Herman Cain is a Placebo for White Racism

Herman Cain

After watching Tea Party favorite and GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's new campaign video, I finally came to a realization. I had long wondered what was the attraction was for the only African American Republican presidential candidate. But then I realized that Cain is running as an apologist for white racism. And that is why the Tea Party loves him.

Cain, with his rags to riches story of rising from the son of a chauffeur to a CEO, fits in perfectly with people who want to believe America does not still have issues with race. Republicans can vote for Cain and say, "Well, we aren't racist, we voted for a black man." I guess they have forgotten about all those signs they had at the health care rallies a few years ago, depicting President Barack Obama as everything from a witch doctor to a monkey.

I have several problems with Cain, apart from his apologetic tour. He has no political experience. His only other political campaign was losing a GOP primary in Georgia, and while some may see that as an advantage, it isn't. The last time a non politician was elected to the White House was Dwight Eisenhower, who lead Allied forces in World War II. And if you want to know how well non politicians do in office, just ask California how Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out.

Cain's main selling point is his business experience. But after the Wall Street excesses that nearly crashed the world economy, why do Americans keep screaming for government to be run more like a business? Do they really want government run like Lehman Brothers and Enron?

Corporate chiefs don't have the temperament for the political world, as can be seen in the disastrous reign of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is fast-gaining a reputation as the worse governor in the country. Scott, a former health care executive who was fired after his company received the largest fine in American history for Medicare fraud, is facing animosity from the left and the right.

Scott has barely been in office six months and Floridians are already talking about a recall. Cain has already flubbed questions about the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so who knows how worse he will do under even more scrutiny?

But the really troubling thing about Cain, is how he is so willing to pander to racial politics. He bandies about phrases like, "leaving the Democratic plantation," and being a "Son of the South."

Cain is appealing to Nascar Dads, which is ironic because many of these people also expressed some of the most virulent hatred towards Obama because he was "Muslim," or "foreign." And at his lowest point Cain, pandered to bigots by bragging that he would not name a Muslim person to his cabinet. (He later tried to backtrack on this.)

Republicans like to say that Cain's popularity shows that the GOP has embraced diversity, but I suspect that if he was made the Republican presidential candidate, he would split the party. Some of the ex Dixiecrats, who were seduced by Nixon's Southern Strategy, would split off and join a party that expressed more radical racial views.

But even if Cain was white, he would still be like Sarah Palin, a joke of a candidate, who has no chance of getting elected. He is just lapping up the media attention in his "I'm Trying to Get Paid" tour." The campaign has done wonders for his name recognition. And if he has to become the latest conservative black minstrel, he seems wiling to pay that price. He has plenty of company alongside Alan Keyes, Juan Williams and Jessie Lee Peterson in FOX News' Brotherhood of Self-Loathing Brothers.