Lee Atwater

[[File:Download (5).jpg|165px|thumb|Lee Atwater]]
{{uspolitics}}
'''Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater''' {{lived|1951|1991}} was an [[United States|American]] [[Republican]] political strategist most known for inventing a number of the dirty tactics that Republicans still use to this day while working for both [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]]. Although he by no means invented the idea of "[[dog-whistle politics]]," he did largely revolutionize it and turn it into something the American people had never seen before.

==Push polling==
Atwater was the first to come up with push polling, or asking citizens if they would be more or less likely to support somebody on the condition that they were something inflammatory, therefore causing a mental association with the negative quality and the candidate.<ref>[https://ballotpedia.org/Push_polling Push polling]</ref> It was infamously used against [[John McCain]] in 2000, where citizens in [[South Carolina]] were asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if he had fathered a black child out of wedlock.<ref>[https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/history-political-dirty-tricks-south-carolina/story?id=36864946 A History of Political Dirty Tricks in South Carolina]</ref> 

In 1978, Atwater used this method to ruin the congressional campaign of Max Heller through asking voters how they felt about "a foreign-born [[Jew]] who did not believe in [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] as the Savior" being in [[Congress]].<ref>''Lies (and the Lying Liars That Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right-Wing'' by Al Franken (2003) Dutton. ISBN  0525947647.</ref>{{rp|153}} In 1980, Atwater did the same with Tom Turnipseed, who he used this method to suggest was a member of the [[NAACP]].<ref>''The Color of Politics: Racism in the American Political Arena Today'' By Chris Danielson</ref>{{rp|52}}

==Racism==
If the above didn't give it away, many of the tactics Atwater engaged in were [[racism|racist]] in nature. During the 1988 Presidential Election, for example, Atwater noted how he and Bush attempted to paint Republican [[Bob Dole]] as a candidate white racists would dislike because he "had gone to bat for John Palmer, a black man." That was not all, "Dole's support for the 1982 Voting Rights Act, which had angered many Southern whites, was also dredged up by Atwater."<ref name=Hilton>''Senator for Sale'' by Stanley G. Hilton</ref>{{rp|115}}

===William Horton===
[[File:HortonWillie.jpg|165px|thumb|Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" ad]]
During the [[1988 U.S. presidential election]], one of Atwater's most famous contributions is the choice to bring the Willie Horton scandal into the race. ("By the time we're finished, they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis's running mate," said Atwater.)<ref>[https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-11-11-1990315149-story.html HOW A MURDERER AND RAPIST BECAME THE BUSH CAMPAIGN'S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER]</ref>

Horton "was an [[African-American]] prisoner in [[Massachusetts]] who, while released on a furlough program, [[rape]]d a white [[Maryland]] woman and bound and stabbed her boyfriend."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/politics/bush-willie-horton.html Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue, and for African-Americans, the Scars Are Still Fresh]</ref> During the campaign, Dukakis was constantly criticized for being overly soft on [[crime]], and Horton's status as a [[Black brute|big scary black man]] very much helped. Horton himself realized this, saying on the image Atwater and Bush projected of him during the campaign "It's part of the [[myth]] of the case. The name irks me. It was created to play on racial [[stereotype]]s: big, ugly, violent, black 'Willie.' I resent that."<ref>[https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-08-12-1993224224-story.html Trying to find the real Willie Horton]</ref>

===How politics changed===
Quite possibly the most famous quote ever uttered by Atwater is his statement that times have changed in politics, and his evidence of this is that you can't be openly racist:

{{quotebox|You start out in 1954 by saying, "[[Nigger]], nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally [[Economics|economic]] things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."<ref>[https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/ Infamous Comments]</ref>}}

==See also==
*[[Richard Nixon]] - his former boss.
*[[Ronald Reagan]] - another president he was an aide to.

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Antisemites]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Shysters]]

Categories: Antisemites, Racists, Right-wing activists, Shysters