Ron Robinson's Open Salon Blog

Conservatives Create Fake Tom Hanks "Blackface" Controversy

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:03:20 -0400

As a Black man I refuse to apologize for saying that it is pure "EVIL" for Conservatives to pimp the White parent who jumped on stage in "Blackface" four years ago so they can attack Tom Hanks and Obama NOW.

YET, they've remained SILENT over the racist and toxic filth they recently showcased at their CPAC Convention. AND, they fully supported Ann Coulter's use of an ownership term denoting a property relationship to describe how Conservatives view Conservative African Americans, i.e., as "OUR Blacks."

They've lined up behind the Sanford Police Department handling of the Trayvon Martin murder AND the laws THEY created that enabled that murder - and THEN BLAMED Obama for not involving Justice Dept. soon enough! In other words, they were race-baiting him to do that so they could then accuse him of showing racial favoritism to Blacks.

They've been SILENT while Conservatives like Glenn Beck and others spread DOCTORED PHOTOS and/or lies (a la Breitbart see my article) to maliciously and falsely portray TRAYVON (and African American men) as "THREATENING" & "DANGEROUS" etc.

Now, falsely portraying the contents of a video, they've created/"DOCTORED" (a la Breitbart) a fake issue to Falsely and Maliciously portray in a negative light both Tom Hanks and President Obama while having the temerity to falsely portray themselves as actually caring about the images of BLACK MEN!

YET, they simultaneously spread the negative portrayals of "BLAH PEOPLE" especially of Black men that their leaders like Limbaugh, Beck, GOP candidates, and those in/out of Congress spread daily.

Once again Conservatives burn down a strawman factory they built to mask, distract attention from and self-exonerate their own WHITE SUPREMACY - AND without ANY apology while blaming others!

FIENDISH!"

Was Andrew Breitbart the Anders Breivik of Right Wing Media?

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 18:03:29 -0500

"Kennedy was a special kind of human excrement"
-Andrew Breitbart on Twitter, hours after Ted Kennedy's death.

By now you know that Andrew Breitbart died today.

To get more information on the details of his legacy you can check out this Huffington Post piece. What many people don't realize is that Breibart was very involved with the Huffington Post initially when he first helped Arianna Huffington get it off the ground. But because of his political differences with Arianna he soon left. But some years later he came back and his elevation to front page status on HuffPost earned the ire of many, including the organization Color of Change (colorofchange.org), which led a campaign to have him removed. Here is what that campaign had to say in part about Breitbart:

"Notorious liar and race-baiter Andrew Breitbart poses as a journalist and then uses his position to gin up race-based fears, protect racists, and demonize Black political leaders and institutions. And the Huffington Post has given him a prime space on its platform to do so."

As many are aware, Breibart was notorious for spreading doctored videos on his website to stir racial resentment and portray in a false and negative light "enemies" of the Conservative movment. One of his most significant efforts involved Michelle Obama during the 2008 Presidential campaign and the doctored video of one of her talks that he put up on his website.

Here is the doctored video of Michelle Obama's speech side by side with the real one. The doctored video cut the word, "really," from Michelle's talk where she said that she was "really proud" of her country. This was done to help create the false narrative she had NEVER been proud previously. Breitbart then used his website to both spread this doctored video, and more importantly, promote the false idea that Michelle was "unpatriotic" and "hated America." These hateful slanders continue to be used by rightwing trolls across the internet and rightwing media and operatives in general.

And of course, who can forget how Brietbart salaciously spread the doctored video of Shriley Sherrod, the African American official from the U.S. Agriculture Department, which falsely and maliciously portrayed HER as a racist for comments she made at her NAACP speech. Breitbart called SHERROD a "racist" even though it was SHE who was portraying racism as wrong in her talk!

Breitbart, the right wing media and Republicans spread the doctored video, and their trolls the false narative about Sherrod's alleged "racism" so successfully that she was fired and suffered tremendously because of it. When given the opportunity to show remorse and apoligize for what he did, Breitbart refused, and legions of right-wing trolls gleefully danced in the streets. Like Briebart himself, they too portrayed HIM as the "victim," even though HE was the perpetrator, AND as a hero for standing up to "the Blacks" and what Breitbart called the "liberal media conspiracy."

