A common complaint in Republican circles right now is that the McCain campaign seems direction-less. Sure, McCain is attacking Obama, but it’s scattershot and knee-jerk — there doesn’t seem to be any kind of theme or narrative. Now that Rove’s team is heading up McCain’s operation, that’s likely to change, but in the meantime, McCain isn’t making anyone happy.
Fox News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes has some advice on what McCain can do to get ahead: bash gays and make right-wing activists happy.
“[H]e needs to touch on some of the social issues which energize the right,” Barnes said. “In particular, gays in the military for one. We know Barack Obama is for allowing gays in the military, and Bill Clinton tried to do, but backed off. This is not a popular issue. Gay marriage is another one. These are both issues that I think McCain’s going to have to use. You can’t ignore the right. If he does, he’ll lose.”
A few angles jump out here. First, as a factual matter, Barnes is mistaken when he suggests popular opinion is in line with a far-right worldview. It’s hard to tell from context, but Barnes seems to believe polls show general opposition to allowing otherwise-capable gay volunteers to serve in the military during a war. Reality shows otherwise. As Matt Corley explained, “Polling consistently finds that the public supports allowing openly-gay people to serve in the military. In fact, that support is growing even stronger with time.”
Second, of course, is the sad commentary on what Barnes thinks of his fellow conservatives. How do you get people to vote against their self interests and the needs of the nation? You invest energy and resources into telling them that gay people are bad. It’s just so tiresome and hackneyed, like the conservative movement itself.
And finally, Barnes’ advice, while foolish and misguided, is nevertheless a reminder that McCain may actually end up embracing the divisive style of politics Barnes recommends.
Indeed, Barnes’ advice is well timed — the very weekend in which Jesse Helms dies, Barnes believes McCain will lose unless he pits one group of Americans against a minority conservatives don’t like.
And why is this a distinct possibility? Because the same conservative Republican strategist who helped shape Jesse Helms’ divisive campaigns is now the lead strategist for John McCain’s campaign. Harry Siegel explains that it was Charlie Black who was there to guide the racist campaign of a racist candidate.
Black And Helms Used “Racist Appeals” To Win. Politics reporter Bill Peterson wrote in the Washington Post, “Lesson: A vicious new electronic form of negative politics has evolved and matured. And it is frightening. It is a politics of distortion, half truths and character assassination. Ends are used to justify means. Truth often takes a back seat. … Helms and the National Congressional Club, a political action committee run by his allies, had used negative advertising long before the Senate race began. … Racial epithets and standing in school doors is no longer fashionable, but 1984 proved that the ugly politics of race are alive and well. Helms is their master. A case in point was the pivotal event of the campaign: Helms’ filibuster against a bill making the birthday of the late Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. … Helms campaign literature sounded a drumbeat of warnings about black voter-registration drives. His campaign newspaper featured photographs of Hunt [his opponent] with Jesse L. Jackson and headlines like ‘Black Voter Registration Rises Sharply’ and ‘Hunt Urges More Minority Registration.’ Helms shamelessly mined the race issue.” [Peterson, Washington Post, 11/18/84]
1990: Black Advised Jesse Helms. As He Ran Controversial “Hands” Ad Against Black Candidate. Newsday reported that Helms, “through a series of blistering advertisements unleashed just days before, had beckoned the long-simmering issue of race to the surface of this senatorial contest. In doing so, Helms had hurled the campaign into its most bitter and acrimonious phase to date, namely by labeling his opponent, falsely, an advocate of racial job quotas and accusing him of conducting a ‘secret campaign’ in the black community. … On the television commercial, the camera zones in on a white man’s hands, crumpling what apparently is a job rejection letter. The announcer then intones: ‘You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is,’ the message continues. ‘Gantt supports Ted Kennedy’s racial quota law that makes the color of your skin more important than your qualifications.'” Black, an adviser to the campaign and a consultant for the Congressional Club – Helms’s political machine – insisted the race would come down to turnout: “‘What it’s going to come down to is turnout,’ said Charles Black, chairman of the Republican National Committee and a Helms adviser. ‘It’s, no question, the biggest challenge at this point.'” [Newsday, 11/4/90]
Black Defended “Hands Ad.” Black defended Helms’s “Hands” television ad, which featured white hands crumpling a job rejection letter and linking Helms’s black opponent to racial job quotas. Asked about the ad on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, Black said, “Well there is nothing racial about the campaign.” When asked if there was anything improper about the ad, Black said, “Of course not.” Another guest on the show, DNC Chairman Ron Brown, pressed Black again, saying, “You are a principal adviser of Jesse Helms. Would you advise him to run that kind of ad, Charlie? Do you approve of that ad, Charlie?” Black responded, “I advised Jesse Helms to do what he’s always done.” [MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, 11/5/90]
Given this, would it be especially surprising if the McCain campaign — led by Jesse Helms’ strategist and Karl Rove’s former team — chose to pit Americans against one another, in the hopes it would pay political dividends?