Searching for that New Brand of Crazy that will Sell

You have to hand it to today’s Republican Party.  They still want the crazy and they’re just looking for it in all the right places.  Much of it has been on display at the values (sic) voters hatefest, the recent presidential debates, and Sunday news talk shows.  The problem is that when it gets exposed to daylight there’s so much crazy that the mainstream runs.  They’ve got to find a brand of crazy that sells.

Every time one of these folks burbles up towards Mitt Romney we get to see the new crazy flavor of the month. They’ve already been there done that with Bachmann and Perry.  The Bachmann-in-your-face-kind-of-crazy has led to a complete implosion of a campaign that went surprisingly well until Iowa.  Perry has been wilting under the spotlight.  His debate performances have been terrible and all kinds of his nutjob supporters have been doing a great job horrifying the country by speaking out for him and introducing him proudly.  Let’s not forget Ron Paul.  He’s the perpetual nutty nut flavor of each campaign season. The Republican presidential contenders have been just one big bowl of Granola full of fruits, flakes and nuts.

So, the deal is that they really really don’t want Mitt Romney who they don’t trust for a variety of reasons.  Hence, we’re seeing product testing.  So, the next nutty goodness to rise to the top of the taste test is Herman Cain.  He’s been a perfect tool for a party trying to prove that it’s not racist.  That’s been hard to do given the presence of Ron Paul and Rick Perry. Then there was Haley Barbour who spent part of his time inkling a presidential run by defending a hate group.  Well, let’s not be coy.  Those last three are the loci of hate group central.

Ron Paul has a long history of being supported by Storm Front and using state’s rights to argue that the Jim Crow laws really shouldn’t have been removed. He’s got a long line of writing racist memes in his news letters and has a well  stated position on getting rid of the 1964 civil rights act.  Here’s just one recent example of his toe-dipping into the realm of white supremacists group.  He actually invited a long time activist in the League of the South to testify to his subcommittee overseeing the Fed.

One of the witnesses invited to testify was Thomas DiLorenzo, a longtime activist in the neo-Confederate hate group, League of the South (LOS). The LOS advocates for a second Southern secession and a society dominated by “Anglo-Celts” – that is, white people. LOS leaders have called slavery “God-ordained” and described segregation as necessary to the racial “integrity” of black and white alike. DiLorenzo also is an economics professor at Baltimore’s Loyola College.

According to the Washington Post, “when Paul opened up the hearing to questions from committee members, Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) directly took on DiLorenzo for his membership in the League of the South,” pointing to the designation of the LOS as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Clay also cited DiLorenzo’s many revisionist works about the Civil War and Lincoln, including “More Lies about the Civil War,” “In Defense of Sedition,” and “The First Dictator-President,” which examines “how Lincoln’s myth has corrupted America.

I suppose we don’t need to go into Perry since stuff is coming out on him more and more all the time.  The ranch name thing is just the latest of the dirty laundry hitting the light of day.  He’s often been heard touting secession for Texas and supports the Sons of Confederate Veterans in their search to put Confederate symbols on everything.

So, it’s only convenient that the next great Republican crazy flavor is Herman Cain. Maybe he can prove that the Republicans have left Nixon’s Southern Strategy in the History Books.  He’s being used to inoculate racists in the party.  Notice that I’m not saying all Republicans support institutional racism or are personally racist.  Cain can get away with saying things like black people are “brainwashed” and racism isn’t a problem.  He does this all while ginning up fear of sharia’h law and Muslims.  Oh, and he’s not too friendly on immigration either.  Can we please extend the racism conversation to include a few more folks of color so we can add him into the Republican’s mix of homophobia, gynophobia, islamophobia, and xenophobia?  Let’s just show a few of his recent hits via Susie Madrak at C&L and the Christine Amanpour interview.  Here’s example one.

AMANPOUR: Let me move on to some things that you’ve said. Right after the debate in Florida, you told Wolf Blitzer of CNN that, basically, African-Americans, blacks in this country had been brainwashed over the years into supporting Democrats.

CAIN: Yes.

AMANPOUR: I mean, isn’t that really an inflammatory thing to say? I mean, do you really believe that African-Americans, blacks, are so easily manipulated?

CAIN: I also said in that same interview…

AMANPOUR: No, but let me you ask about that. That word is very inflammatory.

