I think that the Michael Steele served his ONLY PURPOSE for the Republican Party. He was an African American face for the GOP elected in January 2009 to serve as a counterbalance for the remarkable election of Barack Obama ... the first African American president in our nation's history.I'm sure there are quite a few Republicans who read my blog and indeed who reads Electronic Village who may disagree with this assertion. The question is how would they seek to refute this claim that Steele was only a token?
Be honest. That is the ONLY reason that Michael Steele was elected GOP chairman in the first place. The Republicans couldn't afford to have another old white man as their 'talking head'. Michael Steele became the puppet.
Steele didn't mind. In fact, he enjoyed it. Steele did his 'Bojangles' best to entertain the media and the public when he first got elected.
But, it's not January 2009 any longer and the Republican Party is now powered by the Tea Party ... and the GOP doesn't see any need to pretend like they are a diverse political party. They are very comfortable being the party for white folks in America as evidenced by the prominent role that Senator McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) have as party spokesperson.
EDIT: I'm with this guy right here from the comments to the Electronic Village post:
Steele is a Republican and I am not, therefore I don't really care what they do. I do, however, care very much about the "Bojangles" reference. I think that it is time for us, as a people, to stop talking about our own in that fashion.Partisanship is OK as long as it doesn't degenerate into outright disrespect.
2 comments:
I didn't mean to be disrespectful with my use of the 'Bojangles' reference. Rather I sought to be descriptive of how I saw Steele portrayed in the media when he was first elected. He contributed to the perception ... and I had impression he enjoyed being the loud uncle at Thanksgiving dinner.
Anyhow, I appreciate your feedback. I'm not sure how to refute my claim that Steele was elected primarily because he was Black. It is sincerely how I feel about it.
We'll see how he fares in the upcoming effort to get him re-elected.
peace, Villager
Thanks for dropping by Villager. The question wasn't necessarily at you. It was more or less directed at those who may disagree with your statement. I also want to note that I'm sure there weren't many Republicans who were very happy about him being RNC chair anyway. If could be about race or he may not have been a good fit for this job anyway. We'll see how things unfold in the future with Steele.
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