Herman Cain illustrates lack of Republican diversity

Watching the current field vying for the Republican presidential nomination is proof history repeats itself. The more the world changes, the more Republicans stay the same. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are back for an encore; Rick Perry has more Texas cowboy in him than former President George W. Bush and Michele Bachmann is Sarah Palin reincarnated.

Then there's Herman Cain, the former Godfathers Pizza CEO and rare black Republican, who has risen to third in many national polls. It shouldn't be surprising that in this political climate, a non-politician would experience such a profound surge in the polls. Cain is Alan Keyes 2.0. However, last week Cain declared that blacks were over the first black president thing. Cain also told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that African-Americans have been brainwashed into voting Democratic. He also expressed his belief that he could garner a minimum of one-third of the black vote based on anecdotal evidence he receives from African-Americans he has met on the campaign trail. There are many black Republicans but Herman Cain is further from the reason most African-Americans vote Democrat than Verne Troyer in a slam dunk contest.

Herman Cain has been brainwashed into thinking a majority of African-American voters elected President Barack Obama, in 2008 because he is black. The truth is most African-Americans vote Democrat because we realize that the Republican Party only addresses the black community during election cycles. If Herman Cain ran against Hillary Clinton, the result would be the same. "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

Those were the words that began then-U.S. Congressman, Barack Obama's rise to power as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be a worldview Herman Cain shares. The problem for the party of Lincoln is that it has a lack of diversity. Inclusion has never been high on the Republican Party's list of priorities. The old Republican Party was against the Civil Rights Movement and Affirmative Action. The new Republican Party is marginalizing Hispanics and has just recently begun electing blacks. Since 1932, only four black Republicans have been elected to the House of Representatives. In comparison, more than 90 black Democrats have been elected in that span.

Unfortunately, the Republican Party has now moved to excluding Muslim-Americans. Just last week, a Muslim activist in Broward County, Fla., was blocked from joining the county's Republican executive committee. In July, Herman Cain added that he would be unwilling to appoint a Muslim to a high-ranking position within his administration. The hypocrisy of a black man running for the Republican nomination and agreeing with the discrimination of another minority group is enough to make anyone think twice. Conversely, two black Democratic Muslim-Americans have been elected and sworn since 9/11.

However, that sums up the enigma that is Herman Cain. One second he's vilifying actor Morgan Freeman for calling the tea party racist and the next he's openly refusing to give Muslim-Americans an equal opportunity to serve in his Cabinet. Instead of ridiculing African-Americans for uniformly voting for Democrats, Republicans should consider offering the black community, a viable reason to vote Republican. If Herman Cain were truly interested in attracting African-Americans to the Republican Party, he and his fellow Republicans would reach out by abandoning a few routine campaign stops in rural and suburban white neighborhoods for some struggling black communities. Maybe then, Herman Cain can learn why the Republican Party is not openly embraced. Now that would be some anecdotal evidence he could use.