Is Cain Sane?

Herman Cain repeated one of the calculated conservative talking points on Wednesday that blacks have been “brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view”. Although all reasonably sophisticated persons understand the Pavlovian tactic of stimulating a desired political response by redundant repeating of a constructed mantra – “Obamacare”, “socialism”, “class warfare” – Mr. Cain chose to mount an assault by insult, by the sweeping general conclusion that the majority of black Americans are minions in a mindless herd driven across the prairie of political and economic life by an unquestioned Svengali. He suggests that there is limited possibility that blacks could consider political options and then “choose” liberalism (in conjunction with roughly 50% of the national political body that doesn’t identify as conservative) as best serving their interests and concerns. It was a stunning affront that could stimulate the suspicion of “tokenism”, since Mr. Cain apparently gives due deference to white liberal’s ability at self-interested political thought. Why would a supposedly intelligent man say such a thing? What strings are the Koch Brothers pulling to make him proffer such an insulting stereotype out of a black mouth.

We un-sophisticates must assume Mr. Cain, the self-proclaimed “political outsider” is nonetheless playing the “inside” political game and saying the market and Limbaugh-tested things predominantly white conservative audiences want to hear. Granted Mr. Cain is clever enough to appropriate Mr.Obama's demonstration that blackness needn’t be a disadvantage, unless you make it one. Mr. Cain is certainly using race as an advantageous tool to promote a natural separation from the monotony of ideologically indistinguishable colleagues. Used in conjunction with the powerful tendency of idealouges to rally around whatever is said by a candidate waving a favored ideological flag, it can be a very effective tool to attract loyalty and votes, regardless of the factualness of what is said.

For example, recently in Florida Mr. Cain said the cancer he experienced in 2006 would have been fatal if “Obamacare” had been in force. He cited government imposed bureaucracy over the practice of medicine and the treatment options of doctors, and the infernal (and in his case ‘deadly’) delays inherent in Washington administered bureaucracy. In the interest of time and space I’ll just refer you to reportage by PolitFact seen at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/herman-cain-obamacare_n_985148.html as an alternative to Mr. Cain’s screed. If it is deemed meaningful and credible, what must we make of the man self-marketed as the ‘C.E.O. who is supposed to know’? Does it mean he actually knows very little about the nuts and bolts of what is strategically obscured as “Obamacare”, which he castigates at every opportunity? Does it mean he only knows what the minions of the Koch Brothers tell him? Or does it mean he constructed a tale and an appropriate black persona cynically designed to appeal to an audience prepped to detest “Obamacare”? Mr. Cain, by the way, won in that bastion of the senior vote, the Florida Straw Poll.

I am not opposed to clever electoral politics, I am in fact inured to it, as many Obama supporters and disappointees must be, but it only makes me more resolved to focus on the interests and concerns of my America - the middle class. In my opinion, as uncomfortable as it may be, we are not engaged in an ideological struggle, but a class struggle. And, as a political person, I believe what’s good for the middle class is good for America. The concrete instruction of history proves the fallacy of a scheme of thought whereby the prosperity of the majority is dependent on the altruism of the minority. History also delivers another lesson, to which 21st century humans are not immune, that the outsized economic dominance of a minority leads to the serfdom of the majority.

I would ask what would have been the health prospects of a man delivering pizzas for Godfathers in 2006 afflicted with the same form of cancer as Mr. Cain. Was he privy to the same quality of care for which C.E.O. Mr. Cain has expressed gratitude? Did he even have health benefits? Would he still be alive, and if so, are he and family financially viable after such a health catastrophe? Or would only a brainwashed person ask such questions?