It takes a pathological degree of self-obliviousness to be a white conservative guy like Jonah Goldberg and write this:
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson took a plausible stab at why Carson is popular. “They like him, they like him,†he repeated, referring to conservatives in Iowa and elsewhere who admire Carson’s dignified and soft-spoken demeanor.
True enough; Carson has the highest favorables of any candidate in the GOP field.
But what’s remarkable is that at no point in this conversation did anyone call attention to the fact that Carson is an African-American. Indeed, most analysis of Carson’s popularity from pundits focuses on his likable personality and his sincere Christian faith. But it’s intriguingly rare to hear people talk about the fact that he’s black.
One could argue that he’s even more authentically African-American than Barack Obama, given that Obama’s mother was white and he was raised in part by his white grandparents. In his autobiography, Obama writes at length about how he grew up outside the traditional African-American experience — in Hawaii and Indonesia — and how he consciously chose to adopt a black identity when he was in college.
Meanwhile, Carson grew up in Detroit, the son of a very poor, very hard-working single mother. His tale of rising from poverty to become the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital is one of the most inspiring rags-to-riches stories of the last half-century. (Cuba Gooding Jr. played Carson in the movie about his life.) He was a towering figure in the black community in Baltimore and nationally — at least, until he became a Republican politician.
Like I said, it takes a pathological degree of self-obliviousness for Goldberg to assume he is in any way qualified to judge “authentic” African-Americanism. But note what Goldberg is saying here — he’s complaining that the world isn’t perpetually commenting on Ben Carson’s blackness.
It gets better. Goldberg then descends into the Usual Whining about how everybody picks on Republicans, and if a Democrat were to be treated as shabbily in media as Carson is being treated — the New York Times has stopped calling him “Dr.” — “charges of racism would be thick in the air.”
Then there’s the crowing about Hey, liberals — we got us a black politician, too! How do you like them apples?
How strange it must be for people who comfort themselves with the slander that the GOP is a cult of organized racial hatred that the most popular politician among conservatives is a black man. Better to ignore the elephant in the room than account for such an inconvenient fact. The race card is just too valuable politically and psychologically for liberals who need to believe that their political opponents are evil.
Carson’s popularity isn’t solely derived from his race, but it is a factor. The vast majority of conservatives resent the fact that Democrats glibly and shamelessly accuse Republicans of bigotry — against blacks, Hispanics, and women — simply because they disagree with liberal policies (which most conservatives believe hurt minorities). Yet conservatives also refuse to adopt those liberal policies just to prove they aren’t bigots. Carson — not to mention Carly Fiorina and Hispanics Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — demonstrates that there’s no inherent contradiction between being a minority (or a woman) and supporting conservative principles. And that fact is just too terrible for some liberals to contemplate.
Of course, that depends on what “conservative principles” one is talking about, but never mind.
Dr. Carson, now that he’s tossed his hat into the GOP’s Presidential ring under their tiny circus tent, has completely eliminated the common perception that to be a brain surgeon, an individual must be uniquely gifted not just with exceptional patience, courage, and hand-eye coordination and motor skills, but a remarkable and keen inetellect.
We already have plenty of Pediatricians and other doctors as GOP politicians in their state and our national legislatures – but, surprisingly, no Proctologists – who claim to not believe in evolution or science, but look, rather, for the explanation for all things in the Universe in the myths, dogma, and fairy tales contained in the ChristIan Bible. A bòok they believe came directly from God – but refuse to acknowledge and thank all of “His” unknown ghostwriters.
HA! See if they help “Him” with any sequals!!!
I hope no one who’s a highly respected individual in the aerospace field ever runs as a Republican politician.
Because, there’ll go the other field where we assume the individuals in involved are among the smartest of the smart.
Bye-bye to “Who do you think you are? A brain surgeon/rocket scientist?”
Hello to… What?
Beats me. Any suggestions?
“Conservative principles” reminds me of this, which I’m betting you already saw: http://www.salon.com/2015/10/30/lets_call_them_conservatives_in_name_only_heres_how_we_expose_the_ted_cruzdonald_trump_fraud/.
The fact remains Carson (if he doesn’t fizzle in the next few weeks) is NOT going to fly in the Confederate states. And he’s absolutely not going to dupe any African American voters to vote Republican; they are far too savvy to do that, unlike rural whites who regularly vote against their own interests.
