Steele the Magically Disappearing Negro
Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele must have been struck by terminal amnesia. He yukked at and agreed with the swipe a radio caller took at President Obama. The caller called him "the magic negro." That's the goofy, tired, worn, ditty that tags Obama as a black man with the supposedly impregnable Teflon shield that renders him immune to any and all criticism, adversity, or just plain bad political luck.
A few weeks back a GOP big shot lambasted then RNC chairman Chip Saltzman for releasing the CD that parodied Obama as the magic negro. The GOP big shot that did the lambasting was Steele. In the short weeks Steele's been the RNC chief the parade of Steele contradictions, gaffes, shoot from the lip quips, political mugging, media hamming and grandstanding, and alleged financial hijinks, combined with his seemingly insatiable knack for pissing off one and all, and especially one in all in his own GOP, could fill up a mini-telephone book.
The squeals for Steele's hide by red faced GOP grousers have gotten so loud that even long defrocked GOP bloviator Newt Gingrich had to come to Steele's rescue. But even that rescue effort seemed more a case of Gingrich using the Steele flap to ax grind with GOP foes than a heartfelt bail out of Steele.
Then there's Limbaugh. Steele first picked a fight with the talk show kingpin, next did a quick mea culpa, and since then has taken pains to zip his lip on the near hourly verbal inanities that gush from the mouth of the GOP's de facto air waves guru.
Steele's greatest offense though tells much of why he and the GOP are in what far right-side former Georgia congressman Bob Barr calls deep trouble. He forgot what got him the RNC chair. Steele campaigned hard for the top spot on the promise that he'd be the poor man's Obama of the GOP. In his acceptance speech Steele prattled on about making the GOP a party of inclusiveness. This is the word that the GOP has forgotten how to say, spell, let alone put into any semblance of practice since Bush loudly declared that it was going to be the party's watchword in 2000, and then just as publicly did everything he could to make sure that it wasn't.
Steele crunched the numbers and saw that the country's political and demographic landscape has radically changed in the past decade and will likely change even more in the next decade. There are more minority, women, gay, young, urban, college educated voters than ever and there are fewer white, rural, non college educated, aged, white male votes than ever. It didn't take a math wizard to figure that if the GOP stays stuck on trying to win national elections with the same bunch that brought victory in years past it will be well on its way to being a party that can hold future conventions in an airport telephone booth.
But numbers and political realities are one thing, the heat Steele took from GOP hardliners who like things just the way they are, and think that the way to shore up the floodwaters is to keep sticking there fingers in the hole in the dike is another. Steele got the message, dutifully added his finger to the the other GOP dike hole pluggers, then made like Limbuagh and made wild sounds about how the GOP moderates were ruining the party, and vowed retribution against them. He ranted about staying true to the GOP's less government, less foreign policy engagement with foes, less regulations, more free market remedies, tough defense, and bashing Obama. So much for the GOP's march under General Steele to a new political millenium.
So under Steele's watch the GOP (and Steele) has supplied legions of comics with a storehouse of laughingstock fodder, degenerated into endless carping and fingerpointing, lost one and soon another Senate seat, and reduced itself to a toothless, fangless political impotency. Under Steele's watch polls now show that barely one out of five voters now say they have any hard allegiance to the GOP, and that might be overstating the numbers.
Steele guffawed at a radio caller's magic negro crack about Obama. But so far the only magic that Steele has worked is to create even more chaos in the GOP. That kind of magic may soon make Steele the disappearing negro.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com
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This guy has to be working for the democratic party. He has to be...
Comments about the prevalence of racism in the GOP in Southern states are routinely eliminated. Why? This is something that needs to be talked about.
change is painful and not pretty and that's not the hard part. the republican base does not want to change. that is what steele is up against. also he seems to be conflicted in his beliefs and views. moderate, independent and swing voters on the outside looking in the on tea parties, joe the plumber, the lady from alaska, congressional leadership, and the hypocrisy that is newt gingrich can't make a connection. therefore they will be the minority party for a while.
The GOP is proving that it truly has a Big Tent. Big enough, in fact, to have a separate entrance for "Coloreds Only, " where they must stand at the back and be quietly obedient. In spite of Mr. Steele's frequent gaffes, the real conflict centers on the old white guys not trusting a "Colored" with their hard-stolen money.
FYI, I'm white!!
"The GOP is proving that it truly has a Big Tent."
Yep. It's the same one that belongs to the Ringling Bros.
.
The GOP braqs about its "big tent," but can never resist stabbing some minority target in the back with a big tent pole at the first opportunity. Do that often enough, and the tent will collapse right on you.
I hope Michael Steele can hang on - at least through to 2010 elections. Maybe 2012!