CAIN: It is. I’m going to answer your question. I also said the good news is a large percentage of black people are thinking for themselves. Now, I think that — if the word is inflammatory, that’s too bad. It is true. And here’s why: because some black people won’t even listen to someone who appears to be a conservative or a Republican. I call that brainwashing.

Here’s example two.

CAIN: Some people would infuse Sharia law in our court system if we allow it. I honestly believe that. So even if he calls me crazy, I am going to make sure that they don’t infuse it little by little by little. It’s not going to be some grand scheme, little by little. So I don’t mind if he calls me crazy. I’m simply saying…

AMANPOUR: You’re sticking to it?

CAIN: I’m sticking to it. American laws in American courts, period.

Any one who insists that “judeo-christian” traditions be put into law would essentially be arguing for sharia law too given that things like prohibition against usury is based in shared Abrahamic traditions.  That’s just one example.  I doubt Cain or most of his friends even know the huge tenets implied in sharia. They only assume it’s not “American” when their pet religious traditions are acceptable.  This wreaks of the same kinds of arguments they used to use on Jewish and Catholic faiths.  Right now, Cain and all his Republican pals are trying to avoid the attacks by their base on Mormons.

Perhaps most astounding to me is Herman Cain’s joke that our immigration policies should consist of a great wall of china and an alligator moat. This was as telling to me as Bobby Jindal’s pedophilia joke.  There’s jokes and then there’s tasteless jokes at other people’s expense.

Transcript: “I just got back from China. Ever heard of the Great Wall of China? It looks pretty sturdy. And that sucker is real high. I think we can build one if we want to! We have put a man on the moon, we can build a fence! Now, my fence might be part Great Wall and part electrical technology…It will be a twenty foot wall, barbed wire, electrified on the top, and on this side of the fence, I’ll have that moat that President Obama talked about. And I would put those alligators in that moat!”

So, here’s the statement on his policy outside the context of that strange joke in terms of a slap in the face to Rick Perry.  Oh, btw, we’re supposed to get a sense of humor to understand the joke.  Isn’t that what they all say?  This isn’t an immigration policy per se, it’s more like a paramilitary strategy.

Cain’s suggestion that immigration law enforcement should simply be turned over to the states is just another example of his naive understanding of both foreign policy and the Constitution.

As the Supreme Court established almost 70 years ago, the states have very little business weighing into immigration policy because “[e]xperience has shown that international controversies of the gravest moment, sometimes even leading to war, may arise from real or imagined wrongs to another’s subjects inflicted, or permitted, by a government.” If a single state mangles an immigration prosecution, for example, or directs disparate resources against the citizens of one nationality, it will impact the foreign relations of the entire United States — potentially even thrusting America into a needless war. The Constitution leaves these kinds of decisions up to a leader who has actually been elected by the whole nation, and not to the governor of just one state.

Nevertheless, Cain’s weak understanding of law and policy is apparently quite appealing to the kind of voters who cheer death and boo U.S. servicemembers. A new Fox News poll shows previous frontrunner Rick Perry hemorrhaging support — more than one third of his previous supporters ditched his candidacy in the wake of Perry’s defense of humane treatment for immigrants — while Cain has surged 11 points to third place in the GOP primary.

Perry, like the Chamber of Commerce, loves him some cheap labor.  Cain’s strategy is to let states use law enforcement to “repel the invader”.  I think we can safely say that the invader is still that age old use of “other” as tribe enemy.

At this point, you should be asking yourself why Herman Cain talks so much about race if it’s not such a big deal in this country.  Aren’t an awful lot of Cain’s comments aimed at race and continually saying it’s no big deal? So what I want to know is why is it  okay for Herman Cain to play the race card?  Is Cain seeing that this is some kind of trump card that Republicans can use against the Obama campaign’s prior use? What does this buy him?  Do I have to give my mom’s lecture on two wrongs not making a right?

Back in July, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain told Fox News that the “race card is now a joke, because a lot of American people have figured it out.” It’s a sentiment he’s repeated frequently, arguing that Democrats cry racism to paper over President Obama’s faults.

Yet Cain frequently invokes race on the campaign trail, far more often than Obama did during his first campaign for the White House.

Part of Cain’s appeal is his ability, as a black man, to tell white voters that race is no longer an issue, even as he invokes race to criticize liberals and Democrats.

Cain’s words have been embraced by conservatives who are defensive about racism. But when he’s strayed from that line of thinking, he’s been attacked by the same people for “playing the race card.”

