The latest, undeniably disturbing shift in Republican campaign tactics is something that I’ve been a little hesitant to write about. I mean, I hammer on McCain’s message a lot–not unfairly, I would maintain, but still. Whether or not you could draw a direct line between McCain’s campaign rhetoric and the actions of some of his supporters, I was hesitant to blame him for the actions of a few unhinged followers.

That was last week, though. As John Cole points out, the blatantly racist rhetoric we’re seeing from the right-wing has gone far beyond just a few isolated incidents. How many more right-wing thugs do we have to see attack journalists or circulate fliers like this before it’s officially a trend?

Here’s the thing; McCain himself might not be engaging in behavior quite this sleazy, but he’s doing everything he can to enable it, and he knows it. Just look at the video at the top of the post (via Ta-Nehisi Coates). There he is defending the same sleazy tactics, the very same robocalling firm that slandered him with racist propaganda in the 2000 South Carolina primary.

The new McCain campaign strategy is all about bigotry. But because the campaign can’t possibly get away with being overtly racist, they’re instead casting vague doubts on Obama’s “American-ness,” and leaving the rest up to their supporters. They’re relying on a bigotry that’s a lot less focused, but still a serious problem.

For example, in my Obama endorsement, I referenced a recent Palin quote:

Palin… made a point of mentioning that she loved to visit the “pro-America” areas of the country, of which North Carolina is one. No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.

Steve Benen called this “snobbery,” but let’s make no mistake about what it really is; bigotry. There is something incredibly venomous about implying that entire regions of the country are not sufficiently patriotic. And as Nate Silver points out, the “pro-American” cities that Palin refers to are, by and large, whiter and less diverse than the US as a whole.

Now, obviously what Palin said wasn’t in of itself racist, but viewed in the larger context of this race, it was certainly pretty damn pernicious. And if that was too subtle for you, then there’s more: such as McCain surrogate Rep. Michele Bachmann basically calling for a new McCarthy era and suggesting that not only Obama, but other members of Congress are anti-American. And another campaign surrogate, Nancy Pfotenhauer, saying that the Democratic-leaning northern region of Virginia isn’t “real” Virginia.

There’s more of this stuff, but I’m going to stop there. You get the idea. This isn’t just about marginalizing Obama as a sinister, foreign “other”–it’s about demeaning and diminishing anyone who doesn’t fit into the most ignorant fringe elements of the Republican base as not being true Americans. This is the über-base strategy: pander so hard to the most extremist elements that even President Bush’s former secretary of state is now denouncing the GOP’s smear-mongering.

This is really unprecedented. In the modern era, a lot of presidential candidates have peddled their fair of sleazy attacks, but this is beyond anything that Karl Rove or Richard Nixon ever attempted.

Yesterday, Josh Marshall said:

I don’t think there’s any question that McCain’s is the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign, certainly in the last 35 years and possibly going much further back into the early 20th century.

Of course, this isn’t really new. Their are traces of Rovianism and Nixonism in McCain’s tactics, but he’s pushed it further than any other major party candidate in recent memory.