April 12, 2019

Why Are Democrats Pandering to Al Sharpton?

Rev. Al Sharpton’s fortunes have been on the upswing. A few years ago, then-President Barack Obama claimed that Sharpton was “the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden.”

Rev. Al Sharpton’s fortunes have been on the upswing. A few years ago, then-President Barack Obama claimed that Sharpton was “the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden.” In the real world, of course, the only downtrodden Americans helped by Sharpton’s activities are the ones who find themselves on the payroll benefitting from his numerous corporate shakedowns.

Yet apparently Obama’s resuscitation of Sharpton has worked. In fact, many of the very same Democratic Party hopefuls who boycotted the tepid bipartisanship of an AIPAC conference last month could be found speaking at Sharpton’s National Action Network Convention in New York this past week, pandering to a charlatan with a history of inciting violence and racism.

Texas politician Beto O'Rourke, who recently accused longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “racist” and a false leader, was there, obsequiously telling Sharpton he would support a study on reparations. He wasn’t alone. Many of the people who had only recently defended anti-Semitic Ilhan Omar — Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, among others — were pandering to man who once said, “We taught philosophy and astrology (sic) and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

Sharpton most famously threw an entire city into turmoil in 1987 when he cynically exploited the hoax of a black teen named Tawana Brawley — who claimed to have been raped, kidnapped, smeared with feces and left wrapped in a plastic bag by a group of white men in Dutchess County, New York — for attention. To the surprise of absolutely no one, a state grand jury would find that her claims had been fabricated, perhaps as a way of avoiding punishment from her dad for staying out late.

When Sharpton and Brawley lost their defamation suits, it would not be the founder and president of the National Action Network Convention who would struggle. After 26 years, Brawley was the one who couldn’t pay her debt.

Then again, ruined lives are strewn across Sharpton’s destructive career. Maybe Democrats need to be reminded that Sharpton used a tragic 1991 car accident to incite a three-day race riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Or maybe they just don’t care. It was Sharpton who stoked anger over the imaginary nexus between “Tel Aviv” and “South Africa” and the “diamond merchants right here.” And after the Jewish community protested, Sharpton said that “if the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”

But of course, Sharpton’s bejeweled and rotund frame was, as always, hiding behind bodyguards. Instead, it was his mob that took over. And one man who forgot to pin back his yarmulke was Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year old Orthodox Jew visiting from Australia who, after turning down a wrong street, was dragged from his car to the shouts of “Kill the Jews!” by throngs of angry protesters and stabbed to death. Never once has Sharpton shown any remorse for his role in this bloodletting.

When, in 1995, Fred Harari, a Jewish subtenant who operated a store called Freddie’s Fashion Mart, evicted his own subtenant, a black-owned record store, Sharpton, who told the protesters, “We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business,” saw another opportunity to provoke chaos.

Never mind that it had been a black Pentecostal church that had asked Harari to evict the record store. If you’re inclined, there are recordings of the ceaseless race-baiting and anti-Semitism that Sharpton allowed, and engaged in, on his radio show day in those days. The venomous protests, fueled in part by his speeches and presence, soon began to resemble a mob. When Roland Smith Jr. entered Freddie’s Fashion Mart with a gun, he asked all the black patrons to leave before killing everyone else. The “white interloper,” as Sharpton had predicted, “did not expand his business in Harlem.”

Never once, as far as I can tell, have any of his didactic colleagues on cable news network MSNBC asked him about these career highlights. Not once did a reporter ask any of the presidential candidates who kiss the ring about Sharpton’s history.

As a native New Yorker, I hold a grudge. That doesn’t mean others can’t forgive Sharpton for the horrible things he’s done. It’s something else, however, when a remorseless man with a history of hucksterism and cruelty is not only being flattered as national moral leader by presidential candidates but that those same politicians are being given a free pass as they kowtow to a reprehensible character.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.