But who can forget his most deceitful and damaging effort - the one for which Conservatives shall forever hail him as a HERO and "true patriot" - What Salon identified as the fraud he perpetrated on the grassroots African American organization, ACORN, whom the Republicans spent so much time attempting to destroy and eventually succeeded because of Brietbart's efforts, in tandem with their own trumped-up charges , which were eventually proven false. Rachel Maddow irrefutably debunked Breitbart's fruadulent myth about ACORN and exposed HE "pimped" both that organization and America with his fraudulently doctored video.

Of note, there's a significant irony to Brietbart's refusal to disavow or apologize for the racist, sociopathic, and salicious strategies he deployed to help the Conservative cause, but rather ramp them up over time. It involves Lee Atwater, who was 40 years old when he died from a brain tumor. Recall, he was the famed Republican strategist, guru, and Karl Rove mentor who perfected the "art of race-baiting" and stoking "white racial resentment against Blacks" for political gain.

But, while on his deathbed, ATWATER confessed that he was wrong to have deliberately promoted White racial resentment against African Americans as a political strategy to grow the Conservative movement and achieve Republicans' electoral success. Also, that it was wrong to pursue the Republicans' racist "Southern Strategy, even though it had been and continues to be successful.

LEE ATWATER also apologized, was remorseful, and asked that those Conservatives coming after him NOT follow the destructive race-baiting and White racial resentment strategies he had used, even though it made him a Conservative/Republican icon and was helpful to their cause.

BREITBART ignored those pleas. Rather, he followed in Atwater's footsteps BEFORE Lee's deathbed conversion, and NEVER looked back.

I can only say that for his sake, that of his family, and for the country as a whole, I wished that he had looked back and heeded Atwater's pleas before he died. Were the Conservative Movement to seize this moment and heed those pleas in his memory, the healing the Country would collectively experience would be both palpable and transcendent and Breitbarts redemption assured.

End of Black History Month Tribute to Coulter's "Our Blacks"

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:02:48 -0500

One of things that continues to irk me since Obama was elected has been the Conservative rush to declare “Mission Accomplished” and that we’ve reached the "nirvana nervosa" of "colorblindness" and "postracialism." In other words, that race no longer matters. If that’s so, why did Ann Coulter infamously refer to Conservative African Americans as "Our Blacks?”

And why do Conservatives dangle “their Blacks” over the rest of us and glorify them as "independent thinkers" so long as they wrap themselves in the Conservative Confederate Flag, minimize the impacts of slavery, segregation, and discrimination, and worse? One of the fringe benefits of that “honor” bestowed to such Blacks is that they get to cry “racism” and receive Conservatives' support – as long the alleged perpetrators are Liberals.

As in so many areas of American life, Blacks have to be “twice as good “ to be considered the “equal” of a comparably situated White person. That’s why Conservative Blacks are compelled to constantly prove that when it comes to spreading “white supremacy,” they’re “superior” to even White Conservative racists.

In this regard, the first "Our Black" I pay tribute to is Herman Cain - the Koch brothers' Black "Brother From Another Mother." He outdid even the most cruel Conservatives with his "BLAME YOURSELF - IT'S YOUR FAULT" gestalt, "Blacks are brainwashed," electrify "illegals," and hateful anti-Muslim rants. And then in his best victim voice Cain reclaimed Clarence Thomas' "high tech lynching” refrain, and reprised Conservatives' vicious "high tech rape" of Anita Hill by doing the same against women who came out against his own “family values hypocrisy” and alleged sexual misconduct.

And let’s pay tribute to Republican Alan West from Florida, who seems primed to help make Republican Majority leader, Eric Cantor, the "Jewish Jefferson Davis" of the New Conservative Confederacy" and himself its VP. This would prove that Conservatives are NOT racist, despite the fact that the original Conservative Confederacy was formed to maintain slavery and continued it in its prison peonage form until 1942. As the excellent 2012 PBS Documentary, "Slavery By Another Name" exposed, White Southern Conservatives exploited the “prisons exception” in the 13^th Amendment to accumulate enormous wealth after the Civil War at the expense of Blacks.

