In all the coverage of South Carolina State Sen. Jake Knotts (R), now infamous for calling Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley a "fucking raghead" and criticizing her as insufficiently Christian to be governor, a few gems have emerged worth highlighting:

• The audience at the South Carolina bar where Sen. Knotts made his "raghead" comment were "shocked" but "there wasn't outrage" (TPM)
• Sen. Knotts thinks that Haley is being controlled by a network of Sikhs as some sort of manchurian candidate (Free Times).
• Sen. Knotts is an elected representative of the people of his district in South Carolina.

How does this happen in modern America? I think Gabriel Winant, writing for Salon.com, sums it up perfectly:

Knotts, who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, seems to make some sense of the world around him by classifying Haley and Obama as foreigners, Middle Eastern category (roughly).

...

Knotts’ comment fits into a pattern of plainly racial solidarity underlying conservative nationalism and war-on-terror ideology. You can see this all over the place: in the insistence that Obama, our first nonwhite president, must somehow be an ally or even a member of the teeming Islamic hordes.

Winant's article is one of the more insightful and informative articles about race and politics I have read in a long time. I highly recommend taking the time to read it.

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