(ThyBlackMan.com) It would have been real nice if I could have in good conscience stayed out of the entire Herman Cain for president dialog. Being asked a direct question regarding his candidacy and whether I could support him blew that whole idea out of the water.
Since I am not one to “blindly support” anyone regardless of color(GOP talking point shot to ______), I decided to do what any intelligent person considering the candidacy of an individual running for president would do in the 21st century. I hastened over to his campaign website.
Greeted with a cadre of supporter images right on the front page, all white(sorry dude but i scrolled through all of them-not even a school buddy ? A Cousin?) If this is a direct reflection of his supporters then we are in for a long election cycle.
Heading over to the “Issues” section of the site, and trying with great difficulty to keep an open mind, I took my time and read through each issue and the response and or position put forward on each.
For the sake of time and space, I will not go through each point individually. I will list the issues but for those of you so inclined you can head over to his site to read the positions on each one.
The issues – National Security, Spending, Immigration, Energy, Economy, Health Care, Entitlements, Regulation, Education, Faith & Family.
Reading through these, was enlightening to say the least. The majority of the positions brought forth are pretty much GOP talking points. Less government regulation(especially for businesses), cutting spending by eliminating entitlement programs(social security, medicare) etc. Replacing “Obama-care” with free market reforms was quite amusing – the belief that the market left to its own devices would somehow improve the current health care coverage situation in this country is quite mind boggling to say the least.
What really made me shake my head was the Faith & Family section which starts off invoking the Founding Fathers and speaking about all men being created equal when in fact this was written blacks and women were not considered to be covered under that statement.
He speaks about a higher power in conjunction with the founding fathers but they themselves wanted a clear separation of church and state. As a person of color I am still trying to figure out why one would invoke the founding fathers of this country with any understanding of who they were and what pursuits they were engaged in. Their initial incarnation of the constitution and the declaration of independence excluded most and their policies ran roughshod over many. This is what you invoke as a position running for presidential office and so happen to be a black male in this country. Just – Wow…
To that end I leave you with these:
Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle – Thomas Jefferson – letter to Robert Rush 1813
The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian Religion – 1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by George Washington and approved by the US Senate
Staff Writer; Alinda Pete
For more articles feel free to visit; The Good Black Woman.
One may also connect with this talented sister via twitter; BlkPhoenix66.
Lord Howard is very wrong. Obama is not an Uncle Tom, but Herman Cain is. Obama is a team player, as every President has been except Kennedy, Carter and Lincoln. There is a big difference.
Cain is fairly intelligent but lacks integrity and sought to validate himself by screwing all those white women. Then the only one he cheated with who was not white had the last name White.
I recently contacted Cain’s show and challenged him to a debate. If you read my many articles on this site, you will see that I am well informed and more than capable. Cain must have lost his mind to even begin to think the Republican party would have given him the nomination. 999 that, which of course is 666 upside down. Interesting.
I am very familiar with Cain’s business background at Pillsbury, the National Restaurant Association, Godfather’s Pizza and the Kansas Federal Reserve. But Cain is no more qualified to be President than Ben Carson. Give me a break.
And in case you are wondering, no I am not a Democrat. I am a realist. I am a fiscal and social conservative. But I am tired of Republicans slamming the President this country voted for TWICE.
God, can you guys lose gracefully with any dignity? I can tell you the good things Obama has done and the bad. I could also do that with Bush, Clinton and Bush. Let’s stop playing partisan games and get something done. And if the Republicans think they will win the Whitehouse by pulling up email accounts and talking about the President when they have put no solid plans forwarded, they will lose yet again.
White America is not ready for Herman Cain. That is a fact that most media types will not put in print. Obama succeeded because he is an “Uncle Tom”. He was never perceived by the White majority to be a threat. He was the “token” Black man in politics (white mother, and black father), and he seemed to be just another Jimmy Carter, with a tan, to the White majority. Then along comes Herman Cain, and all hell breaks loose. The media has to move full force to clue in the White majority that Cain is just another “Uncle Tom” (something that he is not). That he is NOT a serious candidate; Just a “crazy” Black guy with no real experience in government, or world affairs ( Obama doesn’t seem to know that there are only 50 states.).
The “mud” is thrown and accumulates, because the White majority is just not ready for a real candidate who brings both personal life experience, and business experience to a job that is actually more ceremonial than “Royal” (our Congress really rules, and the President just leads.). Oh, and did I forget to mention that Herman Cain is a Black person, and not one of the pecan tan type that don’t seem to disturb the White majority?
