"Herman Cain’s turn atop the polls in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination captured the attention of journalists and pundits and sparked excitement among grass-roots conservative activists. But is it really possible that he — a black man who overcame poverty in the segregated South to become a wealthy entrepreneur and front-runner in the GOP race — would be the one to bring African American voters back to their original political home?Yes, some of us identify with the fact that Mr. Cain attended a historically black college, Morehouse College. Yes, some of us may identify with the fact that Cain was poor and raised in the segregated South.
Cain seems to think so. In a mailer sent to Iowa voters recently, the candidate says “as a descendant of slaves I can lead the Republican party to victory by garnering a large share of the black vote, something that has not been done since Dwight Eisenhower garnered 41 percent of the black vote in 1956.”
It is a proposition that was quickly dismissed by political scholars and analysts, including some members of Cain’s party. Although he has done better than any other black Republican presidential candidate in terms of attracting support, few believe Cain could snare a sizable number of black voters in a general election, especially against President Obama."
However, most African Americans do not vote for candidates based solely on the pigment of the candidate's skin. The overwhelming majority of African Americans would never vote for Herman Cain, not because we are brainwashed, but because him and his political party are diametrically opposed to our interests.
Cain and his party oppose affirmative action, health care reform, workers rights, federal student financial aid and other issues that matter to African Americans. In addition, our people's support for President Barack Obama is unwavering. So, Cain never had a chance to win over a substantial segment of the black community.
His temporary popularity among Republicans was probably due to a couple of factors. First of all, the Republican field is garbage. All of their candidates stink. In such an environment, any charismatic and personable candidate would shine and steal the limelight. Also, he reminded the white Right of the good old days before we had an intelligent, relatively progressive African American president.
He gave the racist, xenophobic elements of the Tea Party cover. As a black man, his extremist and buffoonish anti-black, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim statements made it ok to be bigoted again. Such statements are nothing but modern day "yes sir bossing". Knowing that he never had a chance to be president, the Right was amused and entertained by his nonsense. They laughed when he sang hymns and "clowned" about "po".
Although the Right initially supported Herman Cain when the sexual harassment allegations emerged, I knew that his demise was inevitable. Let's face it. The Republican Party is a racist, white male dominated institution. Did Herman Cain really think that he still had a chance of winning the nomination after at least four WHITE women accused him of sexual harassment? There is no way that such a party would nominate a black man, especially one who is accused of defiling their precious white women.
Now, another
This article is cross-posted at Jack and Jill Politics.
