Democrats Embrace Al Sharpton

Brown University Professor Glenn Loury makes the case against Rev. Al Sharpton in a New York Times op-ed. But, first he makes the case against the idiot Democratic candidates who rushed to Sharpton’s defense after President Trump had attacked him:

When I first heard that President Trump had gone after the Rev. Al Sharpton — and that Mr. Sharpton had responded in kind — I must admit that I laughed. Are there two New York City hustlers who deserve one another more?

But 48 hours later, I feel differently. That’s thanks to the leading Democratic candidates for president, who have rushed to Mr. Sharpton’s defense, extolling his supposed virtues as a civil-rights paragon while denouncing Mr. Trump’s attack as racist. In doing so, they have, yet again, taken Mr. Trump’s bait, handing him another easy victory while yoking themselves to a genuine bigot.

To read their tweets, you would think Mr. Sharpton was Gandhi-esque. “@TheRevAl has dedicated his life to the fight for justice for all. No amount of racist tweets from the man in the White House will erase that — and we must not let them divide us. I stand with my friend Al Sharpton in calling out these ongoing attacks on people of color,” wrote Elizabeth Warren. Kamala Harris praisedSharpton as a man who has “spent his life fighting for what’s right.” Joe Biden agreed, lauding the reverend as “a champion in the fight for civil rights.”

The problem for Democrats is that Al Sharpton actually is, as Mr. Trump put it on Twitter, “a con man.” And not just a con man: Mr. Sharpton is an ambulance-chasing, anti-Semitic, anti-white race hustler. His history of offensive statements is longer than the current American president’s. And Mr. Sharpton’s worst sin — his blatant incitement to violence during the Crown Heights riots of 1991 — leaves no doubt that he is not a leader, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio described him, who has spent his years “pushing for justice in the teachings of Dr. King.”

I will not regale you with Loury’s cogent summary of Sharpton’s appalling behavior. Feel free to read it… and weep for the Democratic Party.

But, Loury importantly reminds us that it was none other than President Obama who rehabilitated Sharpton, as a dodge to assuage those who were none too happy over his repudiation of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

He continues:

Why is a person with such a sordid history — one for which he has offered nothing more than weak apologies for wishing he’d “done more to heal rather than harm” — enjoying the support of such a determinedly antiracist political party? For a few reasons that I can see.

The first is President Barack Obama. Before 2008, Mr. Sharpton had largely remained at the fringe of the Democratic Party. That changed because of Mr. Obama’s candidacy. Mr. Obama was catching flak from his left among African-Americans unhappy about his relative moderation on race-related policies, including his disavowal of his former pastor, the Rev.  Jeremiah Wright. The candidate needed a black “leader” to defend him and deflect criticism. One was found in Mr. Sharpton, who was cultivated by Mr. Obama’s closest aide, Valerie Jarrett.

In short order, Mr. Sharpton became a political kingmaker. In 2011, he got his own show on MSNBC. Between 2009 and 2014 he’d visited the White House 61 times. All of this has left the Democrats joined at the hip with an exemplar of failed black leadership.

The second reason Democrats have rushed to Mr. Sharpton’s defense is South Carolina. Given the critical importance of that state’s early primary election, and the crucial role the black vote is sure to play in that contest, Democrats running for president have had to kiss Mr. Sharpton’s ring — and cover his derrière.

Think about it, an anti-Semitic race hustler has his own show on MSNBC. What does that tell us about the mind of the American left?

For his part, Loury finds the Democratic Party embrace of Sharpton to be discouraging:

Progressives have been bluffing on the race issue for years now: downplaying black-on-black urban violence, ignoring the polarizing effects of racial identity politics, maintaining a code of silence on the collapse of the black family and more. Mr. Trump knows it.

If Democrats cannot distinguish between Mr. Sharpton’s hucksterism and genuine moral leadership on race and justice in America, I assure you that many moderate voters in battleground states will have no trouble doing so. Shouting “racist” at Mr. Trump, even if there is truth to the accusation, will gain Democrats nothing. The president cannot be further damaged by that epithet. Meantime, he wins votes every time a prominent Democratic politician overreacts to his provocations by defending the indefensible.

It’s always good to see someone address some of the real issues. We do not expect it from our politicians, but that leaves it to the cognoscenti. Loury’s article about Sharpton and the Democratic Party meets and exceeds the challenge.