Now, I am not saying that Herman Cain is the right person to be our next President, but stop with the negatives, and let him speak his mind. And lets get serious about not judging a person by the color of his skin, or soothing ones conscience with “tokens,” of another race, by electing them to an office that they don’t qualify to hold. We don’t need another “Uncle Tom” as President. Obama has been our Trojan Horse, and if you don’t remember the ending to that “gift”, do your own homework and look it up, and think.
Lord Howard Hurts freedomfiles.blogspot.com
“You shall know them by their fruit…” I find it interesting that an obvious Cain supporter would feel the need to negate whatever point they are trying to make in support of their candidate by resorting to insulting and derogatory references.
I unfortunately do not have the amount of time you seem to possess to go back and forth on a point that was made quite clear. Campaigning rhetoric aside, because this is what the initial points were made on, the President of the United States is just that – president….not Emperor, not King. As such he is subject to the constraints of working with the other branches of this country’s government as created by those same founding father’s he chose to invoke.
With the current level of influence by corporations and lobbyists, and people like some supporters of some candidates, who vote against their own best interests..implementing anything as President of this country is dicey at best, and no amount of good intentions carries any weight.
Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing. I take no exception with that. My question is – what do you do with the people who have already made bad choices or have been in situations where they had no good choices to make. Removing services is all well and good but what do you do with all the people who are for example on welfare, or some form of assistance with no job skills when you decide to cut entitlement services?
What do you do with the people who are sick or in need of treatment but cannot go to the doctor because they have no insurance, can’t afford it, or are not covered because their insurer dropped them….?
Again the rhetoric is quaint but still rhetoric. The method in which it was imparted and is being used as a basis for an individual’s campaign for leadership of this country is what I took exception with and the views expressed thusly – are not any which I can support or agree with in their present form.
Continued references to my residing on a plantation and slavery is as stated in opening sentance….”you will know them by their fruit”
Alinda says: “Soc Security and Medicare in their current formats will go bust, but scrapping them for voucher based systems as some in the GOP have suggested shows a disconnect with what dealing with the medical system in this country is like. Radical reform is needed – but flipping that light switch off will create much worse problems to deal with than the financial liquidity of either.”
Adakin says: How is a voucher system a ‘disconnect’? Dealing with the medical system is a different issue from reforming the way we pay for a system that is rife with croney-capitalistic gerrymandering and political and monitary lobbying.
Medicare is societal obligation to pick up the tab for folks that didn’t or were not able to plan for themselves. But currently, that societal obligation is open ended. Its a blank check.
Alinda, at what point does society fulfill its obligation and the individual’s takes personal responcibility for their own care and maintenance?
Herman Cain’s solution is phasing in a new paradigm. He wants a Chilean/Galveston system for those under 45y/o. That way all current and soon to be SS and Medicare beneficiaries would get their promised blank check, while putting a cap on our children’s future obligation to fund the next generation of beneficiaries.
Please take a few moments and study the Chilean Social Security alternative… where Chilean citizens are retiring with 2 to 3 times the benefits that their American counterparts are receiveing.
Study the macro economic benefit of allowing citizens to retain their lifetime of contributions, dividends and compounding in their estate when they die and pass on that wealth to their heirs, beneficiaries and favorite charities. Just think of the macro economic benefit of an 20 or 30 year old that is raising a new family, and suddenly inheriting a couple hundred thousand dollars when grandma dies. Or that same person at age 50 or 60 when their own parents die and recieving another couple hundred grand. Suddenly, that young father or mother can make choices! They could pay off their home mortgage, or pre-fund their kid’s college fund, or buy that small business franchise they had been dreaming about.
Think about a society that no longer needs “Pell Grants” or Student loans to pay for college for their kid because their grandparents have already prefunded the cost.
Think about it a society where people have savings in the bank and don’t need to borrow.
Now consider the difference between how a wealthy nation of Chile delt with their earthquake that was 80 times more powerful than Haiti, compared to other nations and other disasters.
When you compare macro-economic benefits, you can quickly see what the REAL cost is of our Federal Social Security Ponzi Scheme put next to Chile’s free market, private ownership alternative.
That’s the system advocated by Herman Cain… yet you say he advocates “cutting spending by eliminating entitlement programs(social security, medicare) etc.” without commenting on what Mr. Cain would replace these programs with.
At what point do the slaves in your ideal world are no longer on the hook to pay for all the care and feeding of the moochers and their agents, the Looters? At what point can we earn our freedom?
Are we endentured slaves, where it’s possible to buy our freedom? Or do you advocate that the producers of wealth are simply… slaves for ever?
As I said in my previous comment, it appears, Alinda, that you’ve become far too comfortable living on the Massah’s plantation to realize the benefits of freedom, charity, personal responcibility and self-reliance.