If the Confederacy plans are delayed or need to be revised, perhaps West and Cain can form the “Three Fifths Party,” reprising the Constitution’s infamous “Thee Fifths Clause.” Recall, Blacks in Slave States were counted as three fifths of a human for purposes of determining the population and hence the number of Congressional Representatives White people could have. The “Three Fifths Party” would be made up of Blacks who had met the rigorous requirements necessary to be officially honored with Conservatives’ “Our Blacks” designation.

The “Three Fitties,” as they would be lovingly called by Conservatives, would aggressively attack the key legacy effect of slavery - the fact that the median net worth of the average White family is 20 TIMES MORE that of the average Black family – by offering “the Blacks” the following substantive solution, i.e., slogan: “IT’S YOUR FAULT. BLAME YOURSELF.”

At their founding convention, Michelle Bachmann would no doubt be invited to give the keynote speech, which would entitled: “Why the Blacks Owe America Reparations For Slavery.” The “Three Fitties” would promise to support Bachmann’s proposed legislation repealing the 13th Amendment (which outlawed slavery except in prisons). Alan West would be her co-sponsor and a President Cain would promise to sign it without delay.

In a twist of Gingrich doublespeak, they'd call it the "Black Family Reunion Act," since Bachmann and her particular brand of "Conservative Christian" believe that Black families were better off during slavery because they at least were "two parent headed households" back then (Recall how Gingrich called legislation gutting the EPA the "Full Employment Act").

I could go on with this, but since I’ve written many articles on race, which contain a plethora of citations, links, videos, humor, irony, satire, and goddmamnit make a good read, I’ll end here. Below, I provide the titles and hot links to the articles, and humbly ask that you read/re-read them when you can (many of them have been substantively revised since you may have first read them). Thanks Much and a "Happy End of Black History Month" to Ann Coulter’s “Blacks.”

The Hurtful Legacy of Herman Cain's "Suspended," "Brother From Another Mother" Presidential Campaign

Herman "Bigsby" Cain: "Black White Supremacist"

Chris Matthews Slams Huckabee's Racist Rants Against Obama

Why Right-Wing Christians Claim Obama As "The Antichrist."

Murdoch and Fox Portray Black Men as Terrorists on 24

Fear and Envy of Black Masculinity: How Politico's Jonathan Martin Mugged President Obama and Got Away With It

MSNBC's Rev. Joe Watkins Accuses President Obama of Breaking and Entering the Nation's Schools While Pastor Steven Anderson Prays For His Death

HAPPY MLK DAY! LET'S STRIVE TO THRIVE TOGETHER!

Rick SATANorum's "Sly Lies" & Sociopathic Political Theology

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:02:21 -0500

As a Jesuit trained Catholic, I'm appalled at the willingness of Rick SATANorum to convert the sin, "THOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS" into a virtue when it comes to lying about Obama and portraying him in a false and negative light.

But then again, this type of sociopathic "serial sinning" has been the "craze" among "Christian Conservatives" since before Day One of Obama's Presidency. (For more, please see my previous articles: "Crusader Christians, Tea Party Cult & the Left" and also "Why Right-Wing Christians Claim Obama As "The Antichrist").

This in part includes: Santorum and his aide, Alice Stewart's depicting Obama as promoting a "phony theology" and pursuing "radical Islamic policies;" Santorum's deceitfully sly portrayal of Obama as Hitler without using Hitler's name and as "Satan" without using Obama's name; Satanorum's use of "snob" as cowardly code for "uppity nigger" to describe Obama; his maliciously false and paranoid portrayal of Obama's helping more kids go to college as "indoctrination;" and his and his followers' lying about what they said/meant afterwards.

In the last few days, just regarding these examples alone, the right-wing has collectively given a virtual "clinic" on the "bearing of false witness," cowardice, and deceit. This falls right in line with Rush Limbaugh's fiendishly clever portrayal last week of Obama's "morgage plan" as both a form of "racial reparations" and a Nazi-like attack by Obama on what Rush deceptively hinted at were "Jewish bankers," but without saying those words. And lest we forget, the constant depiction of Obama as "The Antichrist" fiendishly made by many White "Conservative Christians," which I described in one of my previous articles.

