But if Ryan genuinely stumbled heedless into a racial tinderbox then it suggests he, and most likely many other conservatives, has fully internalized a framing of social politics that was deliberately crafted to appeal to white racists without regressing to the uncouth language of explicit racism, and written its origins out of the history. If that’s the case it augurs poorly for those in the movement who are trying to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal, because it’s easier to convince people to abandon a poor tactic than to unlearn rotten ideology.

via Paul Ryan’s race flap even worse than it looks – Salon.com.

This is the part about this story I find interesting.  It has become such an article of faith among certain folks that this “it’s the poors fault for being inherently inferior” argument holds some sort of merit that they don’t realize where it came from in history.