bad things to you because they are bad.

[Botany]

3. In Oct. of 2019 I was down to run the Gualey River (White Water) and then I "float fished"* the ...

... New River and my guide told about his wife dying of a heroin o.d. a few months before and
how drugs, drug deaths, crime, and addiction was everyplace around Oak Hill, WV.. It was really
grim but to many of the locals their problems are from liberal environmentalists killing coal even
though some of the ex coal miners had worked on refitting power plants to burn fracked gas
(cheaper, cleaner, and easier to use). And no matter where you went you heard "hate talk radio,"
fox, and right wing crap from the internet. It was really sad and you could see despite its beauty on
why the young people are fleeing the state.

* my father had passed about 1/2 a year before and this was my first get away.

[Caliman73]

4. It is very sad.

One of the reasons that Conservatives absolutely hate and try to demonize University education is that it is usually the first time that many kids raised in a conservative household will experience different ideas and meet people from different backgrounds. They see is as, "indoctrination" in to a "Liberal" hive mind, when it is simply exposure to new and differing ideas, that usually make more sense and certainly have more evidence for their reality.

I really wish that government would actually step in and provide the jobs and training needed to get WV off of coal. It is literally a dwindling commodity and damaging to the environment we rely on for life. Good paying sustainable jobs would help the area, but like you said, the right wing brainwashing through hate radio and FOX needs to be dealt with too.

[Botany]

5. "The right wing brainwashing through hate radio and FOX needs to be dealt with too"

And don't forget the corrosive effects of Evangelical Christianity along with an inter-generational
racism and an anti education/science out look among families and neighbors. Even the coal miners
and their families know that coal is over but just out of meanness they hang onto it.

BTW if I was ever stuck hanging off a cliff there is nobody I would want more than a "mountain william"
to come and help me.