DeWayne Wickham comments on Herman Cain’s campaign.  Supposedly he does not understand that historically black people, conservative on some issues, have tended to view the federal government as their protector and to distrust state and local governments; and, knowing history, for good reason.  If there were to be a new political party, then, it should not be “socially liberal and fiscally conservative.”  If anything, quite the opposite, it should be conservative on moral issues, uphold vouchers, tax credits, and educational diversity, and be for law and order if law and order can be upheld in ways that do not involve profiling or “driving while black” or anything of that sort.  Similarly, Latinos might be more open to restrictions on further immigration if it did not involve policies in which brown people were more likely to have their papers checked.  Respect is a major issue in both these communities; if they have been ‘dissed,’ a word that comes from Black English originally, they will vote for things and people they don’t even particularly like in order to get back at those who have ‘dissed’ them.  And, while the new party can and should be concerned with fighting excessive and oppressive regulations, which fall harder on black and brown entrepreneurs than on anyone else because they can least afford to pay the costs imposed, it should show an equal solicitousness toward oppressive regulation coming out of city hall, the county seat, and the state capital as out of Washington D.C.; rhetoric about ‘justice’ will sell, but rhetoric about ‘decentralization,’ as if Washington D.C. were the source of all our troubles, will not fly at all.

Related: “Column: Cain more interested in white than black votes” by DeWayne Wickham at USAToday.com