The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Mr. Cain, Who Is Lawrence O’Donnell to Tell You How to Be a Black Man?’

Posted on | October 10, 2011 | 65 Comments

After Thursday evening’s “interview” on MSNBC, Professor William Jacobson and others were outraged by Lawrence O’Donnell’s self-righteous and disrespectful hectoring of Herman Cain.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So when the surging GOP presidential candidate agreed to take questions from reporters at his book-signing Friday at the Pentagon City Costco in Arlington, Virginia, I asked the question that many others were asking:

My question comes at about the one-minute mark of the video.

RSM: Mr. Cain, who is Lawrence O’Donnell to tell you how to be a black man?
CAIN: “It’s an absurd thing to try and do, isn’t it? I mean, for Lawrence O’Donnell to try and challenge me on what was I doing during the civil rights movement, that’s about as ridiculous as me asking him, ‘What were you doing when you were in kindergarten?’ The two things don’t even relate to one another. So, you’re right — his attempt to do that failed, in my opinion.”

While I certainly do not wish to accuse O’Donnell of raaaaacism, the way he treated Cain on MSNBC was typical of the let-me-tell-you-what-to-think attitude of elite liberalism. In the minds of liberals, anyone who disputes their pre-conceived narrative — whether about history, economics, foreign policy, race relations or anything else — is not merely wrong, but evil.

That is to say, on any issue that liberals care about, there is exactly one point of view that all people of good faith must share, and anyone who expresses skepticism toward the Official Liberal Viewpoint is presumed to be acting on secret motives of bad faith (mala fides).

So if you dispute, for example, the Official Liberal Viewpoint on “climate change” (anthropogenic global warming), their certainty of your wrongness leads them immediately to provide an explanation for why you are wrong. You may be merely too stupid to grasp the “consensus,” but it’s also possible that you have hidden motives — corporate greed! religious extremism! — that inspire your opposition to the Official Liberal Viewpoint.

This intolerance of dissent is especially characteristic of those liberals who, like O’Donnell, come from privileged upbringings where liberalism functions as a sort of noblesse oblige, and who therefore pre-emptively condemn conservatives as guilty of an indifference to the suffering and hardship of the downtrodden.

For a Boston Democrat of the My-Daddy’s-a-Lawyer variety like Lawrence O’Donnell, Herman Cain’s refusal to accept the Civil Rights Victimhood narrative — the only template for race relations that liberals understand — is a personal insult.

Marooned in Marin was at the Costco book-signing and captured my question from the opposite angle, where you can see my son Jefferson (in the red tie) standing next to me:

Marooned in Marin has lots more photos of the Costco event. Such was the reaction to O’Donnell’s insultingly high-handed lecture to Cain that O’Donnell spent a good chunk of his Friday show trying to un-dig the hole he’d put himself into. And in this video from Friday, you’ll hear a familiar voice at the 2:48 mark:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tommy Christopher at Mediaite chronicles O’Donnell’s crow-eating smorgasbord:

With the benefit of hindsight, O’Donnell told Melissa Harris-Perry that he didn’t “want to oversimplify the menu of choice that existed for black families in the South at that time,” although that’s exactly what he had done when he suggested that Cain “sat on the sidelines” rather than participating in demonstrations.
Harris-Perry wisely identified the problem with the manner of O’Donnell’s questions. She said that she was “squirming with discomfort” while watching the interview, and in explaining that discomfort, kindly employed the “royal we,” rather than point the finger directly at her colleague. “When we are not facing the lynchers’ noose,” she said, ”when we are not facing that imminent violence, ourselves, we have to be extremely careful about even the implication that those who did not participate were necessarily cowards.”
She pointed out that “it was always simply a minority of African-Americans who were engaged at any point in the civil rights movement because it was a life and death question.” . . .
Harris-Perry also nailed the inherently racist double-standard embedded in the Civil Rights line of questioning. “I can`t remember anyone ever asking a white politician who is of the same age where they were during the sit ins. As you pointed out in your interview, there were white students who came down to be part of freedom summer. There were white allies at every point.”
“Yet we don’t consider it a litmus test for white politicians to have had enough moral courage, ethical vision and American value to have participated actively in the civil rights movement,” she continued, pointing out that military service is a common such litmus test. “I”m worried when we don’t ask white politicians about their patriotism related to how they have or have not stood up for racial equality.”

