Changes

He continued:

He continued:

<blockquote>You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’  By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.  And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger". '''So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the back burner.'''<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/09/atwaters-strategy/46416/ Atwater's Strategy]</ref><ref>[https://www.gq.com/story/the-ultimate-fighter-before-rove-before-palin-there-was-lee-atwater The Ultimate Fighter: Before Rove, Before Palin, There Was Lee Atwater]</ref><ref>[https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/ Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy]</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘N***er, n***er, n***er.’  By 1968, you can’t say ‘n***er’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.  And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N***er, n***er". '''So, any way you look at it, race is coming on the back burner.'''<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/09/atwaters-strategy/46416/ Atwater's Strategy]</ref><ref>[https://www.gq.com/story/the-ultimate-fighter-before-rove-before-palin-there-was-lee-atwater The Ultimate Fighter: Before Rove, Before Palin, There Was Lee Atwater]</ref><ref>[https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/ Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy]</ref></blockquote>

Also in the interview, Atwater said:

Also in the interview, Atwater said: