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The Liberal Dilemma: A Black Man Leading the GOP Field

Bernard Goldberg

By Bernard Goldberg

Published Nov. 4, 2015

Wait, I'm confused. If Republicans in general and conservatives in particular are a bunch of racists, why is Ben Carson at or near the top of just about every poll?

The latest poll, this one by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, has Carson leading the pack with support from 29 percent of GOP primary voters. That's the highest percentage any Republican has gotten so far in that poll — and by "any" I mean black or white. Donald Trump, who I'm pretty sure is white, came in second with 23 percent.

Ok, back to my question: If Republicans and conservatives hate black people how do we account for the success of a black man running for president as a Republican? Actually, that's easy: Republicans support Carson in an attempt to show that they're not racists — while at the same time gutting any program that might actually help black people.

You see how devious those racist Republicans can be! Besides, Carson isn't really black. He's conservative.

I almost feel sorry for liberals. They have to concoct wild explanations in order to avoid coming to grips with reality. And here's the reality, they can't seem to grasp: Conservatives don't have a problem with black people. They have a problem with liberal people, regardless of their color.

Or to put it another way: Republicans don't have a problem with black people running for president — unless they're liberal black people running for president.

That's why conservatives admire Ben Carson and not Barack Obama. Or why they respect Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas and the scholar Thomas Sowell, but not Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson or black professors who actually think that mass murder is the product of white privilege.

It's not complicated. And since liberals are so smart (just ask them) it's odd that they don't get it.

Now to the other side of the coin: Ben Carson is a nice man and it's good that he brings civility to the campaign. But if his success with Republicans doesn't fade, there's a good chance Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.

I have outlined in this space the goofy things Ben Carson has said — about how ObamaCare is the worst thing to happen to America since slavery; about how some people go into prison straight and come out gay; and about his libelous smear that the United States "is very much like Nazi Germany." You expect this from some right-wing nut who figured out a way to get on the ballot — not from a candidate who is leading the pack.

Conservatives were outraged when dopey liberals compared President Bush to a Nazi. But somehow now it's okay to make outlandish comparisons between the United States under Barack Obama to Germany under Hitler?

This is the poison of polarization. When they do it, it's wrong. When we do it, hey they did it first. We're not in third grade anymore.

Here's what Peter Wehner wrote in Commentary magazine on the subject: "Politics isn't meant to be a catharsis. Yet for many of my fellow conservatives, raging against the system — the much-maligned 'establishment' — is just that. I get that it may be emotionally satisfying to cheer on careless rhetoric, to portray every political difference as a 'give me liberty or give me death' moment, and to imply that America under Barack Obama is like Germany under Adolf Hitler. But it is also intellectually discrediting, politically self-defeating and unworthy of those who are citizens of a great republic."

Ben Carson doesn't deserve the cheap shots aimed at him by liberals. But he doesn't deserve the GOP nomination for president, either.

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