Like Herman Cain, I am a native of Atlanta, where Henry Grady’s post-Reconstruction “New South” message of economic growth was first proclaimed, and where Booker T. Washington famously urged American businessmen not to rely on immigrant labor, but rather to “cast down your bucket where you are” by employing black workers. During the civil rights era, Atlanta was proud to be “The City Too Busy to Hate.”

Having been quite literally in kindergarten the year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, my personal memories of that era are necessarily limited. However, it has always seemed to me that decent law-abiding people — working hard to support their families and do the right thing in their everyday lives — need make no apologies to anyone.

Politics isn’t the entirety of our existence and we should keep in mind Eric Vogelin’s warning not to immanentize the eschaton. Quiet acts of Christian goodwill done by such ordinary Americans are not recorded in the pages of history books, and were not front-page headlines in 1964, but nevertheless it should be obvious to anyone with common sense that Rosa Parks and Bull Connor are not the whole story of the civil rights era.

UPDATE (Smitty): Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II (RSM): Jehuda the Rhetorican credits me with the press conference “question of the year.” Hey, just doing my job — speaking of which, there’s lots more campaign news today.

UPDATE III: Linked by The Lonely Conservative, William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection and Obi’s Sister.


Category: Herman Cain, MSNBC

A Tough Ad For Romney

Posted on | October 10, 2011 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

Perry goes jugular here:

If you’re a Mitt supporter, this is an opportunity for him to respond with a speech that puts the question to bed.

Advice to Mitt: go Tea Party in a big way here. If the base considers you a Ruling Class tool, you’re not going to get the support you need. Restated: perfect hair and National Greatness conservativism are a variation on the theme of Progressivism that has put us in this toilet bowl. You need to distance yourself from that.

(via Beregond on Twitter)

The Left Coast Rebel offers more Romeny tough love. Who is harder on Mitt, the Right or the Left?

Category: Mitt Romney

Candy Crowley, Your Ignorant Toolishness Is On Display

Posted on | October 10, 2011 | 19 Comments

by Smitty


Paraphrasing,
Crowley: How is it possible that you succeeded on your own merit, when African Americans so disadvantaged and have a high unemployment rate?
Cain: I wasn’t expecting the Raaaaacist Inquisition!
Crowley: No one expects the Raaaaacist Inquisition! Our number one weapon is division and envy. Two! Two main weapons are division, envy, and inculcating a preening sense of entitlement. Three! Oh, wait: this is our private, not-for-release list intended for the Ruling Class Indoctrination. One moment, while they load the correct list on the prompter.
Cain: Are you sane?
Crowley: With the proper chemical assistance, sure. *Ahem*. No one expects the Raaaaacist Inquisition! Our number one weapon is social justice and guilt. Two! Two main weapons are social justice, guilt, and a little hand-up from the government. I’m not sure who was handling your case, Mr. Cain, but you have to admit that, without the government on your side, and a bit of media cheerleading, you’d still be delivering pizza in a ‘hope tie’?
Cain: That’s a hooptie, and, no, your mind is polluted.
Crowley: [sobbing] But you can’t become independent, Mr. Cain! It there isn’t a large, captive base of voters to keep big government programs in place, then propaganda jobs like mine will vanish!
Cain: I’m sorry, Ms. Crowley, but economic truth, like sobriety, can only be avoided for so long by those staying drunk on other peoples’ money.

(h/t Gateway Pundit)

Here is an excellent essay on ‘the insulated bubble of blather‘.

More Cain goodness at Ed Driscoll.

Update: Linked at The Rio Norte Line, Daily Pundit, and Obi’s Sister.

Category: Progressivism, Racism

Who Said It? July 14: ‘I No Longer See a Path to Victory for Herman Cain’

Posted on | October 10, 2011 | 65 Comments

“Herman Cain has bottomed out, but still can’t find momentum to get in the air again. …
“If Cain cannot do well in Iowa, he is finished. And with six months to go, Iowa caucus goers are referring to him as a ‘supernova;’ i.e. a great flash of brightness soon to go dark. There are only around 125,000 caucus goers in Iowa. And many of those who were going to go with Cain are now going to Bachmann or waiting for someone else. He’s losing staff in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“I no longer see a path to victory for Herman Cain.”

