Does Herman Cain's rise prove that the Tea Party isn't racist?

The small-government protest movement opposes America's first black president — but loves the man trying to become the GOP's first black nominee

Best Opinion:  Commentary, Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer

Of all the things Tea Partiers hate — socialism, President Obama, Big Government — perhaps none wrankles them more than the allegation that they're racist. Now, many Tea Party backers are lining up behind a black man, Herman Cain, as their choice for president. In a new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, 69 percent of Tea Party supporters gave the former Godfather's Pizza CEO a "favorable" score. Does this prove once and for all that the Tea Party isn't racist?

Yes. This confirms the racism smear was bogus: The Left can't deal with "Herman Cain's rise to Tea Party favorite and top-tier GOP candidate," says Jonathan Neumann at Commentary, because it torpedoes liberals' desperate attempt to paint anyone who differs with them as racist. The truth is that conservatives "care less about race than liberals do." The accusation that the Tea Party's opposition to Obama or illegal immigration was based on race was always a "vulgar mischaracterization."
"Study smears Tea Party again"

No. Cain is the exception who proves the rule: "Racial animus" is not the defining element of Tea Party ideology, says Leonard Pitts Jr. at The Miami Herald, but it's part of it. Conservatives like "two kinds of blacks." One, like Condoleezza Rice, is too polite to bring up race at all. The other "engages on race," but only to lecture blacks about how they have "the same opportunities to succeed as whites if they'd only get off their lazy so-and-sos and do it." That's "Herman Cain all over." Indeed, Cain "neatly encapsulates what has become an article of faith" for many Tea Partiers: "Namely, that it is they, not black and brown people, who are the true victims of bigotry."
"Explaining Herman Cain"

Regardless, Cain will soon fade: Cain "may or may not be proof of the Tea Party's color-blindness," says Peter St. Onge at The Charlotte Observer. And in truth, the Tea Party movement does seem far more focused "on government largesse than the skin color of the people benefiting from it." But either way, this debate won't last long. Cain's signature 9-9-9 tax plan has been universally panned by economists, and it's all but certain that his "time at the top of the polls" will be quite short.
"Is Herman Cain proof the Tea Party isn't racist?"

 

A Democrat's 'race-baiting' Tea Party attack: 'Beyond the pale'?

The Right takes umbrage after Rep. Andre Carson accuses Tea Partiers of wanting to see blacks "hanging on a tree"

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) is facing a fierce backlash for telling a largely black crowd at a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) event in Miami that "some of them in Congress right now with this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me... hanging... More

Tea Partiers: 'Terrorists' or patriots?

The vice president reportedly said that Tea Party lawmakers "acted like terrorists" in Washington's fierce debt negotiations. Is that criticism fair?

Vice President Joe Biden said in a closed-door meeting that Tea Party Republicans "acted like terrorists" during Congress' messy debt ceiling negotiations, after another Democrat said the fiscal conservatives had "threatened to blow up the economy," according to... More

Is America over the Tea Party?

Unfavorable views of the grassroots anti-tax movement are surging. Is this a post-midterms hangover, or has the nation really soured on the Tea Party?

Barack Obama isn't the only one facing record-low popularity ratings. The Tea Party, so influential in the 2010 midterms, is facing its worst-ever polling numbers. A CNN poll shows that 47 percent of Americans now have an unfavorable view of the grassroots movement... More

Why is the Tea Party silent on Libya?

Liberal critics are decrying the war on Moammar Gadhafi, but the right's notoriously noisy grassroots movement has barely uttered a word. Why?

The president's decision to authorize military action in Libya has plenty of liberal critics up in arms — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), for one, has threatened Obama with impeachment over the airstrikes — and plenty of conservatives are howling, too... More

A Tea Party congressman's 'hilarious' Harry Reid impression

Freshman Rep. Allen West delights his supporters by mocking the Senate Majority Leader's mousy voice

The video: Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is a newcomer on Capitol Hill, but he's wasting no time making his presence known. West, a Tea Party star and Iraq War veteran, drew rousing applause from a crowd of supporters in his district over the weekend by delivering an... More