Us Dems truly appreciate his help.
And his comedy - hard to beat! In fact, he's my favorite.
(Hope he says something today - maybe about the GOP "listening" meeting at the strip-mall pizzeria!)
"He ranted about staying true to the GOP's less government, less foreign policy engagement with foes, less regulations, more free market remedies, tough defense, and bashing Obama."
Those are all lies. That maybe what the GOP SAYS it stands for, but they DO the opposite. Under Bush anyway we had massive, intrusive government (except on Wall Street, which I guess is the whole idea), recognition of foreign dictatorships like Libya, regulations on people's health care and private lives, a rigged tax code and currency, a weak defense (9/11, anyone?). But yes, they do bash Obama. And after all he's done, making sure none of them are prosecuted for war crimes. But that's an abusive marriage for you.
Let's not forget the GOP role as the official government enforcers of the Christian Evangelical movement: soldiers told by military chaplains that they should break the laws of allied countries and hand out Bibles, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on faith-based abstinence education programs that have been demonstrated not to reduce teen pregnancy rates, cuts in scientific research, and the teaching of Creationist dogma in our science classrooms.
We should also keep in mind the whole anti-equality in marriage movement, where some churches get to determine whether marriages in other churches have the right to be recognized in law.
Michael WHO???
Apparently the only ethics Michael Steele has are of the situational variety, which is a prerequisite for any leadership role in the Reactionary Party.
Well said.
EARL WHEN WILL WE SEE U ON CABLE COMMENTING AND DEBATING PEOPLE ABOUT STEELE OR LIMBAUGH .? NEVER?
U MAKE SO MUCH SENCE BUT U ARE HIDDEN ON HUFFINGTON POST.
DONT GET ME WRONG I LOVE HUFFINGTON POST. HA HA HA
but the good debates get lost . we hear the same people on cable aaalllllll the time. i already know what they are going to say as soon as they are introduced.
also by steele laughing with that caller instead of chatisng him -steel has beconme the laughing stock in the black community and the repubs will now only get 5 perscent of votes now and thats the jesse lee peterson wing of the party ha ha ha
after the supreme court battle with a hispanic woman they will lose the hispanic vote also.
Wow , hadn't thought of that. He should absolutly put a hispanic woman, Double POW!
Steele is done. He reminds me of those faded loser bumper stickers -- annoying.
It's fun, watching the GOP have a meltdown.
Heaven forbid Steele would actually tell the caller his remarks are racist or at the very least improper. That would require a moral stance. For every 2 steps President Obama is taking forward for the progress of black Americans, it seems like Steele is trying to take 50 steps back.
Agree, Steele fails to realise that dancing for the racists isn't the way to make the party more inclusive.
he's been doing it for 25 years, so it's automatic at this point.
Earl, I like Obama as much as anyone, but what do you make of his giving a trillion or so dollars directly to the banks? He's lost a lot of credibility with me, based on that. I doubt any of us will ever see a dime of that money, but you can bet we will be paying it off for the next few decades. Is Obama the real deal is he just another corporate bag man? I really can't tell, and this is not a rhetorical question.
Obama has lost credibilty with you, based upon the course of action that was put in place before he came into office? What was he supposed to do, start from scratch?
Starting from scratch under the circumstances would not have been the ridiculous alternative you imply. Bush started from scratch, apparently in total ignorance of the constitutional form of government, thinking he could define the powers of the Presidency as he saw fit, as well as whatever else appealed to him.
After Bush, starting from scratch had some things going for it. I wish the President had started from scratch in dealing with the torture issue, instead of trying to insulate the CIA from the consequences of their actions, although it is true that it is never a good thing when the CIA is angry at the President. I wish he had started from scratch in his policy toward Afghanistan, instead of trying to revive the original Bush policy there. The President apparently started from scratch when he made his trip to Europe to participate in the G-20 conference. I think that was a good thing. So starting from scratch isn't as ridiculous as you want to imply.
Oh, Obama is a corporate man. He may be well-intentioned, but the political realities of his situation and the way our government is run right now dictate that, just like most every other politician in the Capitol, he has to put the interests of the financial sector above those of ordinary Americans. He has enough political capital to challenge those corporate interests, so until he starts actually doing that, we can only conclude that the corporate interests are what is dominating.
And why should anyone take your speculation to be gospel?
You perceive the situation clearly.
Mr. Hutchinson,
You just get better and better. Thank you again.
I think Mr. Steele is purposely trying to unravel the Republican party. He has to be saying some of the stuff he says. He is either a bad political pundit or really Machiavellian.
Exactly! I mean c'mon....they can't be as stupid as they portray themselves to be....can they?
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