Liberals routinely denounce conservatives as racists, but after the vicious insults hurled at Kanye West in the anti-Trump media in the past few days in response to his meeting with President Trump, prominent African-American conservatives are saying West is being unfairly targeted for racist attacks from the left.
Deroy Murdock, a Fox News contributor who is black, denounced attacks on West by other African-Americans on CNN, saying that “these reprehensible, racist comments on CNN are typical of the Trump-hating left.” He added that “black Americans who think for ourselves (as conservatives) are mocked and degraded with words we last saw under Jim Crow.”
Murdock was responding to an attack on West by CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers, a former Democratic state legislator in South Carolina, who said “Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don’t read.”
Another African-American CNN commentator, Tara Setmayer, called West “the token Negro of the Trump administration.”
Larry Elder, a black conservative author and talk radio host, told Fox News that “apart from white Republicans, the remaining group in America that is still OK to insult, ridicule and stigmatize is black Republicans.”
Imagine the furor that would have occurred if a liberal African-American entertainer had been attacked with the same insults thrown at West. But since West is a Trump supporter, the left feels it can demonize him with the vilest of insults.
Dismissing, discounting, devaluing and demonizing someone’s opinions because of the color of his or her skin is pretty much the “textbook definition” of racism.
And that’s exactly what we’ve seen from the angry, hate-filled mob that the Democrats and their allies have become as they smeared and demeaned West over his unthinkable heresy: backing Trump while black.
Never mind the fact that West, in his extraordinary appearance Thursday in the Oval Office with President Trump, made deep and important points about the breakdown of families, about welfare dependency, and about economic policy, jobs and manufacturing.
Dismissing, discounting, devaluing and demonizing someone’s opinions because of the color of his or her skin is pretty much the “textbook definition” of racism. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen from the angry, hate-filled mob that the Democrats and their allies have become as they smeared and demeaned West.
Never mind that his comments about business revealed an ambitious, entrepreneurial spirit that is a model for any young person – black, white or from any other background – to aspire to.
Never mind that West’s passionate defense of thinking for yourself, standing up for what you believe, and resisting oppression and intimidation represent ideals that underpin a free, tolerant and pluralistic society.
And never mind that West actually made an argument in favor of those famous “democratic norms” that we keep being told are under threat these days.
Never mind all that: West is black; black people are supposed to support Democrats; black people are supposed to hate President Trump. It follows that West must be belittled and delegitimized.
So we had the obscene spectacle of some in the elitist Democratic establishment behaving like a crazed left-wing mob, turning on an African-American man and ripping him to shreds with unthinking brutality: West is mentally ill. West is stupid. West must be destroyed.
But here’s an interesting question: what explains the sheer intensity of the left’s racist rants over West? After all, West has expressed support for President Trump before, and the reaction, while hostile, was nothing like this.
I think there’s a simple explanation: the left is in a state of panic over President’s Trump’s undeniable success.
After years of depicting Trump as a narcissistic buffoon with zero interest in or knowledge of policy, imagine how galling it must be for the left to watch as he completes what any objective observer would conclude is one of the most successful first two years of a presidency ever.
On the economy, Trump has ended the war on enterprise, the war on energy and the war on success. It’s not just the deregulation and the tax cuts. It’s the fact that business leaders and entrepreneurs can see that this is an unashamedly pro-enterprise administration.
The president’s pro-business approach has led to a revival in business confidence, and that in turn has spurred a massive boost in business investment, including in infrastructure. This is the key not just to economic growth but to wage growth. Investment boosts productivity; if workers are more productive they can earn more.
That’s why we’re seeing not just record lows in unemployment but a big shift from part-time to full-time work and a rise in earnings after decades of wage stagnation.
Donald Trump promised to be a pro-worker president and he is delivering.
But Trump’s triumphs go well beyond the economy. As his administration matures I detect an increasingly solid grip on strategy and policy, and it comes right from the top.
The president is now achieving the recognition he deserves for a trade strategy that seeks to combine economic benefits for working Americans with impressive geo-strategic ambition.
Gone are the years of failed elitism that assumed nothing could be done about a rising China. President Trump refuses to cede American global leadership to the authoritarian regime in Beijing, and that is a historic accomplishment.
Then look at the grasp President Trump has shown on foreign policy more broadly: dramatically lowering the threat of nuclear war with North Korea; deterring chemical weapons use by Syria; showing that strength works – as evidenced with the release Friday of Pastor Andrew Brunson by Turkey.
There’s also the less visible but equally significant policy work that the Trump administration is quietly advancing. A great example is the Workforce Development initiative led by Ivanka Trump, coordinating a government and private sector crusade to equip American workers with the skills they need to flourish in the fast-changing 21st century economy.
All of this may seem a world away from Kanye West’s wild meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. But they are intimately connected.
What West sees is a president who is delivering on his promises, bringing about big changes after years of politicians who were all the same, and producing tangible positive results for American workers and families.
Interestingly, the left see that success as well. That’s what they’re terrified of. And that’s why any credible endorser of President Trump – like Kanye West – must be destroyed.
Tomi Lahren, Tezlyn Figaro and Reihan Salam will join me Sunday night to discuss all this on “The Next Revolution” at 9 p.m. EDT on Fox News Channel. Hope you can join us.
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