Cain threatens allegiance between blacks and Dems

Why the left fears Herman Cain: Surging candidate threatens allegiance between blacks and Dems

Andrea Tantaros
Friday, October 14th 2011, 4:00 AM

Though he's been a GOP candidate for President for months, it wasn't until he won the Florida straw poll last month and performed adeptly at the Fox News/Google debate in Orlando that Herman Cain caught the eye of millions and started surging in most polls. And just this week, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed him leading the GOP pack.

One can see why. He espouses a Reagan-esque likeability, he isn't stiff or staid and his story of personal success through hard work and determination is enormously inspiring. Growing up in the segregated South, he worked tirelessly to become the CEO of Godfather's Pizza. He knows what it's like to be forced to use a different water fountain than whites. But he also knows that being angry about his past would only hinder his future. The more you learn about Cain, the more you can't help but admire him.

That is, unless you're on the left. Yes, the man who compares himself to black walnut ice cream is giving liberals a brain freeze.

For example, singer and activist Harry Belafonte called Cain a "bad apple" and insinuated he was stupid.

"It's very hard to comment on somebody who is so denied intelligence, and certainly someone who is as denied a view of history," Belafonte said. "Because he happened to have had good fortune hit him, because he happened to have had a moment, when he broke through the moment someone blinked, does not make him the authority on the plight of people of color."

Liberal academic Cornel West (who has been taking swings at President Obama) told CNN, "I think he needs to get off the symbolic crack pipe."

And the Rev. Al Sharpton - one of the most notorious race baiters of the 1980s - hypocritically charged that Cain invokes race at any chance he gets and has criticized him for not being "authentically black," calling his politics a "joke."

So why would African-Americans espouse so much hatred for a black man who broke through racial barriers to embody the very notion of the self-made man?

Columnist and commentator Juan Williams believes they are "threatened by the success of Herman Cain." True as that may be, the anger of Cain's black critics has deeper roots than mere professional jealousy.

First, there is the political threat that Cain could garner a portion of the black vote if nominated, thus stealing from Obama's base. But second, and most importantly, Cain is blasting away at the left for having "brainwashed" African-Americans into voting the Democrat line, saying that he "left the Democratic plantation" and urging fellow blacks to do the same.

These messages are true for any oppressed American no matter what race or gender, but they directly threaten liberals like West and Sharpton, who have made careers out of inflammatory race rhetoric.

You see, talking about cutting government spending and lowering taxes to create jobs is one thing. Talking about personal responsibility over pocketing a government check, looking forward instead of backwards and choosing entrepreneurship over dependence is another. If the left co-opted the latter theme, blacks - and, in fact, many others - would be better off. Then again, West and Sharpton would suddenly become irrelevant.

Much as Sarah Palin flipped the feminist agenda on its head, Cain is doing the same for race.

The left wants minorities - women, blacks, Hispanics - to lean on government. Liberals have long loved to claim they represent African-Americans better than the right ever could, but under Obama - and even with a Democratic Congress - unemployment for blacks has spiked, as has the number of those on food stamps. Liberals also like to pretend they are tolerant and accepting of those who are different, but when it comes to anyone not ensconced in their progressive, elitist dogma - especially minorities - they mock and attack them, much as they did to Juan Williams when he was at NPR (and as they are now doing to Cain).

The strategy of Cain's detractors might be to intimidate and call him names, but the more they ridicule and insult him, the more they look desperate to play the race card in a country that desperately needs to move on from racial outdated tension.

Whether or not Herman Cain secures the nomination has yet to be determined. But even if he falls short, he's poised to be a rising star in the Republican Party, and a leader with a potent mantra.

"I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who believe this country owes them something," Cain has said. "If you put your mind to it and you don't play the victim card, you can do whatever you want to do in this country. I am walking proof of that."

That's a powerful message that everyone in this country needs to hear. No matter what your race or gender.