Herman Cain’s GOP support causes confusion for Demos’ race narrative

By David McElroy · October 30, 2011

It seems that some Democrats’ heads might explode from the mental contortions they’re going to through to justify their enduring belief that Republicans must be racists.

I’m certainly not a supporter of Herman Cain, but I’ve enjoyed watching some Democratic commentators trying to explain away Cain’s growing support among many Republicans. You see, if Republicans don’t support black candidates, it’s because they’re racist. But if they do support a black candidate, it’s also because they’re racist. Got that?

If that logic doesn’t make sense to you, it’s clear that you haven’t learned logic in the same place as Democratic strategist Karen Finney. On MSNBC Friday, Finney gave her spin on Cain’s surge in popularity, saying, “I think [Herman Cain] is giving that base a free pass and I think they like him because they think he is a black man who knows his place.”

I’m not sure who should be more insulted — Cain or his Republican supporters.

Finney isn’t the only Democrat to trot out this bizarrely irrational approach. U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) said the same thing last week. Democratic partisan and actress Janeane Garofalo has wondered out loud who is paying Cain to be a black “token” for the Tea Party. And, of course, there’s the black novelist who goes by the name, Toure, who says that Cain’s views are an insult to the black community.

Does it cross the mind of these narrow-minded folks that maybe Cain is just saying what he believes? And does it cross the mind of these bigots that a sizable number of Republican voters like what he’s saying — and couldn’t care less about his race?

To me, Cain is nothing more than a typical neo-conservative with a glib line and no credentials. I can’t imagine why anybody would support him. But I think the same thing of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry and all the rest of the ones who have any shot at the nomination. I disagree with Cain on a number of issues, but I guarantee that his race doesn’t influence what I think of him. I think that’s the case with a tremendous number of people who will be voting in the Republican primaries.

They’re an odd kind of racism that underlies what Cain is facing from Democrats and in the attitudes that Democrats have toward Republicans. It’s a racism that suggests that blacks are only allowed to believe certain things. Anyone who deviates from the progressive left script about race is a racist, according to that line of thinking. Blacks have to believe one monolithic set of beliefs. And whites who disagree with that must be racists. It’s irrational, but it’s accepted as wisdom among many Democrats today.

I know only one person who knows Cain and has been around his campaign, and that person speaks very highly of him. (He doesn’t speak so highly of the competence of Cain’s campaign staff, but that’s another issue.) I’ll tell you a story that was relayed to me by my friend from a campaign stop that speaks to the race question. Everyone is conscious of it, but it doesn’t seem to be the main issue.

According to my friend who was there, at a campaign event in Georgia recently, Cain was asked about his race during a Q&A portion of the public event. A bit tentatively, a man asked, “Mr. Cain, do you think you’re going to be electable right now? I like what you have to say, but since so many people are unhappy with Obama, do you think they’re going to be willing to elect a black man again?”

Cain stopped and thought for just a moment before he said, “Elect a black man? They haven’t elected a real black man yet.” The crowd laughed and suddenly seemed to accept that it wouldn’t be an issue. My friend said these white Republicans were genuinely impressed by what they saw and heard.

I don’t believe Cain will get the GOP nomination. I think he’ll be another of those “flavor of the month” candidates who get popular and then fade. But when he loses, it will be because he doesn’t have the right experience or someone else shined a bit brighter to enough voters or something like that. It won’t be because he’s black. For most voters, it’s a non-issue.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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