Clinton adopts the Republican themes, and since then, it’s largely been the case that Republicans and Democrats have been competing with each other to convey to white voters that they’re really on the side of whites, that they’re really hostile to the interests of minorities. Both parties have been doing this through coded racial appeals.

Law professor Ian Haney López explores the history of racism in the modern political process, from Nixon’s Southern Strategy to the cynicism of Clinton’s welfare attacks, and explains why fear and racism succeed in getting Americans to vote against their own interests.

Ian is author of the book Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class.