Is it too much to say that Herman Cain’s treatment by the liberal media in recent weeks resembles the mass hysteria of a witch-hunt?
Witch-hunts, as we remember them, have a few things in common. They often begin with innuendo and gossip. Witch-hunts claim the person accused has unusual powers, and witch-hunts often end violently with a burning at the stake or a lynching.
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter saw the metaphorical lynching of Cain coming. “‘This is a high-tech lynching,’” she said on Fox News Channel…, echoing the Supreme Court justice’s words during his own hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991.”
Even though allegations and gossip of sexual harassment carry some weight with the electorate, to the chagrin of the liberal media, the allegations against Cain seem not to have affected his popularity or ability to raise campaign donations. NewsOne reports, “Cain has managed to turn the revelation of previous sexual harassment claims into an opportunity to raise money.”
Most damning to those accused of being witches is the accusation they have strange powers. This was the case 400 years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, when some women were accused of consorting with the powers of darkness. What strange power does Herman Cain possess that he could be accused of political witchcraft?
Herman Cain’s power to attract black voters away from the Democrat Party is the real motive for this political witch-hunt. Herman Cain’s power as a black rival to Barack Obama, could drain away enough of the black vote from the Democrats to cost them the next presidential election. Liberal Democrats must put an end to this type of political black magic.
Speaking in CNN’s The Situation Room, Cain said, “I believe a third [of African-Americans] would vote for me…” If Cain’s prediction pans out, the Democrats and Obama will lose the next election. How can liberals and their media tolerate such powers of witchcraft?
Even if Cain does not head the Republican ticket, Cain does have enough magic to influence the outcome of the election. With Herman Cain on the ticket as vice president or even mentioned for a cabinet post, some blacks may decide to vote Republican and not Democrat.
Thomas Sowell understands the magic of Herman Cain and his threat to Democrat 'politics as usual'. Sowell writes, “But Republicans don’t need to get a majority of the black vote. If they get 20 percent of the black vote, the Democrats are in trouble--and if they get 30 percent, the Democrats have had it in the general election.”
That 20 percent switch in allegiance, Sowell sees, would be the great apostasy for many Democrats. They know when enough blacks deny the faith in Liberalism and convert to the Republican Party, it must be the work of the devil. These conversions must be stopped at all costs. Enter the grand inquisitor, Politico and the liberal media!
In spite of Herman Cain’s political witchcraft, his “spells” may not be enough to get him the Republican nomination. There may be other forces that work against him besides allegations of sexual harassment. Writing in the American Thinker, Dean Stephens questions the official Cain narrative.
Stephens writes, “Herman Cain supporters have accepted his narrative that he is an American success story. The question is, just how much of that “success” did he earn on his own? And is it really the Horatio Alger story we are led to believe?”
But such criticism by Stephens is not the point. The questions raised about Cain’s story may also be raised about Obama’s official story. Yet, the mainstream liberal media never questions Obama’s biography.
More important in politics than a success story is the perception voters have of a candidate. When it comes to such perception, Herman Cain is seen by many to have a genuine political attractiveness. His attractiveness will get him Republican, Democrat and Tea Party votes. The question is: How many?
If Cain’s magic can make 20 percent of blacks vote Republican, then in the eyes of liberal Democrats, he must indeed have a power that only a political witch could have. This makes Herman Cain to Democrat politics today what Giles Corey was to the Salem witch-hunts of yesterday.
The heavy hand of the liberal media has taken the place of a heavy weight of stones. The talking heads of the liberal media are pressing down on Herman Cain with all their might. So far, that weight of stones has not crushed him.
Wait and see. Accusations of more political witchcraft are yet to come.
Robert Klein Engler lives in Omaha, Nebraska and sometimes New Orleans. Mr. Engler holds degrees from the University of Illinois in Urbana and The University of Chicago Divinity School. Many of Robert’s poems, stories, and paintings are set in the Crescent City. His long poem, “The Accomplishment of Metaphor and the Necessity of Suffering,” set partially in New Orleans, is published by Headwaters Press, Medusa, New York, 2004. He has received an Illinois Arts Council award for his “Three Poems for Kabbalah.” Link with him at Facebook.com to see examples of his recent work. Some of Mr. Engler’s books are available at amazon.com..
