Every so often an op-ed from Republican political consultant Raynard Jackson hits my inbox and I post about them (”Black Republican consultant scorches Virginia GOP” and “Op-ed on black Republicans tells it like it is.”). I wondered when he might comment on the election of Michael Steele to head up the RNC. Given that some of the worst race-baiting in memory occurred in the last election cycle, it’s no surprise the party was scrambling to figure out how to handle opposing the first black president. It almost elected a stone-cold color-aroused candidate, Katon Dawson, who, quite frankly, would have made it very easy to dismiss the Republican party for a long time to come—Dawson was a member of an all-white country club until last year.
I called Steele’s ascension “window dressing.” Essentially Raynard Jackson, who knows Steele, fears this could be the case as well.
I have known Michael Steele for many, many years and consider him to be a friend. I have watched him persevere through many ups and downs. His will to succeed is unquestioned. Becoming chairman was the easy part.
Managing people’s expectations of him and his chairmanship is the more difficult task. Black Republicans are going to expect him to right all the wrongs in the party when it comes to their participation. Whites are going to expect him to be colorblind.
...Steele is not the Black chairman of the party. He is chairman of the party! But, they are not mutually exclusive. The main reason he won the race for chairman is the party needed a fresh face and a good communicator. On that basis, Steele was far and away the best candidate. But, there is another reason that you won’t hear discussed in polite company. The Obama effect.
Republicans were terrified of having a white party chairman criticizing the first Black president of the U.S. This is a silly argument if the criticisms were based on issues, not innuendo (“palling around with terrorist”). This was the sentiment expressed to me by several members of the national committee after Steele’s election.
I understand the political realities of this thinking, but the visual of Steele criticizing our first Black president makes me a little uncomfortable. Even if it is done totally on the issues. This is the PR side of me. Steele has to be extremely careful of how he navigates between the Black and white worlds of Republican politics.
And quite frankly, that’s why I feel for Steele on some level. He’s got an awful job ahead of him and it’s pretty clear the base of the party, as well as some of the fossilized racist thinking in party leadership, are likely to rebel against any concrete moves by Steele to change things. More below the fold.