Dog whistle politics-- the shrill blast “that can be heard by certain folks … a warning about race and a warning, in particular, about threatening minorities.”

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Six Case Studies in Dog Whistle Politics
By Ian Haney Lopez, February 28, 2014

In his latest book, Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney López writes about the subtle, racially coded messages politicians use — “dog whistles” — to harness below-the-surface racial tensions to get elected and to advance policies that are often contrary to voters’ self-interest.

“Think about a term like ‘welfare queen,’ or ‘food stamp president,’” Haney López told Bill. “On one level, like a dog whistle, it’s silent. Silent about race — it seems race-neutral.” But on another level it has a shrill blast “that can be heard by certain folks … a warning about race and a warning, in particular, about threatening minorities.”

We asked Haney López, a law professor at University of California, Berkeley and a senior fellow at the research and policy center Demos, to walk us through some examples of political TV ads aired during the last three decades in which “dog whistle politics” are on display.

Ronald Reagan: “Prouder, Stronger, Better” (1984):

For his re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan’s advertising team created “Prouder, Stronger, Better,” also commonly referred to as “Morning in America.” The ad was a syrupy, Norman Rockwell-esque portrayal of America restored to prosperity after four years of Republican leadership. “This ad is famous for its rosy picture of a new day in the US — but it also has a subtle racial dynamic, for it almost exclusively depicts rural and suburban whites, distancing itself from minorities and urban centers associated with nonwhites,” Haney López told BillMoyers.com. The same could be said of Reagan’s “Train” ad.

George H.W. Bush: “Weekend Passes” (1988):

Haney López writes in his book that George H.W. Bush initially avoided adding a racial element to his campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis. But when he found himself trailing in the polls, his campaign rolled out an ad decrying the case of convicted murderer Willie Horton, an African-American Massachusetts man who, while on weekend furlough from prison, fled the state and committed several crimes, including stabbing a white man and raping his fiancée. Dukakis, the governor of Massachusetts, had vetoed a measure that would have made convicted murderers like Horton ineligible for the state’s furlough program, which had been created by Dukakis’s Republican predecessor in the early 1970s.

“Willie Horton has star quality… It’s a wonderful mix of liberalism and a big black rapist,” a Bush aide told The New Republic. During the month when the “Horton furor reached its crescendo,” Haney López writes, “12 percent of the electorate switched its allegiance from Dukakis to Bush.”

Jesse Helms: “Hands” (1990):

In one of the most famous cases of political dog whistling, North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms campaigned against Democratic opponent Harvey Gantt’s support of affirmative action in hiring, which Helms derided as racial “quotas.” Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, was hoping to be the first black senator elected in a Southern state since Reconstruction. “The ostensible issue here is whether race in general should be used in allocating jobs,” Haney López wrote to BillMoyers.com, “but the clear import is that affirmative action favors minorities and discriminates against whites.”

Bill Clinton: “New Generation of Democrats” (1992):

Three years after the end of the Cold War, the 1992 presidential campaign focused primarily on the economy. But “Clinton did not depend on an economic message alone; rather, he decided to engage in his own racial pandering,” writes Haney López. Clinton campaigned as a ‘New Democrat’: “one resistant to black concerns, tough on crime and hostile to welfare.” Clinton distanced himself from African-American voters and politicians, publicly sparring with Rev. Jesse Jackson. “This ad shows the centrality of dog whistling to the Clinton campaign, putting front and center his promise to end welfare so that it’s no longer ‘a way of life,’ and also his commitment to cracking down on ‘criminals,’” Haney López told BillMoyers.com.

Republican National Committee: “Call Me” (2006):

In Tennessee’s 2006 US Senate campaign, the Republican National Committee gave money to a political action committee to create an ad that, once aired, raised allegations of race-baiting. The 30-second ad satirized Harold Ford, Jr.’s supporters and platforms, featuring one white woman who said she met Ford at a Playboy party. “From the black woman who endorses Ford (an African-American candidate) only because of his looks, to the white floozy who ends the ad asking Ford to call her, this RNC-created ad trades on racial stereotypes,” Haney López argues. “Most explosive was the implication that Ford was open to pursuing sexual relations with white women.” The ad was denounced by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum and Bob Corker, Ford’s opponent (and eventual victor), asked that the ad be pulled from the air.

Mitt Romney: “Right Choice” (2012):

In the run-up to the 2012 Republican convention, Mitt Romney’s campaign reportedly poured half of its advertising dollars into a factually false ad that claimed that Obama had eliminated the “welfare-to-work” requirement and that welfare recipients were given money for doing nothing. Under Obama’s welfare plan, “you wouldn’t have to work and [you] wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send your welfare check,” the ad claimed. “That’s false,” wrote Jonathan Alter at Bloomberg, “but it successfully conjures unemployed people sitting on the couch mooching off the middle class.” The Romney campaign’s understanding of the “language of dependency, entitlement and lack of responsibility” prompted the welfare ads, with their “relatively crude racial demagoguery,” notes Haney López.
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