Campaign materials aimed at getting out the black vote are featuring references to lynchings, Jim Crow-era signs, racial unrest — and, as of last weekend, the Ku Klux Klan.
In Alabama, fliers distributed in largely black communities warn voters to cast ballots or else "land may be given to extremist groups to honor klansmen." A copy of the flier was obtained by The Washington Times.
The specter of the KKK was raised as the latest example of the increase in racially charged scare tactics aimed at bolstering turnout in the black community, a traditional Democratic voting bloc that strategists view as key to winning razor-thin races in an otherwise Republican year.
Conservatives view the tactic with disgust. They argue that such race-baiting is condescending and assumes black voters are concerned solely with racism and not, for example, economic and foreign policy concerns.
"Democratic race-baiting is the ugly face of political desperation in 2014," said a Sunday headline on the conservative website RedState.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/2/campaign-flyer-tells-blacks-alabama-vote-or-face-h/