I’d never seen that quote before, but it’s featured in today’s “Day by Day” cartoon:

Click the picture to see the whole strip. Just in case you were wondering what I was up to at that time: On July 17, I covered a Herman Cain fundraising event in Bethesda, Maryland — and drank Flying Dog ale with Cain’s campaign manager, Mark Block:

Flying Dog Ale: Secret of My Success!
 

Category: Day By Day, Herman Cain, Red State

Go Darrell Go!

Posted on | October 9, 2011 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Full tilt boogie, man:

Follow up with Alex Jones, who seems just a little tinfoil hat, offering some more Bush administration allegations:

Fine, bring on he special prosecutor. The truth will out.

Category: Democrats

In Praise Of Gridlock

Posted on | October 9, 2011 | 12 Comments

by Smitty

Karl over at Hot Air links some Scalia goodness on C-SPAN on the Constitutional role of judges. It got me to thinking, though: if federal over-reach is the problem, gridlock may be a powerful tool to limiting government overreach.

If it just hurts too bad to try to get the government federal government to do things for you, then, if you’re like 99% of the people, you’ll figure it out for yourself. The 1% of the #OccupyWallStreet crowd? Well, the brutality in this scene is wrong, but that doesn’t obviate the point: there are, in fact, unreachable people. . .And by unreachable, I mean, ain’t gonna change short of an overt Divine intervention.

Update: linking Hot Air again, let me respond to Tina:

What I find so hard to understand is why the Occupy Wall Street protesters don’t actually want what Cain has. They’re jealous, yes, but jealous for all the wrong things.

Socialism is the ultimate form of passive aggression, and an easily described four step process:

  1. Marx said: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
  2. This means: “If I can’t have it, you can’t have it.”
  3. You have; therefore, you stole.
  4. Having branded you a thief, all attacks are moral.
Category: Progressivism

The Crazy Guy at The American Spectator Who Made the Big Headlines …

Posted on | October 9, 2011 | 39 Comments

. . . wasn’t me? Damn, here I am writing thousands of words of 99.4% pure crazy, only to get upstaged by a kid:

American Spectator Editor Admits to Being
Agent Provocateur at D.C. Museum
. . . Immediately after the incident began hitting the newswires Howley published a “Breaking News” story with The American Spectator online in which he reveals that he had consciously infiltrated the group on Friday with the intent to discredit the movement.  He states that “as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator — and I wasn’t giving up before I had my story.”
According to Howley’s story he joined the group in its march toward the Air and Space Museum but the protesters on the march were unwilling to be confrontational.  He states “they lack the nerve to confront authority. From estimates within the protest, only ten people were pepper-sprayed, and as far as I could tell I was the only one who got inside.” . . .

Read the rest of Howley’s story, or the rest of the Firedoglake article denouncing him. My own experience with “civil disobedience” is mostly limited to a profligate disregard for speed limits and occasional Thoreau-esque protests against state laws prohibiting consumer fireworks.

Category: American Spectator

The Awful Burden of Influence

Posted on | October 9, 2011 | 34 Comments

My son Jefferson, 12, and Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller
at the FRC Values Voters Summit, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011

“‘Tis not in mortals to command success, but we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.”
— Joseph Addison, Cato, 1712

While I was kneeling down in front of the stage in the Regency Ballroom to get photos and video of Ted Cruz’s speech Friday, I happened to glance up and notice that the organizers hadn’t yet removed from the stage the table for the previous session. The table for the “All-Star Media Panel” was still set up and I saw the names on the place-cards: Joe Carter of First Things, Kathryn Jean Lopez of NRO and Ed Morrissey of Hot Air.

Ah, yes — another conservative conference where all my friends are invited speakers, and I am reminded once again that I don’t know nothing about nothing worth knowing.

Whenever I point out such evidence of my abject failure — calling attention to my non-invitation to BlogCon 2011, for example — people tend to take offense, as if I am blaming them for my failure to deserve respect. Everybody in the conservative movement talks about the need for “accountability,” and yet when I hold myself accountable for my own failure, people act as if I’ve lost my mind. Read more

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing.
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin