Lee Atwater: Rest In … Whatever

“You think you’re the next Lee Atwater, don’t you?” a particularly red-faced FITS reader said to our founding editor recently, apparently a bit confused as to just what it is that we do around here.

“No,” Sic replied. “No I don’t.”

For better or worse (and mostly worse), Lee Atwater is inimitable, no matter how often penny-ante GOP hatemongers attempt to imitate him.

The former GOP National Committee chairman – whose perfection of the so-called “Southern Strategy” helped the Republican Party forge a short-lived national majority – remains an iconic figure in these parts.  In fact, Atwater’s name is invariably at the tip of most tongues whenever GOP movers-and-shakers gather together, even as Republicans seek to re-brand themselves as a more “inclusive” party – an effort that has met with little success, incidentally.

Nearly every South Carolina “Republican” consultant (all of them white males, incidentally) can “somehow or another” trace their political lineage back to Atwater – with many of them still employing the same basic misdirection tactics that Atwater employed prior to being struck down by a brain tumor in 1991.

Diminishing returns? Sure … but in South Carolina, “stupid is as stupid votes.”

Like many S.C. politicos, we’ve read Atwater’s biography – studying it in meticulous detail.  In fact, we’ve read Bad Boy and other writings on Atwater with the same voracious attention to detail that German dictator Adolf Hitler no doubt studied Charles de Gaulle’s theories on employing mechanized armored divisions in Twentieth Century combat.  Or how Colin Powell no doubt grasped the strategic brilliance of barely literate Confederate Cavalry Commander Nathan Bedford Forrest’s indispensable war maxim – “get there firstus with the mostus.”

We’ve also watched Boogie Man, the feature-length documentary of Atwater’s life, with rapt attention – actually cross-tabbing references with George Wallace’s similarly combustible documentary, “Settin’ The Woods On Fire.”

We didn’t do all of that because we wanted to, obviously … we did it because we had to.

Back when we were involved in political campaigns, a thorough understanding of Atwater’s blitzkrieg tactics was necessary not only from an offensive – but far more often (and more importantly) a defensive standpoint.

So what do we think of Atwater today?

Not much, honestly.

Of course that doesn’t mean his work is no longer relevant – because that clearly isn’t the case.

Atwater remains very relevant in South Carolina – and not just as it relates to the army of consultants whose candidates (i.e. Gresham Barrett, Henry McMaster and Andre Bauer) bear a striking resemblance to the same old, good ole boys who’ve been running for office in this state – under different party labels, of course – for decades.

The simple fact is that Atwater disguised the Republican Party’s fiscal conservative failures (i.e. “Read My Lips”) behind a veneer of racially-based fear – not unlike the way South Carolina Republicans recently attempted to disguise their fiscal conservative failure behind an upgraded veneer of racially-based fear.

It’s always somebody else’s fault, according to past and present GOP standard bearers – their skin color just gets a little lighter each go round, right?

Seriously, why do you think leftist boobs like former President Jimmy Carter get to keep playing the same old race card?

Our founding editor once got in trouble for commenting on a blog that he would “piss on Atwater’s grave.”  As is typically the case with Sic Willie, that comment was over the top … and inappropriate.

We are, however, yearning for a day when Republicans start representing true fiscal values … which will enable us to piss on the grave of the “Southern Strategy” once and for all.

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