On September 23, actor Morgan Freeman called the Tea Party “a racist thing” while appearing as a guest on Piers Morgan Tonight. He said the “stated policy” of the Tea Party “is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term,” and then equated such a policy with “We’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.”
Of course Freeman’s only the latest in a long line of liberals to place the “racist” moniker on the Tea Party movement. And like the others before him, many of whom were mental heavyweights like Janeane Garofalo, Freeman’s criticism is unfounded.
Moreover, the foolishness of his statements became evident within a day of their broadcast, as the Tea Party and other outlying conservatives carried Republican Herman Cain to a smashing victory in the Florida straw poll on September 24. What this means is that Cain, a black man, was propelled to victory over three white men (Perry, Romney, and Gingrich) and a white woman (Bachmann) by the same conservatives that had allegedly been opposed to Obama because of the color of his skin 24 hours earlier.
The truth is that the same Tea Party that cheered and voted for Representative Tim Scott (R-SC), who also happens to be black, will cheer and vote for every candidate that stands against big government, high taxes, open borders, and abortion on demand, among other things.
On a deeper level, the message from Cain’s resounding victory in Florida is that conservatism is colorblind. This translates two ways: First, it means conservatives aren’t caught up in the idea of electing a president of color simply because of that color (regardless of what it is). Rather, they put substance over style. Secondly, it means that conservatives aren’t opposed to a given candidate because of the color of his or her skin (regardless of what color it is). Rather, they judge each candidate on the basis of his or her policy positions and political ideology.
Cain won in Florida because he has come across as the most conservative guy in the mix during the last two debates. Or to put it as Rush Limbaugh did: “You want to know why Herman Cain won the straw poll in Florida? [Because] you can’t find one example of Herman Cain, at any point in this campaign, not being a conservative.”
If we want to face the cold hard facts, it’s the left in America that’s consumed with race. They are the political ideologues dominated by racial categories and quotas like affirmative action, and by the furtherance of racially homogenous groups like the Congressional Black Caucus. (Read Roger L. Simon’s fabulous suggestion on what to do with the Congressional Black Caucus here.) They were also the political group that hailed Barack Obama as the “first black president.”
I still remember the ubiquity of articles penned by liberals like Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi back in 2008, which took the usual leftist approach of arguing that America needed a redemption that could only be found through electing a black president. Taibbi himself rhetorically asked his readers back then: “Would it be such a terrible thing for America to show that it’s big enough to elect a black president?”
But that’s simply not how conservatives approach politics. Conservatives aren’t looking for the black candidate, they’re looking for someone who understands and upholds the Constitution of the United States. They’re not looking for the Hispanic candidate who will magically cause Hispanics to vote Republican. Rather, they are looking for the candidate who understands that conservatism is the only political hope people of all colors have, if they want to experience the American Dream.
Perhaps Herman Cain put it best when he said blacks have been “brainwashed” into supporting Democrats to this point in our history. The liberals have been very successful in that particular way.
Yet with Cain, an American who is a conservative first and a black man second, people of all races have a poignant reminder that conservatism is colorblind, and that all those who have been trapped in the downward spiral of Obama’s socialistic welfare policies now have a way out.
That way is not through more government in our lives but through less government in every aspect of our business.
Also see: “Cain Wins Big in GOP Women’s Poll“
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