Herman Cain, Southern Whites And The Race Issue (KingShamus)

Allahpundit over at HotAir.com makes an astute observation about the rising political fortunes of Herman Cain.

By the way, note his choice of hat here and the country/western soundtrack. Like I said after Frank Luntz’s focus group went nuts for him in South Carolina, he may very well emerge as the “southern candidate” in the field. How the media’s going to square that with their deathless assumptions about southern conservative racism, I have no idea — but it’ll be amazing to watch.

Read the rest, I’d say.

What does it mean to be from the South? If you listen to the scions of popular culture, all you have to do to find a racist sexist homophobe proto-fascist is talk to a denizen of old Dixie for five seconds. It’s such a lazy intellectually dishonest position, but many people have internalized that sentiment. For some, merely hearing a Southern accent means the speaker is thinly-disguised uber bigot. The truth is far more nuanced, and much kinder to Southern folk, than tired shopworn stereotypes.

Does racism exist in the South? Of course it does. Flawed human beings, not choirs of angels, live in the South. The real issue is just how much race plays in electoral politics. The 2008 presidential election gives us an indication of the race factor. It seems like the answer is 'Not nearly as much as you might think'. Barack Obama beat up on John McCain in North Carolina and Virginia, two key members of the old Confederacy. Obama's victories would suggest that caucasian persuasion racial animus wasn't enough to stop voters in these states from pulling the Donkey Lever.

Since the South isn't a bastion of knee-jerk race hate, here's an interesting question--What happens when 60% of Southern whites vote for Herman Cain in the 2012 general election? How does pop culture, with all of its built-in lefty prejudices, react to that?

There are two probable outcomes to that hypothetical scenario. One is that Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment universe will pull an Officer Barbrady and act like that Cain's snagging the cracker vote is no big deal. The South is still racist, but those stupid hillbilly wingnuts are so thick that they can't help but vote Republican even though the GOP nominee is a black man. Lord knows the media loves to ignore things that mess with their preferred narratives. The old head-firmly-buried-in-ones-own-ass approach has served the entertainment biz quite well over the years, so this is quite likely to happen once again.

The other possibility is that pop culture figures acknowledge that southern whiteys voted for a black man, but will argue that Herman Cain doesn't count as a true brother because he's conservative. As strange as that sounds, it's well within the bounds of cultural Left's playbook. According to Jesse Jackson Jr., if you're black and you don't vote for health care reform, you're not really black. According to the weird feminist sisters, Sarah Palin's right-of-center leanings means she's not really a woman.

Both of the above predictions/probabilities make the Left look incredibly stupid. Which is all the more reason why Herman Cain should be the Republican nominee for President in 2012. Make Cain the GOP standard-bearer, then watch how Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and Chris Rock struggle to explain that Herman Cain's victory doesn't count as racial tolerance. Failing that, put Cain at the top of the ticket, then get a good hearty laugh when doucherocket cultural critics like Michael Eric Dyson and Cornell West try to explain to average Americans that Herman Cain really is not black.

Comments

[DaveO]

KingShamus,

The left will never, ever give up its bigotry. Many on the left will simply rail at their press, their bloggers, and their own eyes as deceitful tools of the Rethuglikkkan Machine. Even Jim Jones had his doubters who refused the kool-aid. No so today's American Left.

[Ash]

I totally agree with this post. Recently I find that I have to FORCE myself to consider the other GOP candidates fairly, because the notion of watching the contortions that the Left would have to go through if Cain is the nominee would be SO delicious.

I feel bad that a major reason for me to support a candidate is the color of his skin. (There are, of course, other reasons to support Cain.)

Still, if Cain winds up with the nomination, and then winds the presidency, it will certainly help U.S. history to look better. We all wanted the first African American president to be a big success. Unfortunately, the real world isn't always like a storybook, so we got Obama instead. Such a shame. If Obama is followed by Cain, and if Cain does even a half-decent job, it will certainly make for a more positive story for the history books.

[JoeInMD]

Bill Clinton was referred to as the first black president -- not seriously, of course, but it's still a revealing term. To the lefties, being black has less to do with skin color than viewpoints. I think there would be large numbers taking the second possibility you mention.

[darr]

Don't worry mr cain is wasting his time the south will never or republicans elect a black person to a political office in that party.They would rather elect a hindu indian that is just as dark as mr cain in the deep south than him.

[KingShamus]

Dave: Sadly, I think you're right.

Ash: To me, Cain is right about the issues first. The color of his skin--and the wonderous contortions the Left would go through because of it--is gravy. Sweet schadenfruede-laden gravy.

Darr: So the GOP is racist...some of the time? Keep on not making sense, homie.

Joe: Which would make them look incredibly stupid to non-Leftist folks. It gets better and better.

[DaveO]

KingShamus,

The left won't go through any contortions over Mr. Cain - they have a prepared, well-rehearsed tactic: the Uncle Tom/Oreo offense.

Mr. Cain's greatest strength is that he has hours and hours of audio on his opinions, positions, and logic/underpinnings. He has many articles with the same.

If his team can flood the zone in the cities with his views, then the Progressive tactic may be neutralized.

Neutralized, but I'd still buy stock in Nabisco because there's going to be a lot of oreo cookies thrown at him should he win the nomination.