Townhall...
The
left, the race card, and Herman
Cain
By Jeff Jacoby
October 11, 2011
THE
DAY AFTER Herman Cain’s dazzling
victory in the Florida straw poll, I commented to a Republican neighbor
-- and
where I live, there aren’t many of those -- that with Cain as a GOP
rock star,
liberals who have been so ready to smear President Obama’s critics as
racist
would have to come up with a new shtick.
What
was I thinking?
Racial
McCarthyism has been a staple
of left-wing political rhetoric for years, but it went into overdrive
with the
rise of Barack Obama. Former president Jimmy Carter, for example,
claimed that
much of the backlash to the president’s policies was explained by “the
fact
that he is a black man.” Janeane Garofalo, the movie actress and
liberal
activist, called Tea Party protesters “racist rednecks” with one
motivation:
“This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism
straight
up.” Obama himself has sometimes played the race card; as a candidate
in 2008
he predicted that Republicans would “try to make you afraid of me” by
focusing
on his color: “He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name.
And did
I mention he’s black?”
Of
course such accusations are
grotesque canards. But cynics and partisan ideologues have never been
terribly
squeamish about trafficking in ugly innuendoes to win votes, especially
when a
complacent media lets them get away with it. Still, you might have
thought that
surging Republican support for a proud black entrepreneur -- an
up-from-segregation
business star who summarizes his identity as “ABC: American first,
black
second, and conservative third” -- would make it tough even for cynics
and
ideologues to keep singing from the same racial hymnal.
Not
a chance.
“Herman
Cain is probably well-liked by
some of the Republicans because it hides the racist elements of the
Republican
Party, conservative movement, and tea party movement,” Garofalo
theorized in a
recent a TV appearance. “Cain provides this great opportunity so
[Republicans]
can say, ‘Look, this is not a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-female,
anti-gay
movement. Look, we have a black man.’”
In
other words, if Republicans or
conservatives oppose a public figure who happens to be black, it’s
because
they’re racists. And if they support a public figure who happens to be
black?
That’s also because they’re racists.
Needless
to say, there is no point
arguing with such “logic.” If Garofalo discovered that Tea Partiers are
inordinately fond of applesauce, she would presumably attribute that to
racism
as well. It would almost be funny, except that there is nothing funny
about
racial calumny.
Four
years ago, the emergence of the
Democratic Party’s first charismatic, credible black presidential
candidate was
regarded across the political spectrum as something to celebrate. Even
Republicans who strongly opposed Obama because of his positions and
outlook --
even John McCain! -- rejoiced in what Obama’s success said about
America’s
capacity for self-redemption. Shouldn’t the emergence of Herman Cain --
potentially
the GOP’s first charismatic, credible black presidential candidate --
evoke
similar feelings? Especially if you think the Republican Party has a
poor
racial record, shouldn’t you be encouraged that so many Republicans are
excited
about Cain? (As a matter of brute historical fact, it was the
Democratic Party,
not the GOP, that used to be the racist stronghold of American
politics. But
that’s a separate column.)
Whatever
his political prospects,
Cain’s story is exhilarating. Born into poverty in the Jim Crow South,
where
his mother was a maid and his father a janitor and chauffeur, Cain rose
to
become a mathematician in the US Navy, a successful business executive,
the
chairman of a federal reserve bank, and now a Republican star. Liberals
should
rejoice in his success, even if they disagree with his politics.
Yet
on AlterNet, a prominent left-wing
website, Cain is jeered as a “black garbage pail kid,” a “monkey in the
window,” and a minstrel performer playing to “white conservative
masters.”
Cornell Belcher, a Democratic strategist who polled for the Obama
campaign,
blasts Cain as “racist and bigoted” for saying that many black voters
have been
“brainwashed” into rejecting conservatism. In a new memoir, Cain writes
of
being slurred as an “Oreo” and an “Uncle Tom” because he is an
unabashed
Republican conservative.
Love
Cain or loathe him, it should be
possible to talk about his candidacy without resorting to racial
pejoratives.
Like Lester Maddox’s axe handle, the political race card ought to be by
now
nothing but an ugly memory -- something no decent voter, activist, or
candidate
would dream of brandishing.
Read
this and other columns at
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