Nighttime at the White House makes for a chilling ghost story.
In the Reagan era, the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, was its haunting specter. The President often noted how his dog Rex would sit on his haunches in front of Lincoln's bedroom, "just glaring as if he's seeing something and barking."
Reagan told the story of Lincoln's ghost in 1987 to a group of junior high school students, using it as a metaphor to remember that the scourge of racism still thrived in America.
But just as he often waxed poetic about racial tolerance, Reagan frequently capitalized on the racist attitudes of white America. Indeed, his use of Lincoln mythology mirrored his use of the race card: denigrate the Ghost or commend the
Ghost — whatever the political context occasioned.
And all-too-often, the context called for denigration. As president, Reagan allied with a South Carolinian university that practiced racial discrimination in its fight to reverse a law that made such segregated schools ineligible for tax-exemption. Indeed, this perception had a lot of fuel to feed it: throughout his career Reagan opposed civil rights legislation, the 1960s Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act to name two, and in 1980 was still calling those acts "humiliating to the South."
It does not matter whether Reagan was racist—only that he expected his voters to be so. Consequently, he made political gains and staked electoral territory by exploiting the biases of the American public.
Reagan wasn't, of course, the first to play the race card. He also wasn't the last.
Indeed, several of the 2008 presidential candidates are matching Reagan stride for stride. The so-called diversity among the frontrunners —a woman, a Mormon, a black man — offers up a number of opportunities for to exploit voters' biases.
So far, the reaction to Senator Barack Obama's campaign has been an example of how creative opponents will get—and how low they will stoop—to turn voters against a candidate.
Early this year, Insight Magazine wrote a story that claimed Hillary Clinton's team had unearthed evidence that Obama received his education from a school for radical Muslims. CNN later discredited the story as false, though not before Fox News host John Gibson ran coverage on it.
"Is the Obama honeymoon officially over?" Gibson asked. "What other dirty little secrets will come out as they battle it out in the race for the White House?"
More recently, Romney confused the name Obama with the leader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Osama Bin Ladin.
"Actually, just look at what Osam—Barack Obama—said just yesterday," Romney spoke. "Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq."
Whether Romney's gaffe was an innocent slip of the tongue or a measure calculated to call attention to his campaign is debatable. What isn't debatable is that the mistake associated, once again, Obama with the image of an unhinged radical.
Despite all the accusations and innuendos that negatively associate Obama with terrorists, the Senator, all in all, has been has been hesitant to discuss his cultural background.
But that stands to change. As Clinton flashes the gender card with greater frequency, Obama may pull out some cards of his own. Whether it will be to insist that America is ready for an "African- American president," as he has on Today Show, or to draw parallels between himself and Abe Lincoln, as he has in Time magazine, remains to be seen.
It is doubtful that Obama will make a drastic change in tactics and speak more openly about race. More doubtful still is that his opponents will overtly address it. But the current form of American racism works in wily ways. It is imperative that voters pay attention every time a candidate like Romney or a journalist like Gibson weasels with words in a way that stirs up intolerance and negativity.
Because just as Americans have Lincoln's ghost with to remind them of tolerance, they have another ghost to remind them how easily — and subtly — politicians can manipulate their biases.
In 2008, beware of Reagan's ghost.
Reach the reporter at: rservis@asu.edu.
