Meet Thomas Sowell: Conservative Icon *But I forgive him*

HarbingerOfShadows,

Sometimes I wonder why such a disproportionate share of my heroes are black. Add in Walter Williams and Ben Carson, just in the political and economic areas. Maybe they've struggled more and seen a wider variety of life.

We (as a society) might not agree with those gentlemen, but it would be far more useful to start the discussion with their ideas and work from there, then to listen to Paul Krugman, Louis Farrakhan, Nancy Pelosi, the New Black Panthers, or president Obama.

HarbingerOfShadows,

You might very well be onto something, but in Obama's case, he had a huge number of Whites vote for him, even in the 2012 election, when things in the administration were looking pretty questionable. And he beat a very white man.

I know that people say the opposition is based in racism, but I can't understand that. Outside a small number of very odd people, all of the opposition I see is based on his policies. Even attempts to cast the Tea Party as racist failed for want of any evidence that wasn't faked.

You may remember COL West (or was it LTC?) running for office. I also remember the rousing welcome he got in a biker bar.

I honestly believe, that especially in the president's case, the country is too concerned with the multiple issues of press intimidation, executive orders, hiding Fast and Furious and the IRS auditing of selected "Enemy list" members, Obamacare premium increases, and much more, to even care about skin color.

States Obama won in 2012 didn't go Republican because people suddenly realized that Obama was half-black.

HarbingerOfShadows,

That's a possible theory, but it doesn't explain the popularity and success of some other Black politicians.

But there are more fundamental difficulties I'm having with the theory. Will vast numbers of Whites, switch their vote simply because of skin color? Again, Dr. Ben Carson is emerging as a very likely candidate for the Republican nomination with a great deal of White support. Doesn't that contradict the "Skin Color" theory?

Besides, people from the Left and the Right have come to the point where they believe Obama is performing unconstitutionally, and some of his actions have been overturned by the Supreme Court. That suggests to me that there is a great deal of opposition to his policies.

His approval has been falling for some time. Is that because more people are recognizing that he is Black, or because they don't like what he does?

Finally, there seems to be no evidence to support the theory. Sure, it's possible. It's also possible that he is disliked because he throws like a girl, or takes very expensive foreign vacations, or has a very goofy looking dog. Those are all possible, but they don't have any evidence to support them either.

It almost seems that the theory starts with the assumption that vast numbers of Americans are prejudiced against Blacks and are willing to base their vote just on skin color. If that is assumed, then of course, the conclusion fits. But I don't see the reason to accept that assumption.