Cain Campaign Press Release - Carlson: Herman Cain Terrifies America's Liberals

Article by: John Carlson with DesMoines Register

The gatekeepers of American liberalism have decided Herman Cain is the scariest man in America.

This is because he is a black candidate for president who refuses to follow orders. Cain doesn't want their money, their approval or endorsements. He says that Barack Obama is a failed president and that liberal social and economic policies have nearly destroyed the country. Worst of all, this successful, good-humored black businessman proudly proclaims himself to be a conservative Republican.

Having seen so few of his kind, liberals are mystified by his obstinacy and the fact that, yikes, a new poll shows him running ahead of President Obama.

So instead of challenging Cain on his unproven economic proposals or foreign policy inexperience — and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to hit him there — a good number of them have gone the cheap and ugly route. They have decided to declare the black Republican a traitor to his race.

After all, who better to decide who is allowed to be officially black than a bunch of white liberals and their black pals in the media and Hollywood?

Cable TV show host Lawrence O'Donnell accused Cain, who grew up in Georgia in the 1950s and 1960s, of "sitting on the sidelines" during the civil rights movement. Cain explained that he was in elementary school and high school during much of the turmoil and that his dad told him to stay out of trouble and not get hurt. To which O'Donnell asked, "What if Rosa Parks had taken your father's advice?"

Yep. The snooty white liberal calls teenager Herman Cain a coward for not facing down the police dogs and fire hoses.

Al Sharpton, who has has announced Cain is not "authentically black," sang "Old Man River" on his radio show while discussing the candidate's views. Singer Harry Belafonte calls Cain a "bad apple." Academic Cornel West said Cain needs to get off the "symbolic crack pipe." Columnist Clarence Page wrote that Cain "doesn't seem to like black people very much."

The editor of Newsweek was on TV last week and mocked Cain's dialect, calling his "9-9-9" economic plan, "naahn-naahn-naahn." It brought the usual giggles and yucks.

What has Cain said to cause such an uproar? Well, he was asked on "Meet the Press" to explain why he doesn't use the term "African-American" to describe himself.

"I prefer black American. My roots go back through slavery in this country. Yes, they came from Africa, but the roots of my heritage are in the United States of America. So I consider myself a black American."

That crucial issue addressed, Cain was asked to explain why he thinks he is a better example of the true black experience in America than President Obama, a product of the best private schools and who never experienced life in the segregated South.

"I came from very humble beginnings," Cain said. "My mother was a maid, my father was a barber and a janitor and a chauffeur. We had to do things the old fashioned way, we had to work for it. My parents never thought of themselves as a victim so I didn't learn how to be a victim. I didn't have anything given to me. I had to work very hard in order to go to school and work my way through school, plus my business experience, I have run small businesses, I've made hamburgers, I've had to do the inventory, clean the parking lot of a business."

Cain says people in the Occupy Wall Street crowd should blame themselves, not the banks, if they don't have jobs. The real keeper, the one that causes liberal heads to spin, is when Cain says, "I left the liberal plantation a long time ago."

Black Americans don't need to be cared for by well-meaning white liberals, he says. Their social programs have done enough damage, thank you very much. He says blacks have been "brainwashed" into believing they should consider only the left side of a political argument. So he's called an ignoramus, a dope, an Oreo, an Uncle Tom and a minstrel.

Cain handles it all with a smile and a keeps talking issues. Don't use race as an excuse for failure, he says. Keep working hard. Success is there for the taking. It makes liberals' heads rotate.

Cain refuses to kowtow and that's the basis of the fear on the left. The keepers of the gate, the ones who decide what a black candidate in America is allowed to think and say, worry this kind of thing might catch on.

The next thing you know, young black men and women will begin to realize good things can happen to a person who dares to have an independent thought. They might vote the "wrong" way once in a while.

They also might wonder if the real "Uncle Toms" are the ones who do their shouting from behind the gate.