But beyond this type of rank, satanorum evil, I am also deeply concerned over the meaning of Rick Santorum's rise - i.e., to help stoke the devilish "Conservative jihad" and right-wing "religious war" being waged to impose these extremists' sharia-esque sovereignty over our country. They have hijacked Chrisitanity and the Constitution's "free exercise of religion" clause to cloak themselves in the "borrowed robes" of "moral- authority/superiority" and "liberty" to mask their agenda of privatizing the public sphere (e.g., public schools, prisons, social security, medicare, etc.) and imposing "full spectrum dominion" on both our minds and bodies (including bodily fluids, contraceptive, health, and partnership choices, zygotes, embryos, etc.).

Santorum's "bible" is the "Old Testament/Old Covenant" (and St. Paul's "Epistles from New Testament because he's the gateway to the most stoneage customs of the Old. Also, the "Book of Revelations" with its apocolyptic imagery and "rapturesque" fantasies). Because his Gospel is the "Gospel of Inequality" i.e., Ayn Rand's sociopathic "Atlas Shrugged," and NOT the Gospels of Jeus, he doesn't recognize that OBAMA'S TRUE CHRISTIANITY is based on the NEW COVENANT TEACHINGS OF JESUS.

Sadly, Jesus become an "inconvenient truth" to the right-wing in general and Conservative "Crusader Christians" like Satanorum, Michelle Bachmann, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, et al. They portray the "poor," "sick," and "afflicted" Jesus prioritized as "moochers," "looters," and "parasites," and call "communism" the "common good" that Jesus made the manistay of his ministry.

Significantly, now it is the Lenten Season for Christians, when we are supposed to give up something of significance as we prepare for Easter's celebration of Supreme Love. However, it seems Republican "Crusader Christians" have not just given up for Lent but permanently given up ever following the example of Jesus and his admonition that we "care for the poor." Unless, by some spin of "Gingrich Logic," Republicans believe that Jesus meant that they should "seize the bodily fluids of the poor" as an example of their "care."

"Right-wing 'Crusader Christians' and their GOP/Tea Party Cult have now become followers of Ayn Rand, an atheist and self-proclaimed Jesus hater. So now, they have not only essentially proclaimed, 'I accept John Galt as my Lord and Savior,' but also pledge allegiance to the motto of Ayn Rand's hero and psychological inspiration - the child murdering serial killer and psychopath, William Edward Hickman: 'WHAT'S GOOD FOR ME IS RIGHT!'"

As a "Conservative Catholic," Satanorum has benefited from the right-wing coup in the Catholic Church, which overthrew many of Pope John 23rd's reforms, empowering cliques of right-wing Bishops around the world. Satanorum's beliefs are consistent with those of Ralph Reed, who has merged his so-called "religious right" with the Tea Party. They've also made Ayn Rand their "Goddess" and supplanted the Gospels of Jesus with the "Teachings of John Galt." This wing of "Conservative Christianity" is directly linked to apoligists and supporters of slavery, segregation, and lynching.

In fact, Martin Luther King, in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, chastised such White "Christian Conservatives" for turning a blind eye to, enabling, and/or participating in the bombing of Black Christian Churches and the lynching and burning alive of Black men, which they often did on the same day they went to Sunday Church service, at picnics for the whole congregation, including their children! Of course, "States Rights Conservative Christians" fought tooth and nail to prevent the passage of Federal Legislation to stop this barbaric practice, and they were successful.

The resurgence of the popularity of the FDR/JFK/Jesus -hater, Ayn Rand, and her fictional hero, John Galt should be a concern NOT just to TRUE CHRISTIANS, but to ALL American Patriots. Significantly, sales of Rand's Atlas Shrugged tripled in the first two years of Obama's Presidency, selling over a million copies. Ironically, Rand was an avowed atheist who hated the kind of advocacy for the poor, sick, and vulnerable that Jesus and True Christians stand for (i.e., whom Rand and her followers like Santorum, Paul Ryan, et al call "looters," "moochers," and "parasites"). In Rand's paranoid mind, there was an "equivalence" between Soviet Communism/Socialism (which she was obsessed with as a Soviet emigre) and ANY kind of so-called "Big Government" initiaitve undertaken by OUR OWN duly elected, pro-Capitalist United States Government.