I believe you are underestimating Herman Cain, sir. Conservative principles work. You show me one country in the world that prospers from socialist principles. You can’t name one. Although people love to use Sweden. Then why is it that they are pushing towards free market policies if their socialism works so well ? Lower taxes and limited government (maybe some people overlooked the fact that we’re broke – we can’t afford paying for all of this stuff) ? Also, the Constitution is very clear what the federal government is allowed to do. The very Constitution that promotes freedom – Frederick Douglas himself even said so. What’s the problem here ? Herman Cain is not spewing just talking points,sir. He’s espousing common sense.
It should be noted that it was the liberals starting with the American Progressive movement that spearheaded social engineering which is grounded in racism. It has associates such as Margaret Sanger who founded Planned Parenthood (an organization that participates in abortion which btw way 40 % of the babies they abort are black). There were some liberal blacks back then such as WEB DuBois who supported her eugenics policies. WEB DuBois who was also a Communist. Last I checked Communism wasn’t good for anybody. Part of that Progressive movement included state sponsored racism thru tools such as Jim Crow laws. Then of course the liberals pulled a shapeshifter act and decided to be the great reformers – in other words, blacks, you can only get your rights thru us, when they were the very ones who started it. Even still, if you look at the Civil Rights Acts after the Civil War as well as those of 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965, and 1968, there were always a greater percentage of Republicans voting for these than Democrats.
I admit the liberals did a really smart thing – they went to the black pastors and convenced them that services traditonally provided by black churches should be provided by the state. Everything has its price, folks. Look at the inner city neighborhoods – that’s the result of state sponsored policies.
As Martin Luther King stated long ago, judge a man by the content of his character not by the color of his skin. That’s what I and Herman Cain have done with Barack Obama. I’m treating him like an equal with other men. I’ve done the same with George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and anyone else.
There are a series of topics showing that conservatism works better for blacks. However, we’ll save that for another day. Take care.
We need a REAL businessman and conservative to lead us out of the fiscal disaster we’re in. Don’t underestimate the Cain Train, friends. Although the other night’s debate didn’t allow him to shine, Herman Cain’s star is still rising and I think Americans will like what they hear as they get to know him better. He’s a proven business success and America is desperate for a change of course, before Obama ruins us.
One of the things about Herman Cain that appeals to me is that he isn’t a politician, and therefore says things that aren’t customary. He strikes me as very real.
Check out this humorous cartoon which uses Obama’s own voice, spoken by him, to make the case that he’s ill prepared to lead a capitalist society. The cartoon uses Obama’s recent (and desperate?) raffle to have dinner with him as a plot device to put him in contact with a perfect foil, who eventually decides that Obama is so hopelessly clueless that she is going to vote for Herman Cain.
http://youtu.be/8_zYD1loaHc
It’s pretty funny and it also serves to highlight the differences in worldview (at least in terms of business and the economy) between somebody like Herman Cain and Mr. Obama. I found it illuminating.
Alinda, it appears that you’ve become far too comfortable living on the Massah’s plantation. The fact that Herman Cain is advocating freeing the slaves imparts a reasonable fear among those that would rather trade security and servitude, for freedom and personal responsibility.
Frankly, I think Herman Cain is today’s John Galt… but is offering freedom to everyone, and not just “the rich”.
Adakin Valorem
Support the Candidates that support The FairTax!
Alinda Pete: “talking about health care and it not being a “right” however I am guessing the right to “life, liberty and pursuit” of happiness does not apply here.”
If health care is a “right”, does that give the claimant the “right” to demand service without compensation from a healthcare provider?
Does having “Dr.” in front of your name, or “RN” behind your name automatically make you an involuntary provider of services to those who claim healthcare as a ‘right’?
If one person has the “right” to the services of another, does that not make the doctor and nurse the victims of involuntary servitude?… i.e. slaves?
If they are not slaves, who is to compensate them if not the party that recieves the benefit?
And if that beneficial party is unable to pay, does their blanket “right” to healthcare, somehow override someone elses right to their earnings which are then confiscated so as to pay the doctor or the nurse? Is that what you are lamenting? Not having a “right” to demand someone elses labor regardless of your ability to pay?
