(ThyBlackMan.com) Criticizing the policies of President Barack Obama will have the Left accusing you of racism and the president’s supporters will brand you as a “hater.” Scrutinizing the presidential candidacy of Herman Cain will have the court of the high Right indicting you as a co-conspirator in a “high-tech lynching.”
Yes. There are racists on the fringes of the Tea Party. Yes. Defamation mercenaries exist on the fringes of the American left.
Beware! Our ideological arch nemeses may even be riding on the same Big Thunder Mountain Railroad car with us at Disney World! Hateful individuals and extremist factions will always abound within any radius replete with humans. Even so, patriots and humanitarians who express their love for America in different ways will also abound in those same circles—Tea Parties and Million Man Marches alike. 
Mr. and Ms. Public figure, we know that the sting of criticism and the crucible of scrutiny are not comfortable—we feel your pain; but such criticisms and crucibles are not personal either. This is America; the land where the freedom of speech and the freedom to criticize and scrutinize are the very boons that make this democratic experiment so glorious. Dissenting and disagreeing voices don’t speak very loudly in Cuba.
Maybe Tavis Smiley’s critics are right. Perhaps this accomplished black commentator is a tad bit green with envy due to the unparalleled once-in-a-generation ascent of President Barack Obama. But who among us can honestly see a person’s heart so lucidly that we can attribute motives? What we can see is that black unemployment has hovered around 16 percent since Mr. Obama took his oath of office and that 42 percent of black Americans agree with Mr. Smiley’s acute critique of the president according to a recently-published Washington Post-ABC news poll. President Obama defaults ad nauseum to his mantra, “I inherited this economic mess from President Bush.” But implicit in the word inheritance is a sense of taking possession. Dear Mr. President, please own the state of the union that you preside over and please do so with the urgency of now. Could it be that Mr. Tavis Smiley is not sipping from the proverbial “haterade” thermos like the Obama-can-do-no-wrong parade loves to roar? Is it far flung to think that Mr. Tavis Smiley is an independently-minded man who is measuring the president on the basis of his policy heft and effectiveness (or lack thereof) instead of employing the flawed metrics of personal charm and hue? No, it is not.
On second thought, the “hater” label may actually be accurate insofar as many of us hate the fact that highlighting the huge chasm between President Obama’s rhetoric and his reality provokes a visceral counterblast from his supporters that rivals that of critiquing Jesus Christ. Jesus!
As for the tiff between President Obama and the Tea Party: Are you telling me that the participants in what is arguably the most energized conservative movement in American history are actually knocking one of the most liberal presidents ever elected in the land? Stop the presses! How could they?!
But Ms. Coulter, you’re wrong as well. Stating that the Left is performing a “high-tech lynching” on Herman Cain is like asserting that gravity is performing a “high-tech lynching” on a surfer just before wipeout. Falling is a part of surfing. Scrutiny is a part of politics. It comes with the territory. Furthermore, we could more than likely trace the origins of these attacks against candidate Herman Cain back to his own G.O.P. tribe. Romney and Perry have more to lose to Herman Cain at this point in the election than Obama and Biden.
The good news for Mr. Herman Cain and President Obama is that these fierce ambushes against them confirm one very important fact—both of these men are out in front. The motivation for these attacks has less to do with Mr. Obama’s and Mr. Herman Cain’s skin color and political stripe and more to do with the fact that Mr. Obama is president and Mr. Herman Cain is a presidential candidate. One man leads our nation. The other man is leading in some important Iowa polls.
For the pioneer, arrows aren’t personal. Arrows have historically been part and parcel to the process of taking new territory. It would be wise for the president and the presidential candidate to conserve the energy that they spend whining about the sharp arrows of criticism and scrutiny that are being launched in their direction and expend more of their energy aiming to rise so far above the fray that these arrows will no longer be able reach them.
Staff Writer; Marvin D. Rogers
Also connect with this brother via Twitter; M. Drogers.
