Tim Scott

During Barack Obama's eight years as president, I suggested that he exhibited all of the signs of a narcissist and at times, a few of the indicia of a sociopath. In an odd way, Obama was a more glib and polished version of Donald Trump. He said and did many dumb things, but unlike Trump, he was always polished about it, making him the darling of progressives who embraced him as the first African American president — a man who could do no wrong.

In a recent commentary, the editors of the Wall Street Journal write:

As America’s first black President, Barack Obama entered office with a promise of improving race relations and reducing political discord. Eight years later, rancor was worse as Mr. Obama’s Administration exploited race as a political weapon on voting rules, criminal justice, and preferences for jobs and much more. [The Democrats have followed Obama's strategy ever since.] This explains why the former President is now attacking South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.

Last week [late June] Mr. Obama, who doesn’t riff by accident, went after Mr. Scott and Nikki Haley, two of the GOP’s minority candidates for President. “I think there’s a long history of African-American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can all make it.’ I mean, Nikki Haley, I think, has a similar approach,” Obama said on David Axelrod’s podcast ...

Ms. Haley and Mr. Scott both rebutted the former President’s patronizing comments. “There’s no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama,” Mr. Scott said. 

That Democrats sometimes appear to be obsessed with race comes as no surprise to anyone who follows politics. More than a few members of the party regularly label our country as "systemically racist" or "white supremacist." That would be the same country that elected Barack Obama president -- twice. The same country that in 1965 instituted the 'Great Society' in an attempt to right many racial wrongs of the past, spending billions on a variety of education, social, job-training, and other programs. The same country in which people of color have been given preferences in government contracts and college admissions for over 50 years. The same country that has seen an African American middle class rise to positions of authority in both the public and private sector.

Even worse, many Democrats cannot abide African Americans in prominent positions who do not adopt their narrative. So they viciously attack people like Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell and regularly dismiss or demonize GOP politicians such as Tim Scott. Again, the editors of the WSJ:

... Democrats can’t abide that or it might upset their advantage among minority voters. If Republicans ever broke through to win 20% of the black vote, for example, Republicans would become the majority party. Democrats want to keep racial tensions boiling with accusations about “Jim Crow 2.0” and “systemic racism” lest more minority voters give GOP candidates a hearing.

Mr. Scott in particular is a threat because, as he often notes, his life story symbolizes the country’s racial evolution. He has never sugar-coated America’s racist history, noting how he has experienced it in his own life. But he doesn’t use that as an excuse to deny progress.

His ideas to reduce poverty are also far better than Mr. Obama’s default to government dependency and failing public schools. Mr. Scott wants to free minorities from union schools and escape poverty by giving them more economic opportunity. Those ideas are a dagger pointed at the heart of the progressive project that sustains a permanent underclass dependent on Democratic welfare programs. That is the real reason Mr. Obama is attacking Mr. Scott and Ms. Haley. 

Indeed, it is. Scott and his message are a real threat to the Democrats' continuing attempt to divide the country on racial issues. It is truly ironic and sad that the first African American to be elected POTUS left only one enduring strategy for his political party—a strategy that encouraged racial divisiveness. It's even sadder that he attempted to reinforce that message almost eight years after he left office.

UPDATE (07-12-2023):

Although I do think the scenario described is a long shot, here's an interesting take on Tim Scott's chances in early GOP primaries.