During the 2008 presidential election, Republican candidate John McCain surprised everyone by appointing a young female governor to be his running mate. Although his bid for the presidency failed, McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, became the first woman in United States history to run for vice president on the Republican Party ticket. Her ditzy personality, incomparable lack of common sense and stay-at-home-mom demeanor were exactly what the family-values nuts were looking for.
This year, presidential candidate Herman Cain is causing a similar splash. His uncouth style, bizarre campaign ads and forceful rhetoric are catching everyone off-guard and catapulting him to the top of the polls. An Oct. 25 Gallup report shows that Cain has the “highest percentage of overall favorable opinions among Republicans and the lowest percentage of overall unfavorable opinions” — besting Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry.
In their recent support for marginal identities — a black man for president and a woman for vice president — it seems like the Republican Party is finally embracing multiculturalism. Given Cain’s strict partisanship and colorblind rhetoric, “seems” is the key word.
If I can be as frank as the Georgia businessman himself, Cain is a Chuck E. Cheese’s token. More accurately, he is a stack of tickets you can trade in to get an adhesive frog that sticks to the wall when you throw it hard enough.
Tokenism is nothing new to conservative — or even liberal — politics. Forget about the homophobic social platforms. If you can find someone who says he’s gay and supports fiscal conservatism, a flat tax and military spending, expect to see him all over GOP propaganda. If you can get him to say that gay people’s own hedonism precludes them from obtaining civil rights, buy him a leash.
Similarly, if you can get an eccentric black man to say Muslims should be banned from the government to preempt the imposition of Sharia law, the minimum wage is unnecessary or that we should build an electric fence between the United States and Mexico — well, let’s not stray into hypothetical situations.
Progressivism is a much sought after, but rarely practiced, concept. In a way, Herman Cain is a genius: By saying he is a “real black man” with whom Obama would rather not box, Cain has successfully incepted the American public. What better way to prove that Republicans don’t have a problem with Obama’s skin color than to support someone with an even darker one?
Herman Cain is blacker, keeps it realer and is not stupid, and he will never let you forget it. “If Democrats think they were progressive in 2008,” muses the GOP, “check us out in 2012 — our black man is ‘real.'”
Although Cain throws his blackness around like it was Jackson Pollock’s gloss enamel paint, he’s right. He is no less black for being conservative. Race is not a static concept with predefined benchmarks. Although Puerto Ricans are overwhelmingly liberal, a conservative one is no less Latino/a than anyone else. Perhaps we should step back and look at the really important issues.
He thinks it’s OK to ban mosques? Next.
Michael Casiano is a senior American studies and English major. He can be reached at casiano@umdbk.com.
