2009-1-3: The Southern Strategy gone awry. Since Paul Krugman received his Nobel Prize for economics, he has been more willing to call a spade a spade. Today he called the Republican Party a party of whiners, using Phil Gramm’s unfortunate phrase from the presidential campaign coming back to haunt them. He argues that the long time strategy of the Republicans, “The Southern Strategy,” has paid off—for the Democrats. That is, the south is now the only geographic region the GOP is dominant in and as everyone now knows to win a national election you have to be able to win the votes of Hispanics and African Americans. If Obama does a decent job he isn’t going to lose any of the black votes. That’s the bad news for Republicans. Krugman says the party decided 40 years ago “to make itself the party of racial backlash.” Plus they made choices based on loyalty not expertise, thus showing their contempt for competent governing. Bush was an incompetent president who ran a government by the unqualified. Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are in? All you have to do is think back to Katrina, Bush standing next to Mike Brown, the head of FEMA, saying to him, “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.” It was perfectly obvious the reverse was closer to the truth. Brownie knew horses, not floods and hurricane relief. Their racism used to be coded and disguised; that won’t work anymore. We’ve all wised up. One of the men running for RNC chairman is using that ditty making the rounds on talk radio, “Barack the Magic Negro,” sung to the melody of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” It’s all in fun they say, just a little whimsy, no harm, no foul. Krugman thinks Bush’s eight year tenure is the endgame of the GOP’s political strategy “that has dominated the scene for more than a generation.” It was a great ride for the Republicans while it lasted, but they have now painted themselves into a corner (the south) and the “real America” that Palin and Bush like to talk about is now a narrow plank that the party must walk. Real America is looking a bit different these days, with an African American President, 5 women in the cabinet, even two Republicans, with diversity, team of rivals, and multiculturism being the clarion call of a new day dawning.