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Black Tea - If Tea Party supporters are racist, why is Herman Cain generating such excitement?
The American ^ | June 2, 2011 | Lazar Berman

Posted on 06/02/2011 12:12:45 PM PDT by neverdem

The liberal line of attack on the Tea Party movement that has gained the most traction is that it opposes President Obama because of his skin color, not his policies. The movement is, in the mind of many in the Democratic Party and liberal organizations, rooted in a fundamentally racist view of America and of the president.

This charge is conventional wisdom for many in the media. Former NPR fund-raising executive Ron Schiller denounced the Tea Party movement to undercover conservative activists posing as Muslim financiers: “I mean, basically they ... believe in sort of white, middle-America, gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.”

The NAACP passed a resolution, later walked back, denouncing "racist elements" within the Tea Party movement. The resolution accused Tea Party supporters of holding signs “intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically" and called "the racist elements" within the movement "a threat to progress."

The NAACP passed a resolution denouncing ‘racist elements’ within the Tea Party movement.

David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank that explores issues of concern to minority communities, contends that Tea Party supporters “know they can't use any overtly racist language. So they use coded language,” calling the president socialist or attacking his perceived tendency to apologize for American actions overseas.

A new book by veteran White House reporter Kenneth Walsh recounts an episode in which President Obama himself insinuated there was an underlying racism in the movement. At a private White House dinner last May, Obama suggested there was a racially motivated “subterranean agenda” behind Tea Party opposition to his policies.

The Left loves to hurl the racist label at those who stand in the way of their policies and candidates.

Then why is Herman Cain, a conservative black businessman and radio host from Georgia, generating such excitement among the very people maligned as angry white racists? In a recent national Gallup poll of Republican and Republican-leaning Independents, Cain beat out Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, and Tim Pawlenty. Cain did even better among respondents further on the right, tying Newt Gingrich among self-identified conservatives with 10 percent.

The buzz around Cain, even if he is still not being treated by most as a serious candidate, is rather resounding evidence that the grassroots anti-Obama movement is about ideas and the future of the country, not race; and that the Left loves to hurl the racist label at those who stand in the way of their policies and candidates (see the commentators who bent over backwards to call John McCain racist for his “celebrity” campaign ad and the charges that Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst at the State of the Union address played on stereotypes about blacks).

The idea one must be racist to oppose Obama’s policies is cheap and intellectually feeble.

Cain himself is challenging these perceptions head on. His new campaign video features black supporters prominently, and Cain paints his conservatism and campaign as true racial progress in the United States. "I left that Democrat plantation a long time ago,” he declares, “and I ain't going back!” Later in the video, Cain says proudly, “My great-great grandparents were slaves, and now I'm running for president ... Is this a great country or what?"

Racism is by no means dead in America, and elements of it exist across the political spectrum. While one could reasonably argue that Tea Party activists are too angry, too focused on the budget, or too concerned with ideological purity, the idea one must be racist to oppose Obama’s policies is cheap and intellectually feeble.

Most importantly, using charges of racism as a shield with which to protect President Obama makes it harder to combat real prejudice, and slanders millions of Americans whose crime is being passionately vocal about their vision for America’s future.

Lazar Berman is the American Enterprise Institute’s program manager for foreign and defense policy studies.

FURTHER READING: Berman’s recent contributions to AEI’s Enterprise blog include “SecDef at Notre Dame: ‘The Ultimate Guarantee against the Success of Aggressors, Dictators, and Terrorists…Is Hard Power’,” “Did Obama Side with the Palestinians or Israel?,” and “A Tale of Two Flotillas.”



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hermancain; teaparty; teapartyexpress; teapartyrebellion
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To: SMARTY

* This name calling is the moron’s method of ending arguments he is not capable of winning either intellectually or logically.*

You’re right.

Someone who uses the race card in a false accusation is either not very bright, or too lazy to find out what the facts are.


21 posted on 06/02/2011 1:52:00 PM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (The only crimes that are 100% preventable are crimes committed by illegal aliens)
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To: neverdem; bitt; Bitsy; MamaDearest; seekthetruth; South40; Windflier; Clintonfatigued; Nachum; ...

Col. Allen West is equally as popular with the American people and a rising star who many want to run for President in 2012.


22 posted on 06/02/2011 2:07:46 PM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: radpolis
“Liberals would have an existential crisis if they couldn’t hurl the race card at their enemies.”

Like a computer program that encounters an error and sits there running an endless error loop.

23 posted on 06/02/2011 2:11:45 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (2008 was about words; 2012 will be about numbers)
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To: HereInTheHeartland

* Like a computer program that encounters an error and sits there running an endless error loop. *

0001 PRINT ”CALL EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH LEFTIST AGENDA RACIST OR OTHER NAME”.

0002 PRINT “ASK FOR HIGHER TAXES”

0030 PRINT “BELIEVE ALL NONSENSE IF SOMEONE CALLS THEMSELVES A SCIENTIST NO MATTER HOW FOOLISH THE SO-CALLED SCIENCE IS”

0100 PRINT “HIGHER TAXES ARE COOL!”
0420 GOTO 0666

0666 GOTO 0420


24 posted on 06/02/2011 3:20:12 PM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (The only crimes that are 100% preventable are crimes committed by illegal aliens)
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To: bgill; Windflier; rbd3

We KNOW who the REAL racists are!!!!


