Paul Ryan does not have a clear history of making racist remarks so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here. That said, I've seen right-wing politicians make these dog whistles for two decades now. We'll have to watch his behavior more carefully in the future.
It is both amusing and infuriating how myopic some conservatives on this site are about this issue. Why do you suppose so few blacks, Asians and Latinos vote for your party? Are we all just "brainwashed?"
I'm going to give you due praise for not being kneejerk with the Paul Ryan stuff. So since you asked a serious question I'll give you a serious answer.
To start, I think there are low info voters from every segment of the population, every ideology, every urban/rural area et al.
I believe that if we had a conservative media, it would be easier for liberals to see what we mean when we talk about people being blindsided by the media.
Black and Latino groups have their own megaphones in the media: BET and Univision. I'm offended by them as I would be by a "white" TV network. But, in todays society, some things are acceptable and some not.
Democrats have successfully painted Republicans as a racist party because many of us oppose illegal immigration, which has nothing to do with the skin color of an individual, but have to do with illegal vs legal moving into our nation.
Republicans have been less than stellar in combating this --- but the bottom line is, while it may sound silly to a liberal, the media and the "culture" has a lot to influence people's thinking, if they are getting all of their information from networks that are essentially based on the race of an individual viewer.
