The Republican Party, says former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, suffers from a “dark vein of intolerance.” We salute Powell’s service. He is a heavily decorated vet who served two tours of duty in Vietnam when things were hot and heavy over there.
But General, care to name names? Who are these “intolerant” Republicans? Why engage in accusation by innuendo? By all means, name them, shame them — make them famous.
In the meantime, while Powell composes his list, we compile some questions to some possible left-leaning “dark veins of intolerance”:
What color was Rep. Maxine Waters’, D-Calif., “vein” when she said, “The tea party can go straight to hell”?
What color was Tavis Smiley’s “vein” when he said former President Ronald Reagan “tortured” blacks?
What color was Spike Lee’s “vein” when he said, “I’m convinced AIDS is a government-engineered disease”?
What color was Rep. Charlie Rangel’s, D-N.Y., “vein” when he said, “George W. Bush is our Bull Connor”?
What color was Harry Belafonte’s “vein” when asked whether the number and prominence of blacks in the Bush administration suggested a lack of racism, said, “Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich”?
What color was Danny Glover’s “vein” when he called America “one of the main purveyors of violence in this world”?
What color was Bill Cosby’s “vein” when he said AIDS “was started by human beings to get after certain people they don’t like”?
What color was Will Smith’s “vein” when he said, “AIDS was created as a result of biological-warfare testing”?
What color was Harry Belafonte’s “vein” when he said, “We are living in terrorism as black people in America. And it has been that way since the dawning of slavery”?
What color was then-NAACP chairman Julian Bond’s “vein” when he said, “The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.”
What color was the vein of ex-U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, a man who marched with Martin Luther King, when he criticized convenience store operators in the inner city: “First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs” who have “ripped off” blacks?
What color was feminist attorney Gloria Allred’s “vein” when she referred to you and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice as “Uncle Tom types”?
What was the color of the Congressional Black Caucus’s “vein” when they denied white Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., admission to the caucus — though his district is 60 percent black? In denying him admission, one CBC member — the son of the caucus’s co-founder — said of their blacks-only membership, “It’s an unwritten rule.”
What color was Al Sharpton’s “vein” when he called black New York City then-Mayor David Dinkins a “n–ger whore”?
What color was NAACP Julian Bond’s “vein” when he said then-President George W. “Bush selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics … and chose Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection.”
What color was Sen. (then-candidate) Claire McCaskill’s, D-Mo., “vein” when, after Hurricane Katrina, she said President Bush “let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black.”
What color was Jesse Jackson’s “vein” when he called Jews “Hymies” and New York City “Hymie-town”?
What color was Bill Clinton’s “vein” when, according to the book “Game Change,” he said about Obama, “A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee”?
What color was Harry Reid’s “vein” when he said about then-presidential candidate Obama, he’s “light-skinned” with “no Negro dialect” unless he wants one?
What color was lefty Spike Lee’s “vein” when he said he disliked “interracial couples” — and gives them visual “daggers”?
What color was lefty Rep. Diane Watson’s, D-Calif., “vein” when she slammed a black opponent for marrying a white woman: “He’s married to a white woman. He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic pride. He doesn’t want to be black.”
What color was Rep. Waters’ “vein” when she called then-President George Herbert Walker Bush “a racist”?
What color was Charlie Rangel’s “vein” when he said about the GOP, “It’s not ‘sp-c’ or ‘n–ger’ anymore. They say ‘let’s cut taxes'”?
Finally, General, every year Ebony magazine publishes its “Power 100,” the list of “most influential” black Americans. Every year, the magazine excludes prominent black conservatives including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It shuts out Walter Williams, one the nation’s most popular syndicated columnists, author of several books on economics and race, and former economics department chairman of George Mason University.
Ebony also excludes the man playwright David Mamet calls, “our greatest contemporary philosopher.” Economist Thomas Sowell’s weekly column appears in hundreds of newspapers. His books on economics, culture and race are absolute reads for those who study why some races, cultures and ethnicities survive while others perish.
These are just some of those on the left who possess “dark veins.” Gen. Powell, your turn.
COPYRIGHT 2015 LAURENCE A. ELDER
Larry Elder is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder.