Michael Steele introduced to 'real' GOP

March 6, 11:51 AMLA Race Relations ExaminerMorris O'Kelly

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RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Michael Steele, it seems just made his acquaintance to the Republican Party this past week.

If you were of the opinion the Republican Party was about to turn the corner and join the rest of us in the 21st century, you were wrong and Mo’Kelly has the bodies and chalk outlines in which to prove it.

Last week the sentences began with the phrase “newly elected RNC chair Michael Steele.”  This week it has been replaced with “embattled RNC chair Michael Steele.”  The latest is that RNC Committee member and African-American Dr. Ada Fisher has called for Steele's resignation.

If you think that because Fisher is also African-American that race isn’t somehow at play in this latest episode of the soap opera As the Party Turns, you would be a fool.

When we discuss Chairman Steele and race, let’s be clear.  There are those things in which Steele has done which have brought this backlash upon himself and have nothing to do with race.  Conversely, the issues of race inevitably have exacerbated the vitriolic response from Republican insiders.  If you think the handling of criticism of Rush Limbaugh would be the same if Steele’s predecessors Mike Duncan or Ken Mehlman were still at the helm, you would still be shopping in the “fool” aisle of this Republican dimestore. 

Michael Steele took over the leadership of the RNC after six, count ‘em, SIX rounds of voting.  Translation…he did not have a mandate of an already fractured and wandering party.

That much the general public already knew, but may have forgotten.  Let’s be mindful of the atmosphere surrounding his election first and foremost.

What the general public likely does not know is that upon entrance to the RNC offices, Steele fired everyone in the house.

EVERYONE. 

Ostensibly Steele was sending his own message of “change.”  Although Mo’Kelly is a “Yellow Dog” Democrat…(ahem, here comes the line)

(wait for it…)

(wait for it…)

(here it comes...)

"Some of my best friends are Republicans." :)

Let’s just say that if the six-vote-election of Steele wasn’t enough to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those on the fence or unsupportive of Steele, the “everything-must-go” opening act to his tenure surely did.

Was the office cleaning “major” in the grand scheme of things?

Maybe…maybe not.
 
At the minimum, it was reason enough to surmise Steele would have very few friends if/when the ish hit the fan down the road.  Unfortunately for Steele, the “ish” was sooner than later.

Now let’s read further between the lines. 

Although Steele was “right” (no pun intended) and Rush Limbaugh IS just an entertainer, not a policy-maker in general or party leader in specific…Steele was “forced” to apologize.  That does not happen on its own or in a vacuum.  Steele had to bow down, and (excuse the metaphor) was bent over in the process.

Yes, forced to apologize.  Way to go GOP.

That was the old Republican machine of 20th century yore rearing its evil and ugly head.  When you “force” the head of your party to apologize to a radio host, the Republican party obviously hasn’t learned any lessons and isn’t on the precipice of learning any either.  When the party would rather emasculate its first African-American chairman PUBLICLY instead of handling this disagreement privately, it reaffirms much about the shortcomings of the party.

Meaning…they still don’t “get it.”

Honestly, Mo’Kelly is surprised the GOP didn’t also ask Steele to put on blackface and perform his best Al Jolson impression at the next CPAC convention as a prelude to Rush Limbaugh’s speech in 2010 to further make amends.

Then again, maybe they have and we just don’t know about it.

Yes, Rush Limbaugh is the leading “entertainment” voice for staunch conservatism, but there’s another “yes” in this equation.  Limbaugh’s brand of conservatism was roundly rebuked and soundly repudiated all across the country on November 4th.  For the Republican Party to literally bite off its nose to spite its face only indicates that the Dixiecrat sensibilities that Limbaugh and those like him espouse still guide the party.

If the GOP wishes to go the way of the Whig Party, that’s their business.  Who is Mo’Kelly to get in their way?  Remember, the Whig Party imploded primarily over their internal factions regarding slavery.

There is a correlation here.  Evolve or become irrelevant and then extinct.

Unlike Limbaugh, Mo’Kelly wanted “the other side” to do well.  I wanted Michael Steele to succeed.  If Steele can create a Republican Party which is inclusive and sympathetic to ideals and issues other than those catering to the affluent and White; the Republican Party and politics overall are better for it.  I do not root for this country simply along the lines of political ideology and in fact neither do most African-Americans.  We wish the best for the country and if Republicans are speaking to those issues which African-Americans are most concerned, then most African-Americans will be Republicans.  Then and only then will that occur.

African-Americans are not unlike any other voting electorate, we vote our interests.  During the era of emancipation, we by and large were Republicans and with good reason, thanks in part to President Abraham Lincoln.  The birth of the Civil Rights Movement can even be traced back to Democrat, President Harry Truman.  Years later Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. 

So when we as African-Americans became Democrats en masse it was for a good reason.  The defection of “Democrats” during the Civil Rights Movement to become “Dixiecrats” and eventually Republicans make up the mindset and direction of the Republican Party you see today and have seen for the past 60 years.  The existence of only 34 Black delegates at the 2008 RNC is not indicative of a political ignorance on the part of the African-American electorate, it’s indicative of the ignorance and unwillingness of a Republican Party to evolve.  For their myopic troubles, the party received a spanking of historical proportions this past November.

This is the Republican Party that Chairman Michael Steele was charged with bringing into the new millennium and the old guard is not going quietly into the night.  “Kicking and screaming” might be a better way to put it.  For the party to willingly embarrass the party chairman to kowtow to an “entertainer” means only that the party has not hit rock bottom and is more than happy to dig even further.

At this rate, China should be fast approaching.