Let's forget that a Supreme Court Justice alleging that a sitting President was "approved by the elites and the media" are both African American.
Try to ignore the sitting President of the United States previous comments, on the campaign trail in 2008, about this Supreme Court Justice and even his qualifications for being on the high court by saying, "I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation."
Now of course these are words from a candidate hoping to get elected and appealing to his base. He had even harsher words for President George W. Bush.
When Justice Clarence Thomas asserts that a President is in office because he was approved by the elites and the media because anybody that they didn't agree with, they would take apart," he is alleging a moral depravity in our democratic process.
Justice Clarence Thomas should've been pressed on identifying this elite group he's referring to. In the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which Thomas was in the majority, some have argued that too much influence by corporate elites could dictate elections.
Indeed President Barack Hussein Obama's election drew overwhelming participation from people who were not previously involved in the electoral process, white single women, voters with just a high school education, the youth vote, Latinos and African Americans. Folks who are in a lot of ways disenfranchised and considered the 47% of Americans who are not contributing their fair share.
If President Obama didn't have the grassroots mobilization and the dollars from millions of single digit donors behind his campaign I find it hard to believe the media would've given him the coverage he needed to defeat more established candidates in 2008.
Aren't all Presidents approved by the elite in this country? Before you have your first nationally televised debate with the opposing party(ies) don't you have to be "clean", as Vice President Biden put it in 2007. Every candidate have to meet the smell test not just African American candidates.
Q: Did you ever expect to see an African American president during your lifetime?
THOMAS: Oh yeah, I guess I've always thought there would be black coaches, heads of universities -- maybe again as I said I'm naïve but the thing I always knew is that it would have to be a black president who was approved by the elites and the media because anybody that they didn't agree with, they would take apart. And that will happen with virtually -- you pick your person, any black person who says something that is not the prescribed things that they expect from a black person will be picked apart. You can pick anybody, don't pick me, pick anyone who has decided not to go along with it; there's a price to pay. So, I always assumed it would be somebody the media had to agree with.
Q: Have you ever met President Obama, have you had a chance to speak with him?
THOMAS: No. Well, in passing more he had the chance to visit the court, it's not like…I don't do a lot of Washington and I'm not into politics, so I mean there's not that many occasion. I shook hands with him at the inauguration to be polite but I've had no in depth conversation.
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