“The way in which he invokes race is in its most benign way, with the most benign assurances. He confirms conservative views about how race functions in the political domain,” said Dr. Eddie Glaude, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton. “I think it’s just political chicanery.”

I’m actually getting the feeling that Cain may show up on the top of the Romney VP list because of the way he can manipulate the racism conversation as effectively in his own way as Obama did.  Cain is arguing that “Racism is not holding anyone back” while advocating policies that restrict the religious rights of Muslims, denying that there is any racism any where still in play against black people, and using speech that gins up hatred against Hispanics.  WTF do you call that? He’s playing that race card all over the place!

Presidential candidate Herman Cain said Sunday that he didn’t believe racism was a major factor holding minorities back in America, asserting instead that African Americans had a level playing field on which to advance economically.

“I don’t believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way,” Cain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Are there some elements of racism? Yes. It gets back to if we don’t grow this economy, that is a ripple effect for every economic level, and because blacks are more disproportionately unemployed, they get hit the worst when economic policies don’t work. That’s where it starts.”

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, said educational disparity and geographical separation were to blame for high unemployment rates among African Americans. Jobs numbers released Friday showed the unemployment rate among African Americans standing at 16.0%, while the total national unemployment rate remained at 9.1%.

If there’s a confidence fairy very that waves the magic wand to make voodoo economics real then Cain’s found her sister the harmony fairy.  Yes, there is no racism.  Meanwhile, let me tell you exactly why I hate Muslims.

Cain is also empowering the status quo by playing the socialist hippie bashing card on the protestors at Occupy Wall Street while brandishing his credentials as a tea party outsider. He’s got the hypocrite’s disease as he talks about tea party protests (good) and occupy wall street protests (bad). He uses the typical stereotypes of  “union thugs” and drum beating students who just want to live off their parent’s credit cards.  Cain totally misses the bigger conversation on income inequalities, predatory lending, lobbying that has enabled game rigging for Wall Street, the use of TARP funds for bonuses, and the complete economic mess left by a financial crisis brought on by financial sector lobbyists finding ways to gut regulation. Oh, then there’s  no raising taxes on the rich to make up for the jobs they destroyed.  Every one is unemployed because they’re lazy. They’re just out to steal every one else’s Cadillac. WTF kind of imagery is that? Where’s the real harmony fairy when you need her?

Occupy Wall Street has gained momentum almost in exact timed accord with Cain, rising in the past month from seemingly nowhere to become entrenched as a strong political force in America, if not throughout the world. Yet Cain is quick to criticize the movement, calling protesters “jealous” Americans who “play the victim card” and want to take “somebody else’s Cadillac.”

…

Cain said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” as Republicans and Democrats spar publicly over the merits of the Occupy Wall Street movement that those occupying New York‘s Lower Manhattan in what is said to be a months-long protest has been organized by labor unions as a way to serve as “distraction so many people won’t focus on the failed policies of (President Barack) Obama’s administration.”

Earlier in the week Cain, now leading most GOP presidential race polls since surging from the back of the pack with a Florida Straw Poll victory last month, said the Occupy Wall Street group represents “anti-capitalism” and is “anti-free market.”

“They are not working on the right problem,” Cain said at a social conservatives convention in Washington on Friday, according to ABC News. “Wall Street didn’t write those failed policies. Wall Street didn’t spend a trillion dollars. You can demonstrate all you want on Wall Street, the problem is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

So, this would be a good place to have a conversation about being a convenient tool for the powers that be but it just seems like we have that discussion a lot these days.  Shortly after Nixon adopted the Southern Strategy, Ronald Reagan adopted the Extremist Christian Strategy. Any evidence of the social justice roots of the Republican party have clearly been erased.    I shudder while watching some of the Republican women candidates talk about submitting themselves to their husbands or pearl clutching about feminists who support birth control and abortion . Many of these women fervently push anti-woman policies, I’m inclined to extend that image to other prototypes.  I just remember that awful Phyllis Shafly and how she was willing to sell out every woman in the country to reach the halls of power.  She was a useful tool and got tossed aside the moment she served her purpose. You can draw your own conclusions on what I think about Herman Cain from that metaphor.  There’s ideology and then there’s opportunism and ambition that’s a useful tool. We’ve seen the story again and again, haven’t we?

I remain an independent with a vote with no place to go.