Re GOP strategy: Racism isn't a good fit. But Resentment is (and it sure fits with the party of whiners).
Fits with the stripe of Red voters in 2008 from east Texas to West Virginia, where there are lots of poor whites resenting their traditional inferiors getting ahead.
Fits with all of the anti-gun-control sentiment that the GOP exploits.
Fits with the appeal to the self-made millioniare types. People will work much harder to avoid losing a million than they will to make a million in the first place (see Psych 101). To rally them to the GOP flag, call taxes "confiscation."
You could argue that the anti-Choice movement is a reflection of stirred-up resentment against "elite" advise.
Ditto the climate change deniers appeal of the GOP, denial being choaked by resentment against scientists presuming to know what's best.
Racism Politics just doesn't have the explanatory power of Resentment Politics, and it avoids the objection that Bush's appointments as both Governor and President were rather inclusive, compared to what nyou might expect for a southern politician. I'd agree that their appeals were sometimes racist but I see the general strategy as a more universal appeal to those who feel that some got ahead of them, or someone is going to tax their income.
— William H. Calvin, Seattle
[reposted from Krugman's blog]