"There is no racism to see here boss! I am shaking the tree, you sees me boss?"
With Herman Cain apparently about to drop out of the race, it is time to have a fire sale. Over the past year I developed a portfolio on the Grand High Vizier of the Black Garbage Pail Kids Black Conservatives. As events develop, I now have to pick some gems from that repository before they transmute into copper.
This interview from the Black Conservative propaganda hit piece "Runaway Slave" is a great distillation of Herman Cain's weaknesses of character. All of the elements that would bring him down are present; all of the elements that would make him appeal to white populist racial reactionaries are also on display as well.
Cain is arrogant, narcissistic, outside of history, and honestly believes that he stands alone, a self-made man. Free rider, Herbie Black Walnut Cornbread Cain, also believes that he is accountable to no one.
Of course, the Civil Rights Movement, and the life and death hard work of black and brown folks, with a few white allies, did not make Cain's success at all possible. Moreover, Herman Cain is the very definition of an "affirmative action baby"--a label that was once worn with pride, but has now been sullied by the Right, a move enabled through a surrender of language by progressives and liberals. While Cain momentarily signals to the old school Conservatism of Booker T. Washington in this interview, he ultimately defaults back to being a race neutral fantasy projection for the White Conservative Soul by its conclusion.
No longer a "raging elephant" or "a runaway slave," Cain is now hobbled by his libido. His channeling of American exceptionalism--as performance art and flim flam artistry in the role of Tea Party GOP candidate--is coming to a close, to now soon be seen exclusively on Fox News.
There are second and third acts in American life. What do you think awaits Herman Cain as he shuffles and dances, exiting stage right, with his sack full of money, and pockets overflowing with duckets? Will he go off into the night, satiated and spent, sleeping off a political bender of sorts while he frolics under the watchful eye of Dionysus and Pan's satyrs?
Or is this just the beginning of The Herman Cain Saga?