McCarthy on what Republicans should do about the charges against Cain

I wrote this morning to Andrew McCarthy:

Andy,

I’m not sure I understand the point of your article on Cain. Since you criticize the conservatives for giving the charges against him credibility by responding to them, what exactly are you saying that conservatives should have done, once Politico published the charges?

Based on the logic of your article, here are the only two alternatives I can think of:

• Conservatives should have ignored the story and said absolutely nothing about it; or

• Conservatives should have said, “Given the sexual antics that the Democrats have licensed in their own public men, the charges are sheerest hypocrisy and not worth discussing.”

Neither of those options would have prevented the story from running and becoming a big national story. Nothing the conservatives could have done would have stopped that. So I’m not sure what your article is trying to achieve.

Best,
Larry

Andrew McCarthy replies:

Larry,

I think you are ignoring a third alternative: to report the story as a classic case of Leftist hypocrisy—i.e., from the perspective of demonstrating the Left’s determination to destroy black conservatives as apostates, and of showing how constructs like “sexual harassment” and the rule of lawyers are used to reinforce the hampering of conservatives while left-wing politicians are immune. I understand that it would have been impossible to ignore the story. What I don’t understand is why the Right assumes it must report the story within the Left’s template.

In the end, this episode is a fairly tame dry run. The general election will be far, far worse in its abuses. I am—hopefully, but perhaps ineffectively—trying to encourage people to report these stories with an eye constantly on the most relevant matter: not that Herman Cain (or whoever) may have committed some trivial indiscretion but that the Left is playing hardball, for keeps.

Best,
Andy

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 02, 2011 03:30 PM | Send