Reverend William Barber, director of the North Carolina NAACP, just can’t keep his loathsome thoughts to himself.  After the brouhaha last month when he called Senator Tim Scott (R, South Carolina) a “ventriloquist’s dummy” for being a conservative, you would think that he’d at least try not to double-down on his hateful speech.  Nope, not Barber. This week he described minorities who support conservative causes as “mouthpieces.”

“They frantically seek out people of color to become mouthpieces for their particular agenda,” Barber said on a conference call.

He calls them mouthpieces because, you know, a person from a minority group couldn’t possibly disagree with Obamacare or other liberal pet projects unless they’re just not quite bright enough to resist the control of those manipulative conservatives. Barber and his ilk place all minorities in a little box with no room for individuality of thought, experience and action.  If you are a minority, then you must think and behave in their prescribed way.

Message to all minorities:  March to the beat of the progressive drum or be disrespected and vilified.  And boy, can the left disrespect and vilify conservative minorities!  Just ask Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and Herman Cain, to name only three.  And we won’t even go into what the left has done to women who have refused to be put into the liberal pigeonhole.

In truth, many liberals can’t comprehend how minorities could be conservative. In their narrowly constructed frame of understanding, it doesn’t compute, and they become both perplexed and outraged when someone pushes out of the confines of that box.  How could this happen?

Last month, when Barber referred to Senator Scott as a ventriloquist’s dummy, Barber simply looked at two facts about Scott:  (1) He’s African-American; and (2) he’s a conservative.  That’s all he needed to know in order to start stereotyping and name-calling.

Now, Barber has the right to say whatever he wants to say. He has the right to call Senator Scott whatever he wants to call him.  However, we also have the right to call him out on his hypocrisy and mendacity.  According to Barber, minorities (simply because of their skin color or ethnic origin), don’t have the right to be respected for their beliefs – unless, of course, their beliefs coincide with his own.  He apparently doesn’t realize the absolute hypocrisy of his words.  Or maybe he doesn’t care.

Senator Scott, on the other hand, clearly has the better understanding of not only the route to greater opportunity, but the high road, as well.  He responded to Barber’s “dummy” remarks with class:

You just can’t really respond to someone who’s never taken the time to get to know you.  He wasn’t there when I was growing up in a single-parents household, struggling through high school. He wasn’t there when I started my business working 85 hours a week. He wasn’t there when I was running for Congress against long odds.”

Senator Scott had other comments for Barber:

To reflect seriously on the comments a person, a pastor, that is filled with baseless and meaningless rhetoric would be to do a disservice to the very people who have sacrificed so much and paved the way,” Scott said in a statement. “Instead, I will honor the memory of Dr. King by being proactive in holding the door for others and serving my fellow man. And Rev. Barber will remind me and others of what not to do.”

If you look up the word “reverend” you’ll see synonyms like honorable, esteemed, and respected.  And yet Barber, who has the title of “reverend,” neither talks that talk nor walks that walk.   The contrast between the two men is night and day:  “Reverend” Barber name-calls and seeks to limit how people of color express their beliefs. Senator Scott refuses to disrespect those who disagree with him – even those who openly disrespect him.  

Maybe someday, liberals like Barber will come to realize that skin color, gender and ethnic origin don’t determine one’s politics.