Alinda: “If you are unfortunate enough not to be able to afford insurance, and since government (in the bizarro world of market-regulated health care) would not take up the slack, you should just crawl off somewhere and die when you get sick…like certain animals do…”
Alinda, your supposition has no historical basis. You need to look at how that problem was addressed before there was government intervention in the free market. I seem to recall from historical accounts, that it was the FAMILY (1st), then Church (2nd), then Voluntary Civic organizations (3rd) that filled in where Government fills in now. If people couldn’t pay with cash money, the doctors often accepted trades, a chicken, some carpentry work, a sink or plumbing fixture repaired. People didn’t simply “crawl off and die”… people worked out payments somehow. And third party funding was never needed to be coersed by the “agents of plunder”
With the advent of an omnipotent central government, often with no local compassion or oversight, we have today evolved into the costly healthcare monstrosity that we have now with our “managed” care system of crony-capitalism where every move a DR or RN makes is orchestrated and regulated by some bureaucrat in DC or the state’s capital.
Why is it I can see a steady stream of TV adverts from a talking lizard (okay, gecko), a red lipped white lady named FLO, a tall handsome Black Man telling me I’m in good hands and some white geek with a dial phone strapped to his chest hawking auto insurance and offering better service at a lower price than their competitor…
But I don’t see any similar adverts from Healthcare Insurance entities?
Why is it that a sixty year old married couple in New Jersey has to pay for maturnaty benefits in their healthcare package while the same couple in Wisconsin DOESN’T have to pay for maturnity coverage?Could it be the crony-capitalists have used their government partners to mandate monopolies within their state’s boundaries?
That’s just a couple of the NUMEROUS alternative free-market solutions that your comment never takes into account.
Where does the slavery (i.e. the demand upon my brother to be my keeper) stop?
Alinda Pete: GOP advocates “cutting spending by eliminating entitlement programs(social security, medicare) etc.”
In reading Mr. Cain’s website I didn’t see where he proposes elimination of entitlements. I did see where he would substitute existing systems with proven alternatives that provide better benefits at lower cost. In New Hamptshire’s debates, Mr. Cain pinpointed the Chilean & Galveston alternatives to our Social Security system that is currently in deficit. Both in Chile and for Galveston County employees, their Alternative SS benefits far outweigh the benefits of our soon to be bankrupt system.
As far as economic solutions, Cain is advocating scrapping the existing tax system that effectively is a system where the government assumes that all wealth, earnings and income is theirs and that any tax cut construed as “spending” their money on the rich. When government assumes that all wealth is theirs and is just a matter of how much the worker is allowed to keep is just a economic definition of slavery.
Slavery is when one person or entity has an ownership claim upon the productivity of another person. The common assumed definition of slavery is an ownership of another human being, but the only economic reason for slavery was that slavery provides the claimant with a blanket lien upon everything the encumbered person produces, earns or is paid.
If the government has a right to claim any portion of your earnings, it has the right to claim ALL of it. Ultimately, the final arbitrary percentage is a moving target. It’s merely a political proclamation based on the amount that the masters deem necessary to keep the slave fully grasping that they are effectively just a slave… and to keep the slave from trying to escape the plantation.
That’s exactly what our current system of taxation is today. The Government is the plantation Massah. It gets paid first and you only get to take home what the “massah” has allowed you to take home. The massah decides the percentage based on massah’s needs, not your needs, not your family’s needs and not your children’s needs, but THEIR needs.
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamations may have freed the slaves, but sixty years later, the 16th Amendment reinstated it.
Herman Cain’s Emancipation Proclamation is his advocacy of The FairTax (HR-25/S-13) which is a bill that would abolish the current tax law and replace it with a simple, flat national sales tax on virtually all new goods and services, thereby allowing Americans to earn untaxed income and allow them to choose how best to spend their untaxed earnings in transactions that are taxed at the cash register.
With our current tax system, your taxes are SEIZED.
With the FairTax, your taxes are PAID.
What is different between the two is that one system allows taxpayers their free choice while the other implies ownership and slavery.
Frankly, my support goes to freeing the slaves and unleashing our Nation’s economic engine by removing the encumbering taxes that throttle that engine.
I really would like to see a plan put forth by the Democrats or our President, but these are the same people that couldn’t even provide a budget as mandated by law for the past 900+ days and sidestepped our regulations by implimenting Continuing Resolutions.
My support goes to whom ever has the best plan. And right now the best one on the table is Mr. Cain’s FairTax Bill with its almost seventy congressional cosponsors.
@boxerpaws, I think if we wanted to know the exact intent of the founding fathers with regards to either document – we would need to engage the services of a psychic and purchase a ouija board. Point being the conflict regarding separation of church and state stems from OUR modern interpretations of a document that was written 200 years ago. Many of the current issues presenting themselves were not head of then and could not be anticipated based on what existed then.
As to the amusement regarding replacing “Obama-Care” having spent the last several years working at one of the top medical centers in the country, I have first hand experience and knowledge of WHAT the lack of coverage is doing not just to individuals but the institutions, the staff and everyone in between.