These initiaitves included those undertaken by FDR to SAVE capitalism, which continue to benefit the masses of American citizens to this day (and that Rand herself benefitted from, e.g., Social Security and Medicare). I’m particularly struck by how Rand's use of the term, “communist” and “socialist” to describe FDR’s administration and reforms (a view of FDR also shared by many mainstream Conservatives), and "socialist" and “fascist” to describe Kennedy’s, has been adopted by her followers, the Tea Party, "Christian Conservatives," and right-wing media who casually describe Obama the same way AND mean it.

In my view, their apostasy and hypocrisy are so thick that THEY are the ones responsible for so many who have turned away from religion or even despise it since they have successfully hijacked the media and made themselves the "official" version of Christianity and moral piety.

And that includes the "U.S. Catholic Bishops," who are the "1% Oligarchs" of the Church, who try to sway every Presidential election to the Republicans, their seemingly "souless soulmates" who also happen to be their wealthiest if not most wayward patrons. As a Jesuit trained Catholic I feel compelled to speak out against these modern day "pharisees" and their "sodomy obsessed fertilized egg and fetus fetish," which they use to to present themselves as "morally superior" and falsely claim the "moral authority" to dictate political policy for the WHOLE country as they help the Republicans impose full spectrum dominion and achieve wholesale privatization of the public sphere

Seen in this light it makes sense that "the Oligarchs" would attempt to seize "moral authority" to lead ALL Christians by diverting attention away from their historic "cover-up of the cover-up" of what Santorum might call their own "sodomy scandal."

That's why WE must energize/organize a "BOTTOM -UP" MOVEMENT to BE THE BACKBONE Democracts need to pursue a progressive agenda that can realistically be implemented, rather than naively expect them to “just do the jobs we elected them for” and treat as a “betrayal” each “issue” they don’t approach and/or resolve ideally or according to some "ideologically pure" way. There's NO direct TOP-DOWN link between the President's voice/energy and "WE the People." It gets filtered through the MEDIA. The right-wing is so successful because they have 1600 right-leaning radio stations MOST of them "religious," Fox News, an organized network of Think Tanks, publishing houses, well financed blogs, legions of paid trollz, thousands of churches, and far more cash from Billionaires and Corporations than the Left has from Soros and Unions.

They've also got ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) financed by Kochs and mega-corporations, writing majority of laws adopted by legislatures nationwide, geared towards privatizing the public sector. They wrote draconian anti-immigrant laws in Arizona where arrestees are turned into cash by Prison Industrial Complex - members of ALEC. They also wrote the voter suppression laws adopted by Republican State legislatures that could change results of Presidential/Congressional elections.And let's not forget the powerful and secretive right-wing religious group, "THE FAMILY," which includes key members of Congress (see John Sharlett's great exposes on them).

For the record, I DO NOT accept the premise of the anti- abortionists that abortion is "murder" or that a fertilized egg is a "person," just like I don't accept the premise that a corporation is a "person" and that disbanding one and terminating (i.e., aborting) its employees is "murder," or that you and I are "fertilized eggs" (which according to the sick syllogistic reasoning above, both you and I and corporations would all be since we are all "persons" and therefore "fertilized eggs" since they both are "equivalent").

Finally, right-wing Christians, including the Catholic Bishop Oligarchs, have NOT made an equal cause of ending the death penalty, war, and poverty as they have abortion. This speaks to their hypocrisy, apostasy, and unworthiness to speak on behalf of let alone lead those who are TRUE followers/friends of Jesus.

It’s time for prgoressives to get real, and for even those who self-identify as "secular" or "atheists" to not be afraid to be inspired by and articulate DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING'S POLITICAL THEOLOGY as we reclaim our FAITH & FREEDOM from those who've defiled it beyond recognition, to whom we say:

TRUE CHRISTIANS FOLLOW JESUS - NOT JOHN GALT

For more, please read my substantially revised and substantive treatment of right-wing political theology: "CRUSADER CHRISTIANS, GOP/TEA PARTY CULT, & THE LEFT": This includes how "the left" must revise its approach to secular politics if we are to overcome the right-wing religious, political-economic, and "full spectrum tsunami" poised to send us back to the stone-age if not Armageddon.

