Krugman Brooks cage match

Over at Crooks & Liars, Bill writes:

No, Reagan didn’t invent the Southern Strategy for the GOP to capitalize on America’s bigotry for their electoral gains, but his administration just about perfected and ingrained it into the core of his party. And make no “mistake” about it, no matter what Tony Snow says otherwise, racism is still alive and well and being used as an electoral crutch by the Republican Party to this very day. The only difference I can tell is today’s boogieman is starting to look less like the Civil Rights Act and more like a border fence, or rather the lack thereof.

Indeed. But if you think this is right, then it's important to keep one thing in mind: Black Americans comprise a fairly constant percentage of the American population, especially compared to Latinos. When the Republican party tried to throw blacks off the back of the bus they did so in the face of almost no visible political risk. But as the number of eligible-to-vote Mexican immigrants and their children grows, the math will become all-too-obvious, and everybody should be prepared for an epic political fight over the border as the GOP struggles to keep itself above water.