On the heels of the historic election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, another milestone occurred for our country and the Black community. Michael Steele was elected to the chairmanship of the Republican National Party (RNC) on January 30, 2009.
Chairman Steele — a self-described “Lincoln Republican” — made in history in 2003 when he was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland, becoming the first African-American elected to statewide office in that state.
Steele served as chairman of GOPAC and also held posts on the National Federal Election Reform Commission and the NAACP Blue Ribbon Commission on Election Reform.
Steele is not a RINO (Republican in Name Only). He is, in fact, a conservative African-American Republican. He first came onto the national stage during an appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
While Steele has fine credentials, we must ask ourselves the question as to what his future is as the chairman of the party. Recently, Steele’s bottom has been on the end of a very hot fire. He has been ridiculed and investigated, and some of his fellow conservatives are calling for his resignation. The latest fiasco involves some young white fellows spending some time in a strip club on the Republican National Committee’s dime. (Steele was not present and said he was not aware of the guys expensing the RNC for their fun.)
If he were a Democrat, would Black America be behind him? Or should we simply ignore him and his plight? That is the question.
In answering this question, we must consider the history of the Republican Party and Blacks, and I would say that the Republican Party has a lot to atone for with our community. As Chairman Steele often says, the Grand Old Party does have a rich history with Blacks as the party of Lincoln and abolition. Early on, our people showed great loyalty to the Republicans for many decades. From abolition up until the Great Depression, most African-Americans were loyal members of the Republican Party, and a sizeable number of Blacks continued to support Republicans until the 1960 election of John Kennedy. But in the 1960s and 1970s, the Republican Party started a cynical, so-called Southern Strategy wherein they looked for votes from white Southerners and conservatives, sacrificing any support in the Black community and ignoring or demonizing our people and issues of concern. Everything from poverty and crime to moral and social declines were all blamed on people of color by too many of the voices of the party. Only time and a changing American demographic has put the Republican strategy that worked so well for nearly 40 years into question.
But despite this history and set of facts, do we in this day and age, blindly go by party or color or by what is right and good–or even pragmatic? I think that these are questions we all must ask ourselves as we look at Michael Steele.
While Steele is the primary spokesperson for the RNC, he also holds a place that is very important. He is the party’s chairperson. And his chairmanship says that there is at least one African-American at the table of the RNC. His presence may mean that issues that matter to our community are being looked at, if in fact, Steele views issues with a similar perspective as the rest of the African-American community.
We are not suggesting that we expect all Black people to think exactly the same way–diversity of viewpoints in our community is a great strength. And even if he may be coming at these issues from a different angle, shouldn’t we be glad that there is someone of color in the room as policies and strategies are being formed? Does his presence at the table help the Black community? Perhaps–if he is indeed a leader, although at times, he seems more like a figurehead.
I was embarrassed for Steele last year when he declared himself the head of the Republican Party over Rush Limbaugh and was forced to apologize when that bigoted idiot took him to the woodshed with conservatives on his radio show. But I was pleasantly surprised last November when Steele questioned President Obama’s premature intervention into New York State politics and request that Governor Paterson withdraw from the race. Steele raised questions that a lot of African-American New Yorkers were thinking at the time: Why was a Black president asking a Black governor not to run?
Steele has a tough job in a difficult time in the Republican Party. While the Republican Party is shrinking as its pool of conservative white supporters is aging, dying off and becoming a smaller percentage of the overall population, he also has to deal with a rabid base that feels no shame at spitting at and flinging racial slurs at civil rights/political icons like John Lewis. And within this framework, he still has to try to make a case why we should not only support him, but his party.
I do not envy him or his mission.