Steele, Diversity, and the GOP
| Mon Feb. 2, 2009 9:45 AM PST
I like Ta-Nehisi's thoughts on Michael Steele. Yes, Steele is a token pick who will fail to bring African-Americans into the GOP fold. And yes, Steele succeeds in the GOP despite his record of failures because the Republican Party finds it useful to have a black man around now and again. But the GOP is taking its first baby steps toward diversity and inclusion, and one can't expect those baby steps to be perfect; it requires a couple generations of incubating minority talent before you get an Obama. Anyway, here are Ta-Nehisi's comments:
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But in the fight for inclusion, like most fights, your persistence is more important than your fuck-ups. The result of decades of persistent Democratic efforts towards inclusion yielded a primary featuring a white woman and black man, both of whom were talented heavyweight politicians--the anti-Ferraros, if you will. Because the GOP, has spent much of the immediate past, celebrating its own homogeneity is way way behind.
Think about it like this whereas Democrats have several potential African-American stars on the horizon--people who can actually go out, compete and win--Michael Steele essentially owes his career to appointments. That's not a dis--Steele's electoral problems have less to do with his own political gifts, than they have to do with the relationship between his party and minorities. As a black man running in a state like Maryland, you could be the next, well, Barack Obama. But if you're running under the banner of a party that your original constituency thinks hates them, you will not win.
I think Steele has a Sarah Palin problem. Remember the silly math that had Palin giving Obama fits for the votes of women? Ultimately, that line of attack fizzled because, I'd argue, a lot of women found Palin embarrassing--an obvious token who wasn't ready for prime-time. I think Steele is twice the politician that Sarah Palin is. But the question remains--How does he get black folks to look at him as more than a token? And how does he get that magic to extend itself to the broader party? Mel Martinez failed at doing exactly that for Latinos. Will Steele be any better?
I don't think Steele gets black folks to vote Republican. But he makes the next black Republican a little more comfortable pursuing a career in the GOP. And maybe in 10 years we'll see a black Republican who can win in his/her own right (instead of failing up, as Steele seems to have done) and who attracts black votes in the process. Diversification starts with Steele and ends with superstars.
Comments
The real problem is that Steele is one of many last gasp efforts by the GOP to continue fooling all the republican voters they have left all the time.
In just two weeks since President Obama was inaugurated the GOP has redefined itself with their new doctrine "I Hope Obama (America) Fails" proclimated by their Spokesperson in Chief Limbaugh and implemented last week by his puppet Boehner as leader of the unanimous betrayal of America by GOP house members.
So after eight years of Bush betrayals of America current events continue to escalate further out of control as the GOP continues to try and lead us to a junction where we have two choices left, evolve or become extinct.
Lessons of the history of evolutionary biology and historical geology, along with more recent histories of economics and international relations prove the GOP is hell-bent for extinction with their "Give Me Greed or Give Me Extinction" leadership culture.
Submitted by Eric Ferguson (not verified) on Mon Feb. 2, 2009 2:10 PM PST.
I wouldn't get too caught up in thinking the GOP is doomed to dissolution. Two parties are a natural state for US politics. If somehow the GOP dissolved, some other conservative party would form. In any case, even if Republicans don't know how to rebuild, they know they need to. Some chairman candidate, and I think it was Steele, said they can't be content competing in just 17 states and have to compete in all 50. That's essentially what Howard Dean said about Democrats, and he made it work. If we don't keep going after the Republicans in their stronger states, they'll regroup and go after bluer areas. I say we assume the Republicans know what they're doing, and keep up our own organizing.
The GOP will lose more White voters then gain Black voters. The Whites will believe that on this issue there is no difference between the parties, so they might as well vote their class interests(left). Nobody ever said that the GOP were smart. This is good news for the Democratic Party
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