RALEIGH, N.C. – Pop singer Kelly Clarkson wasn’t expecting such a harsh response when she tweeted her endorsement in the Republican presidential race.
“I love Ron Paul,” she wrote late last month. Later, in a radio interview, she elaborated, “He believes in states having their rights, and I think that that’s very important.”
Clarkson received hundreds of replies, some lambasting Paul and at least one suggesting that the “American Idol” winner choose her words more carefully.
In particular, two words: “states” and “rights.”
As the Republican presidential campaign has turned south, into the region that seceded from the Union 150 years ago, old debates about state and federal authority echo anew in phrases used by candidates, their supporters and the news media.
Even before the Civil War, “states’ rights” had become a byword for the protection of black slavery. And since the late Sen. Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948 as a States’ Rights Democrat, or “Dixiecrat,” the phrase has sometimes been labeled a “dog whistle” for racist elements in the electorate.
None of that was on Clarkson’s mind. After a barrage of responses to her Dec. 29 tweet, the 29-year-old Texan told fans, “My eyes have been opened to so much hate.” And she
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