It is amusing in the sense of laughing instead of crying about something that shouldn’t in theory be so hard to figure out. The capitalist market has no area by which business decisions are made out of the goodness of their hearts – decisions are made based on profit, to suggest that placing the healthcare industry completely under those auspices and letting the market dictate in healthcare is a very slippery slope that this country should not be even contemplating in the first place.
I keep seeing folks getting irate when talking about health care and it not being a “right” however I am guessing the right to “life, liberty and pursuit” of happiness does not apply here. In which case if you are unfortunate enough not to be able to afford insurance, and since government (in the bizarro world of market-regulated health care) would not take up the slack, you should just crawl off somewhere and die when you get sick…like certain animals do…
Are we reduced to that? Are we to the point that we care so little for our fellow man or are so impatient with how things are that we would condemn people to death because they can’t afford to “live”…..
Just Wow…
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Soc Security and Medicare in their current formats will go bust, but scrapping them for voucher based systems as some in the GOP have suggested shows a disconnect with what dealing with the medical system in this country is like.
Radical reform is needed – but flipping that light switch off will create much worse problems to deal with than the financial liquidity of either.
Plantation negro references aside(actually that would be negress in this instance), I do not recall Joe Clark casting his aspirations to improve his community to presidential level.
As far as the stories about his dad and Grandpa, heartwarming I am sure, however my 99 year old grandmother who is still alive and voted for Obama last election and will most likely repeat that again in 2012 if she is granted grace to still be here, is a living story and walking testament to NOT placing one’s support behind a candidate that espouses the Ideology of and spouts the CURRENT(cause some of you will roll back to the original republicans on this)GOP talking points as a basis for his position on the issues that affect me and those around me directly.
Not taking anyway from Joe Clark and certainly most appreciative of free black men, in particular those who are educated and possess at least a modicum of common sense – it would be hard to throw one’s support behind a candidate like this at this juncture based on the information provided and presented.
While us is discussing and getting all heated over the Hermans Cains,Lil Waynes, Lebron James our Supreme Court has just passed an opinion that makes Drug Manufactures exempt from prosecution if the drug they produced causes harm. Clarence Thomas was the judge who wrote that opinion. The vote was 5-4. Please Note: The winner of the 2013 Presidential Election will likely nominate two justices to the Supreme Court. Let’s get heated about that Reelect Baraka OBama! That’s it and That’s all.
Well here we go again, another plantation negro attacking a free black man who has left the plantation and is not going back. Like you guys are not happy to see a free thinking black man. Well, you only make me more committed to this guy. When Barack Obama was running you fell all over each other praising him.
Now we have a true Joe Clark type {Lean on Me} and you guys act like he’s the Devil, I think it is truly sad, I mean i know the guys not perfect but his heart and mind are in the right place i Love how he tells the stories of his dad and Grandpa. Just don’t get how you Love Obama and hate Cain, truly this is mind boggling and i will never get it. I hope and pray for a Miracle that Mr. Cain becomes our next President. I will fight for him with everything i have.
i hear this phrase separation of church and state over and over.It’s NOT in our founding documents ANYWHERE. If you want to know the INTENT of the founding fathers it’s in the Declaration of Independence;the philosophical framework for the legal document,the Constitution.The establishment clause is not meant to keep religion out of the public square or public office.It’s meant to keep Congress’ nose out of the churches.Another words the other way around.
Then you wrote,”Replacing “Obama-care” with free market reforms was quite amusing – the belief that the market left to its own devices would somehow improve the current health care coverage situation in this country is quite mind boggling to say the least.” why is this so mind boggling? No system will ever be perfect but to think government is the answer is the worst possible answer.
Social Security and Medicare are eventually going to be bankrupt anyway.
We just continue on until the economy collapses.The poor get hit first trust me.If you really want to get a feel for Herman Cain this was out there before he decided to run for Pres.
http://cain4pres.americantalk.net/t340-ceo-herman-cain
I get your angst about the folks on the page being all white but i think the photos were donated by supporters.Don’t quote me on that-i THINK this is the case.
“What really made me shake my head was the Faith & Family section which starts off invoking the Founding Fathers and speaking about all men being created equal when in fact this was written blacks and women were not considered to be covered under that statement.” True-it was property owners.
On the other hand the Declaration has always been an ideal to be lived up to-not one that was achieved when it was written. We’re still on the journey too.
Herman Cain is just the person we need for President.I can’t think of a person who would bring more the office than Mr Cain and who wouldn’t bring the same old to the WH either.We can definitely leave that behind.
I put up a site for him in case anyone doubted my 110% support for him.
http://www.wix.com/idgit2/hermanation-2012