Thank You, Chairman Steele

Mr. Steele,
When you became chairman of the RNC, I was excited. For someone new to the world of organized politics, your ascendancy was an inspiration. For a young black conservative, it was-in a sense-validation:

I feel a sense of validation now. It’s almost like, in a single stroke, the work of most black conservatives-at least those who aren’t into playing into a stereotype-is valid. All we’ve wanted is a seat at the table, and not to have to relegate ourselves to “second-class” status to get it. Well, now we have THE seat at the table…

…and then, the, um, miscues began.

I believe you meant what you said when you called Limbaugh “incendiary and ugly.” Saw your eyes, heard your words, and that’s the conclusion I came to. If that’s so-if you really stand by your comments-then as a man, why would you feel the need to back off them to appease people? Stand by what you say. Take a lesson from-of all people-Nancy Pelosi: don’t involve yourself in the pop culture.

At the end of that post, I had pretty much written you off as a failure. The enthusiasm generated by your chairmanship had, by and large, worn off at that point.

Owning Our History (So We Don’t Repeat It)

“Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

That quote’s attributed to so many different people that I can’t nail down the exact source of it. That said, it’s time for many of us in the Republican Party to have a history lesson. Why?

Last month, RNC chair Michael Steele said the following when asked why blacks should vote Republican:

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True.”

“We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans,” Steele said. “This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass. The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP, and yet we have mistreated that relationship. People don’t walk away from parties, Their parties walk away from them.

That didn’t make Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson very happy:

“Michael Steele is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) — he’s dividing the party and hurting recruitment efforts,” said Rev. Peterson. “Since January I have called for the GOP to fire Steele because he cannot be trusted to lead the party to victory. I’m hoping that party leaders will finally get over their fear of being called racists and dump him before it’s too late.”

Peterson then went on to pose several questions for Steele.

Is Steele right? Of course he is…and though I would’ve said that this time last year, there were several things that happened on McDonnell’s campaign that proved it.  And he’s right for reasons that some black conservatives (many in my demographic, but some older as well) know all too well: we don’t carry our message to the black community, and when we try, it doesn’t relate to the issues and realities they face daily.

So what has the modern-day (which we’ll call post-1964, since that’s about when the shift took place) GOP done to alienate black voters? Let’s see.