Recently I read an essay by Juan Williams (not exactly a Tea Party guy) regarding a cabal of leftist university radicals who want to bully Dr. Condoleeza Rice into not appearing as commencement speaker at Rutgers. Never mind that she is far, far, far more accomplished in just about every way, and far more representative of the American Dream, than any of these intolerant, insular, ivory-tower lemmings of the left-wing mutual admiration club who sit there bereft of real-world American experience.

Rightfully, Williams supports Condi and opposes the leftists in this one. He states: “Before her commencement speech, I would like to see any of one of the members of faculty council debate Secretary Rice on foreign policy and then let their students see how well their professors’ critique holds up. Hell, how about we invite the entire faculty council to take their best shot at Secretary Rice in a debate.” Oh yeah…

You bet your backside I’d love to see that! The intellectual arse-whipping she could deliver to these pinheaded professors–slicing, dicing and Ricing them every which way, all while perfectly at ease and with her typically plainspoken yet deeply insightful delivery…I’m practically foaming at the possibilities. I suspect part of the angst is that they’re just intimidated by her–or more precisely, the ideas and understanding that she represents and elucidates so expertly.

Another, bigger truth behind these protests boils down to something else Williams states with his typical bluntness: “I am not a conservative but I have spoken out for years against the staggering amount of blind hatred directed at black conservatives by liberals.” Jackpot! The daylight shines on the problem right there.

The headline, asks, “Why do liberals have so much hate for black conservatives?” I know the answer–because they and other increasingly well-known racial-minority conservatives (e.g., Hispanics like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) are highly intelligent, achievement-oriented, independent thinkers who don’t tow the leftist company line. By their life examples, these thinkers resoundingly discredit the leftists’ stereotypes of how they should act and believe a certain way, based on their skin color. They’re not blindly following the talking points of patronizing ideological dogma dictated to them as mandatory by the so-called “progressives”.

Contrary to the spin they want you to buy, leftists value independent thinking as long as it’s not independent from their own. A white male conservative (especially if Christian) is easily and stereotypically dismissed: old fuddy-duddy, out of touch, product of a bygone era, past his expiration date, on the wrong side of history, homophobe, god-idiot, wingnut, tea-bagger, and other empty-headed pejorative concoctions that reveal their own shameless hate and bigotry.

An outspoken, white, female conservative, such as Sarah Palin, Laura Ingraham, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, etc., simply cannot be allowed the tiniest crumb of credit in their minds. She is slapped with the label of bimbo, bitch, kept-woman, or any number of other misogynist catcalls that play to the stereotype that a lady can’t be pretty and intelligent at the same time (or horror of horrors–pretty, intelligent and conservative at the same time). Leftist sexism, unfortunately, is alive and well across America today! Most ironically and hypocritically, self-proclaimed feminists often are at the very head of that hate line.

Yet it seems the left’s greatest vitriol is reserved for the minority conservative–especially if he or she is black. Why? To me, it is blindingly obvious: a palpable aura of plantation racism–yes, racism–lurks behind the leftist message that says, “You, as a minority, have to think like us to be intelligent, to be legitimate, to be a credible activist.” A black-female conservative? The very concept doesn’t register with leftists, as if her very existence is impossible; their synapses suffer “!DIV/0” errors and the best they can do is shout “Uncle Tom! Wait, she’s a she…Aunt Tom! Wait, that doesn’t work…Aunt Tomette…wait, that’s lame too…like, you know, uh…what do we do?”

I have an answer to that question too: shut up and listen. When such a conservative speaks, her message is authentic, meaningful, and represents a real phenomenon that soon will roar forth at the forefront of American sociopolitics. In the meantime…enough! I call on leftists to stop this coded (and sometimes uncoded) racism and sexism of minority and female conservatives. Of course, many won’t, and as a result, the “wrong side of history” label they love to wield will end up stuck on their own backs like a giant “KICK ME” sign. Hey leftists: how will it feel to be on the receiving end, to get a dose of your own medicine? Can you take it as well as you dish it out?

As for me: I stand by Condi Rice! I stand by Dr. Ben Carson! I stand by Colonel Allen West! I stand by JC Watts! I stand by Mia Love! I stand by TW Shannon! I stand by Dr. Carol Swain! I stand by Tim Scott! I stand by Clarence Thomas! I stand by Thomas Sowell! I wholeheartedly support all of these and others, because many rose from impoverished backgrounds (as I can relate). As such, they truly understand (instead of just paying lip service to) the meaning of virtues such as thrift, work ethic, self-sufficiency, honor, patriotism, wholesome family values, service to God and country, the nobility of fatherhood, avoiding the addiction of governmental dependency, and building/rebuilding America from the bottom up with minimal involvement from distant, faceless, ignorant Washington bureaucrats.

I’m proud that these men and women are fellow conservatives. I look defiantly, eye to eye with steely determination, directly in the face of naysayers, while reminding them that I care not a bit what the “progressives” think of me as a result of the conservative ideals we represent. I’ve picked my side of this argument, long ago, and there is no looking back. Instead…onward with the most truly progressive solution: conservatism. As I did physically on the playground, I refuse to be pushed around ideologically. Test me if you dare.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.


— C.S. Lewis