Also, another previous article referenced in the beginning of this one: "WHY RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS CLAIM OBAMA AS 'THE ANTICHRIST.'"

The Legacy of Cain's "Brother From Another Mother" Campaign

Sat, 3 Dec 2011 14:12:13 -0500

I'm one of "those people" Herman Cain and some well known Conservatives have maligned as not "really" being Black. In other words, my mother's White and my father's Black. But my dad, who's 83 years old, was also born and raised in Lynchburg Va. during the height of segregation. And the both of us share the same take on Herman Cain's meteoric political rise and success in the face of scandal, even as he brings into being "Plan B" of his "suspended" Presidential campaign.

It's simple. He's the Koch brothers' BLACK "brother from another mother." In that role, he's embraced, proclaimed, and embodied the core values and sentiments of the GOP's most extreme free market, religious, Southern, and social Conservatives. But more importantly, he has aggressively channeled and provided camouflage for what many have identified as these Conservatives' race-tinged hatred of Obama and America's diversity.

As such, he seemed to relish promoting animus towards and/or hostile policies affecting the majority of Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, gays, etc. while hypocritically opposing "government intrusion" into private lives, unless of course it curtailed the sexual, reproductive, and personal freedoms of others. And with his folksy charm, he could scapegoat the poor, sick, vulnerable, long term unemployed (i.e., what Republicans call "non-tax payers"), public sector workers, and racial minorities in ways that reprised the good ole days of the "great communicator, Ronald Reagan. And the GOP base pines for the days when Reagan launched his successful frontal assault on labor unions as well as racial affront to minorities and poor mothers, whom he also falsely and maliciously characterized as Cadillac driving Black "welfare queens."

For a sustained period, Cain was the GOP candidate who most successfully stimulated the nostalgia for those days among "the base." With his charisma, charm, and clever wit, he skillfully demonized "social spending" (i.e., what Republicans call, "waste") and "government" for offering those in need a helping hand, while lambasting "liberals" as essentially the "root of all evil" in America and authors of his "high tech lynching." And no doubt, his deep voice and Southern twang helped resonate right-wing heart strings as he vitiated the 99% movement, progressives, Civil Rights groups, and the labor movement and gutterized their goal to create a more just, fair, equitable, and perfect Union, i.e., what Conservatives call "communism," "socialism," "fascism," "class warfare," "wealth redistribution," and "Black reparations."

No wonder political science professor, Robert C. Smith, has written that the core values of Conservatism and racism in America have always been one and the same. Whether or not a Black man articulates and exemplifies them does nothing to change that.

Perhaps that's also why Conservatives like Ann Coulter believe that Blacks such as Cain, Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, etc., i.e. whom she referred to as, "Our Blacks" (i.e., Conservatives) are superior to whom she called, "Their Blacks" (i.e., Democrats). In other words, Coulter's "Blacks" are "supreme" because they're willing to champion what even recent scientific research has described as anti-social values as well as white-supremacist/racist sentiments, and predatory policy proscriptions of militant Conservatism described above. And therein lies the unique merit of "Coulter's Blacks" - they provide special affordance/license to Whites to not openly express racist sentiments towards Obama and racial minorities, but to simultaneously "self-exonerate" for doing so. BRILLIANT!

Hence the contradiction of White Conservatives who claim their own racial "colorblindness," yet go so overboard in their race-based "admiration," praise, and support of what they call "Our Blacks."

In my view, the most intriguing aspect of Cain's candidacy was that in the face of multiple sexual misconduct allegations made against him by White women he retained exuberant support among Conservatives who have expressed the greatest antipathy towards inter-racial relationships (and Blacks). This includes their willingness to portray a BLACK MAN (Cain) as a victim of "HIGH TECH LYNCHING" by "liberals" while they simultaneously "HIGH TECH RAPE" one WHITE WOMAN after another who publicly came out against him and/or condemned his "family values" hypocrisy.

