I'm Bill Moyers.

It's good to have your ear.

This week on Moyers & Company, more from Ian Haney Lopez on Dalquist of Politics.

One of the central dynamics in American politics since the civil rights era has been the use of cultural provocations, primary among them, race, but not exclusively, to try and advance a conservative agenda that

favors tax cuts for the rich and that favors a deregulation of big industry.

Democrats have understood, even as early as 1970, race was going to be an effective wedge issue

against them.

And when the Democrats responded, they responded not by contesting that

politics, but instead by embracing it. And this is part of the story of dogwurst politics.

Republicans shift right and the Democrats have tracked rightward following them.

Thanks for joining us. Welcome. We're back with the scholar Ian Haney Lopez, talking about his

important new book, Dog Whistle Politics. Last week, he told us that racism is still

very much a part of our society. But more often than not today, it hides behind code words

with messages that manipulate deep prejudice to rouse hostility against

minorities in the government and summon support for policies that make economic inequality

even worse. This racist strategy, as Lopez calls it, favors a devious plutocracy that

bankrolls the dog whistlers and destroys everyone else beneath no matter the color of their skin.

Here's some of what he said last time.

Dog whistle politics doesn't come out of animus at all.

It doesn't come out of some desire to hurt minorities.

It comes out of a desire to win votes.

And here's a hard, difficult truth.

...