Somewhere, a whale couple is still searching for their child, not knowing that years ago it had been swallowed by, and is still in the belly of, a sociopathic grossly overweight punTWIT named Jonah, who’s a willing stooge and a messenger – not for God -but for the rich and powerful psychopaths who want to rule the world: In other words, he’s helping them to eliminate anyone standing in the way of their consolidating what little has yet to be conquered – and then enslave and rule, no matter the cost or damage.
I really wish we could stop calling black people African-American. Neither Obama nor Carson were born in Africa. Oh, I forgot, Obama was born in Kenya. That makes him more African-American. To borrow a phrase from Gulag, Jeez!
“He was a towering figure in the black community in Baltimore and nationally — at least, until he became a Republican politician”
Gee I wonder why, why don’t those shiftless blacks like republican politicians, hmm I wonder? Maybe because of stuff like this!
“the most popular politician among conservatives is a black man”
Give me a break, Carson is a RNC Campaign prop for the GOP and anyone with half a brain knows it, but this is Jonah (son of the cum stained dress) Goldberg!
Nothing I like better than some privileged white asshole coming out with the litmus test of blackness. And just how bigoted of a statement can you make. The only real black person is one who came from a single mother from an inner-city ghetto. Because that’s the vision that JG, and Republicans, have of black people. They’re poor, from single-parent households and they live in poverty in big cities. And all they want is a government handout.
Of course there’s no inherent impossibility of supporting a political group which actively works to sideline and undermine people like you. We saw it over and over when the Tea Party got started – how many times did we see people on disability decrying government helping others? A lot. How many times do we see people voting for, and even campaigning for, politicians who work to screw them over in favor of that politician’s rich benefactors?
And for a few prominent black people, Hispanics, women, and gays, to be outspoken conservatives there is a great potential benefit. The conservative movement desperately needs token minorities and women to put on public display so they can pretend to be inclusive. So they can pretend to not be racist and sexist. And because they use identity politics (when they then project onto their opponents) in the absurd belief that, for instance, a great many women will vote for a presidential ticket because it has Sarah Palin on it.
Is that so?
One thing Carson has in common with his white GOP counterparts is that he is at his core a grifter, he’s in it for money and power. Any “Dr” that would endorse a whackadoodle supplement as a potential cure for cancer should not be running for public office. He implied that the Mannatech supplement he was taking relieved his symptoms of prostate cancer to the point that he considered “foregoing” surgery. That is about as irresponsible as one can get, I’ve been through that surgery and to be honest it aint so bad but the lead up to it, worrying about the complications is pretty scary, so men who have to make that decision are vulnerable to alternatives that just don’t work. I hope that as Carson gains more traction that his affiliation with Mannatech will get more media scrutiny, the man is a big fat fucking fraud!
Wasn’t Jonah the guy who originally made the assertion that Obama’s electoral success was due in large part to white guilt? If I’m correct in remembering, then why wouldn’t the white guilt concept apply in Carson’s case?..Actually, according to Jonah’s calculations in comparing the pedigree of blackness as a measure of authenticity in being black; it should also confer a larger degree of white guilt upon Carson’s success thus far to account for his surging poll numbers.
Let’s see.. I’m 62, whte & male. Ergo, I must be republican. Let me check my voter registration card…. Nope. It say I’m a democrat. If you recognize that the individual occurrence in my case is meaningless, then you can see that Carson’s race and CF’s gender are not significant individually.
Carson is opposed to programs that were indispensable for him in achieving his success. CF is opposed to women having control over their own bodies. The candidates may be sincere in their opinions, or they may be pandering to a conservative base, but if either was to make it to the general election, there will be hard questions asked about the contradiction.
What’s interesting about the last debate is how the candidates are trying to limit the questions. Just as incumbents in Congress have selected their voters thru gerrymandering, the GOP candidates want to gerrymander the line of inquiries in the debates.
If the media caves, and they probably will, the circus of debates will become a kabuki dance, a ritual of show, where the contestants in the game show write the questions to the ‘answers’ they want to present to the audience. The only appropriate venue will be Broadway. What should the show be titled?
Title?
How about, ‘Everything, But Moderation.’
Or, ‘The Bad, The Worse, And The Ugly,’
I was wrong about who I thought was the originator of the white guilt philosophy. I knew it was some conservative gas bag masquerading as an intellect, so I assumed it was Jonah..Turns out that George Will is the one I was thinking about. And it also turns out that George Will wasn’t the originator of the concept. He was only an advocate for advancing the idea that Obama was elected President because white guilt an overriding factor in him being elected.