Just think, when my dad was in his thirties, if a Black man was accused of merely looking at a White woman in a sexual manner he could be LITERALLY lynched, disemboweled, and burned alive by the White "CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE" forbears of many of Cain's supporters - the same "Christians" whom Dr. Martin Luther King chastised in his "Letter From Birmingham Jail" for turning a blind eye to, enabling, and/or participating in the lynchings of Black men. The need to self-exonerate from that ugly history. And the continuing legacy of its underlying values may well motivate many Conservatives to enthusiastically support "Blacks like Cain," who symbolically wrap themselves in the confederate flags and metaphoric sheets of the “same old same Old South” (i.e., “the base”). After all, the expectation and need for such symbolic Black sacrifice is entirely consistent with the destructive history of the “Southern rite of sacrifice.”

In my view, Cain has masterfully played that race card and exploited that need. In fact, he added his own flavor to the racial recipe of the Republicans' infamous "Southern Strategy." Despite denials to the contrary, the goal of this ongoing strategy is to stir up racial resentment of Whites towards the overwhelming majority of what Cain called "brainwashed" Blacks (as well as non-White "illegals" etc.). This includes resentment towards "government," "taxes," and "liberals," which are portrayed as enabling lazy, undeserving "moochers," "parasites," and "non-taxpayers" to wreck the economy and our way of life.

Cain called his flavorful twist on that racial recipe, "Black Walnut." But it's not a black walnut born of just another mother, but rather one hanging from another tree, albeit a "9-9-9" money tree, with thirty pieces of right-wing sliver dangling like low-hanging “strange fruit” which Cain has skillfully picked clean.

Sadly, I predict that this ironic twist on the GOP's "Southern Strategy" will be the lasting legacy of the "Brother from Another Mother" and what will most likely be his "permanent campaign," as a political force, internet fund raising presence, and public/media celebrity. He will stay in the political game no matter what and will retain significant support not only from the Kochs, but also among many right-wing Whites no matter how his scandals play out for the reasons described above. But he has set the threshold for any Black Conservative who shall follow in his footsteps as a potential Presidential candidate.

They must be as charismatic as Cain and as willing to wrap themselves in the sentiments of the Confederate flag and White Southern Christianity, but also be free of the sexual scandals and imbroglios, especially with White women. That's not cynicism on my part, but rather a reasonable assessment given the consistent and historical behavior of the right-wing's most Conservative elements and the continued morphing of the GOP's "Southern Strategy." Should anyone wish to disprove my assessment of the Koch-Cain campaign legacy, I leave you with the following reasonable proofs that must be demonstrated:

That the GOP/TP base now accepts, believes, and supports the complaints of Black men that they are,

a) the unfair victims of racial profiling by police,
b) unfairly targeted for "Driving While Black," and
c) unjustly subjected to "mass incarceration" criminal "justice" policies that have helped destroy their employment prospects, citizenship participation (e.g., voting), families, and communities.

If such proof cannot be credibly provided then it will prove that the crux of Cain's success and support has been based on a self-serving, racial fantasy that has not and will not convert to greater understanding and empathy towards the plight of the majority of Black men in America. In that case, there will continue to be a fair degree of hostility directed towards any source that exposes the dark underbelly of right-wing racial politics.

But beyond attitudes towards Black men, what will be the legacy of the "Brother from another mother's" candidacy on the attitudes of White Conservatives towards their "Black brothers and sisters from another mother," i.e., Black families? For example, what will they say about the recent Pew Research study, which found that the median net worth of White families is now 20 times greater than Black families? I'll suspect they'll first feign concern about this huge gap much like Cain. For example, in his interview with Sean Hannity when he expressed empathy for those having financial hard times, like the thirteen years of it experienced by Ginger White:

"Sean, unfortunately, I'm a softy, and I feel sorry for people when they get in deep financial trouble, especially given this economy and people being out of work."

And then the softy Conservative base will reprise Cain's infamous refrain as they give a "fist bump" and heart felt "shout out" to the "Black families" they've now empathically embraced:

IT'S YOUR FAULT. BLAME YOURSELF.

And then they'll respond to the Tweet from Team Herman Cain to: "Please take a moment to encourage Mr. Cain to stay in the race and fight for freedom!" At which point they'll be asked to denote to his "premanent campaign."