Herman Cain's "Let Them Eat Cake" Moment

Herman Cain has said some controversial (see: ignorant) things in his bid for the White House, from his many "jokes" on immigration (including electrifying a border fence and filling a moat with alligators) to his statement that he would be cautious about hiring a Muslim in his administration because, "you know, they're trying to attack us." He maintains that the 80% or so of Americans (by nearly every poll on the subject) that support a surtax on America's wealthy are "brain washed", as are African-Americans that vote Democratic. He's even proposed an economic fix that is essentially a pizza-deal-turned-tax-code-reform that even has many Republicans scratching their heads. However, his latest comments about Occupy Wall Street protestors show how incredibly out of touch and simple-minded the man is. "Don’t blame Wall Street,” he said to the protestors, “Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."

In other words, if you’re one of the 14 million Americans that was laid off from your job, many of whom are white-collar workers, because of the down economy, it’s your fault. If you’re one of the 85% of Americans in this country that is earning under $200,000 a year because breaking that income-level is more difficult than winning the lottery, it’s your fault. If you’re one of the millions of Americans that has lost their home in a housing crash brought on by our lending institutions, that’s you’re fault. To be sure, there’s blame to be distributed among many people, but telling 14 million Americans that they’re all to blame for their own predicament in one of the worst economic climates in almost 100 years is like pointing at the passengers floundering while the Titanic sinks and saying, “It’s your fault you’re in that predicament.” Of course Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, is sitting in the nice, comfortable lifeboat the government furnished for him.

The astounding ignorance and short-sightedness of Cain’s comments highlights a larger disconnect among the American populace. Case in point, during the CNN Republican Debate, Cain defended his comments about the protestors, and the audience actually cheered him. "They might be frustrated with Wall Street and the bankers, but they're directing their anger at the wrong place," he told Tuesday night’s audience. He said that Wall Street wasn’t responsible for the billions in stimulus that didn’t work for the economic recovery, and they’re not pushing the additional $450 billion. You’re right, Mr. Cain, they’re doing absolutely nothing to aid the recovery…because they sank the economy in the first place. What is astounding to me is that Cain would imply that the protestors are angry with Wall Street because they’re not pouring billions into the recovery after an economic collapse that they helped to create. Not a single other Republican called him out on this point. Only Ron Paul, who simply addressed the fact that Cain, “has blamed the victims. There's a lot of people that are victims of this business cycle. We can't blame the victims.”

If Herman Cain somehow pulls off the GOP nomination, Republicans are going to have a hard time repairing his message. Inconsistencies and ignorance of this magnitude will never float a general election bid.