25 posted on 06/02/2011 4:32:42 PM PDT by CPT Clay (Pick up your weapon and follow me.)
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To: neverdem
Actually, the excitement about Herman Cain has nothing to do with his race.

And, btw, remember this excellent smackdown?

Tea Party Racist?

26 posted on 06/02/2011 5:04:02 PM PDT by fightinJAG (I am sick of people adding their comments to titles in the title box. Thank you.)
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To: neverdem

It’s worse than that; if the GOP runs one or even a ticket of Cain/West together, they’ll also be accused of affirmative action just to beat Bambi, and those guys would be investigated down to what brand of TP they use, unlike the distinct lack of scrutiny given to The Won by the MSM.


27 posted on 06/02/2011 5:19:08 PM PDT by GnuHere
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To: wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; Jeff Head; ...
Racial Violence Has Not Made It Into the Conversation about Race

David Mamet's Conversion Story (Beware foul language)

TTAG Called It: ATF-Enabled 50 Cal Implicated in Drug Thug Chopper Shoot

MSM Telling the Truth About the Mexican Drug Cartels’ Guns

Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

28 posted on 06/02/2011 11:24:16 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the links.

In answer to the question in the title:

1. BECAUSE HE’S SANE!
2. BECAUSE HE HAS SANE VALUES AND UNDERSTANDINGS OF TRUE REALITY!

3. BECAUSE HE’S MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN MARX AND ALL MARX’S DISCIPLES IN D.C.
4. BECAUSE HE’S GOT A MIND instead of socialist/globalist/demonized mush between his ears.

5. BECAUSE HE CAN STRING MORE THAN 1/10TH OF A PATRIOTIC THOUGHT TOGETHER IN COHERENT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS.
6. BECAUSE HE HAS INTEGRITY, RESPONSIBILTY, HORSE SENSE AND HEART!

7. BECAUSE HE HAS THE GOOD SENSE TO REALIZE THAT GOD IS GOD AND OUGHT TO BE RELATED TO AS SUCH!


29 posted on 06/03/2011 12:29:04 AM PDT by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

-———Don’t you know Cain’s an Uncle Tom? -——

Worse yet, he’s a rich Uncle Tom who has a resume that is both long and wide....... and he isn’t a drug dealer, a jock, or a rapper.

Sarah and Herman are my candidates. the decision will be hard


30 posted on 06/03/2011 5:51:32 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: ExTexasRedhead

I like Mr. Cain and Col. West a lot. Whether they can be viable for 2012, remains for me to see. But, I am thrilled they are stepping up, not only as conservatives and men of honor, dignity and ability, but to represent the conservative black community who need their presence in a world that only gave them Jessie Jackson, et al as options. I believe it is a good day for the black conservative community and of all conservatives who want government to be by the people, for the people and of the people. I look forward to watching them soar.


31 posted on 06/03/2011 6:08:23 AM PDT by Bitsy (!)
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To: PATRIOT1876

By calling you a racist (a convenient, albeit dated, cliché and by now irrelevant catch-all insult) is the idiot’s way of ending any/every discussion.

The door is slammed in your face before any ‘facts’ may seep into the discussion.

It doesn’t matter if you are talking about taxes, education, health care, foreign policy (REAL SCARY intellectual quicksand for Liberals), etc. ... their response will be identically the same. END the discussion quick as a flash by connecting the conversation to race.

It is amazing and laughable just HOW creative they can be with this.

It always reminds me of the expression:

‘If your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.’


32 posted on 06/03/2011 6:14:39 AM PDT by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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To: SMARTY

Why not just say yes? Your failed policies of diversity are tearing the country apart. You are our enemy. Racism is the bedrock of human existence


33 posted on 06/03/2011 6:22:42 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: bert
I don't know about Racism because I never practiced it AND never had racism forced on ME.

I WILL say that my family are from E. Europe and none of us look like ‘Rebeca from Sunnybrook Farm’.

Growing up ... and even now, I sense that some WASPY people behave differently to me. OK...it is a fact of life.

I didn't spend my life at home crying about it or joining militant ‘I Hate America’ organizations to ‘rectify’ THIS. We were NOT taught to hate “Americans” or avoid assimilation. Instead, we just worked hard (harder, maybe) and made our lives no matter.

Noticing differences between ourselves is how people ARE. Argue all you want ... it is SO!!

34 posted on 06/03/2011 6:32:03 AM PDT by SMARTY (Conforming to non-conformity is conforming just the same.)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping!


35 posted on 06/03/2011 8:17:14 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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