Michael Steele as Face of the GOP? Ok. So I Just Re Read This Book.
And there is this one scene that takes place in Post Civil War Charleston. The line that I mean to recall is where the title character describes the scene when he, a black man, was savagely attacked by a mob of rabid white southerners, partially on account of that whole taboo of messing with white women, but on the higher level because:
"They were so full of hatred, because that spring in America, all the niggers were free men and women, and they did not like it. It was the end of their world."
(Galilee, by Clive Barker, p. 541.)
And I am sure there are some people (even some well meaning, sensitive, smart people) who will disagree with me, but I get that sort of vibe off the Republican Party (slightly more restrained, though) with the election of President Obama. The end of the days when only white men get to be president, is here. Glory Be.
Or, if you have a vested interest in maintaining the reducing areas where white privilege still exist -- Oh nooo! The Horror!
And now the party of 90% white people, otherwise known as the Republican Party, has chosen a undeniably black man as Chair of the Party.
So who is this a good day for, then?
Well, let's take care of the obvious; it is a great day for Michael Steele. I will not get too deep into my inside baseball (sorta) knowledge of Maryland politics, but I will just say (and I am not being pissy here, the conclusion follows the facts) this is a major achievement for any man or woman who's greatest political achievement to date has been only to be elected as Lt. Governor of a state, running as running mate of the candidate for Governor. And for a black man? Well, he has been doing the inside work; he has been doing the party back office stuff for the past few years. As opposed to Sociopathic Succubus Sarah, at least he got to be a contender, on his own merit.
Moving on with the idea of who this is good for?
I guess it is good for the GOP. I emphasize the word guess. And the reason I am qualifying that is that on first blush, it seems to show the GOP as a potential bastion of diversity. But that is the new veneer that might not be warranted. A party that has more than 90% of it's membership as white people, and a consistently better than 90% rejection rate by blacks, has to do a shitload more than pick a black man as it's Chair. Not that I think this is a token choice (as I already said, I think Mr. Steele has been playing the back room game and seemingly well), but I fear, based on the track record of the GOP as a whole, and so many of it's members, that he will end up as token by default. That is what I call the process when Republicans trot out their more visible blacks. The more they talk about the few the rare, the black republicans, the more it seems they are being symbolized, and in a dishonest way for a dishonest purpose, and as a result of that, it smacks of tokenism.
Then there is the fact that there are still so many out and out, if not violently, while still in denial, racist GOPers.
And that leads us right back to the quote from the book. Here is the question. Granted, there will be (one hopes) lots of members of the GOP who will either be happy to see the color line broken in the leadership of the GOP, or at least, are not racist enough to give a shit about the way Steele looks, and what his race is. But is the racist faction of the GOP so large, and so powerful that he is going to be a divisive figure? We already have the more racist people in the GOP frothing at the mouth at the election of President Obama. How are they going to react to the party organization's leader looking more like Obama than them?
Not well, I am guessing. And Steele does have another problem. He actually gets it, that the GOP needs to modernize and -- shock, horror -- move to the middle.
I would not be my last dollar on his chances of success. And the fact that he is not a hard assed conservative gives the racist wing of the GOP a non-racist club to bash him with.
But here is what I will bet my last dollar on; that the racist wing of the GOP will not content itself to only use such neutral clubs. We know their racism will leak out. It always does.
"They were so full of hatred, because that spring in America, all the niggers were free men and women, and they did not like it. It was the end of their world."
(Galilee, by Clive Barker, p. 541.)
And I am sure there are some people (even some well meaning, sensitive, smart people) who will disagree with me, but I get that sort of vibe off the Republican Party (slightly more restrained, though) with the election of President Obama. The end of the days when only white men get to be president, is here. Glory Be.
Or, if you have a vested interest in maintaining the reducing areas where white privilege still exist -- Oh nooo! The Horror!
And now the party of 90% white people, otherwise known as the Republican Party, has chosen a undeniably black man as Chair of the Party.
So who is this a good day for, then?
Well, let's take care of the obvious; it is a great day for Michael Steele. I will not get too deep into my inside baseball (sorta) knowledge of Maryland politics, but I will just say (and I am not being pissy here, the conclusion follows the facts) this is a major achievement for any man or woman who's greatest political achievement to date has been only to be elected as Lt. Governor of a state, running as running mate of the candidate for Governor. And for a black man? Well, he has been doing the inside work; he has been doing the party back office stuff for the past few years. As opposed to Sociopathic Succubus Sarah, at least he got to be a contender, on his own merit.
Moving on with the idea of who this is good for?
I guess it is good for the GOP. I emphasize the word guess. And the reason I am qualifying that is that on first blush, it seems to show the GOP as a potential bastion of diversity. But that is the new veneer that might not be warranted. A party that has more than 90% of it's membership as white people, and a consistently better than 90% rejection rate by blacks, has to do a shitload more than pick a black man as it's Chair. Not that I think this is a token choice (as I already said, I think Mr. Steele has been playing the back room game and seemingly well), but I fear, based on the track record of the GOP as a whole, and so many of it's members, that he will end up as token by default. That is what I call the process when Republicans trot out their more visible blacks. The more they talk about the few the rare, the black republicans, the more it seems they are being symbolized, and in a dishonest way for a dishonest purpose, and as a result of that, it smacks of tokenism.
Then there is the fact that there are still so many out and out, if not violently, while still in denial, racist GOPers.
And that leads us right back to the quote from the book. Here is the question. Granted, there will be (one hopes) lots of members of the GOP who will either be happy to see the color line broken in the leadership of the GOP, or at least, are not racist enough to give a shit about the way Steele looks, and what his race is. But is the racist faction of the GOP so large, and so powerful that he is going to be a divisive figure? We already have the more racist people in the GOP frothing at the mouth at the election of President Obama. How are they going to react to the party organization's leader looking more like Obama than them?
Not well, I am guessing. And Steele does have another problem. He actually gets it, that the GOP needs to modernize and -- shock, horror -- move to the middle.
I would not be my last dollar on his chances of success. And the fact that he is not a hard assed conservative gives the racist wing of the GOP a non-racist club to bash him with.
But here is what I will bet my last dollar on; that the racist wing of the GOP will not content itself to only use such neutral clubs. We know their racism will leak out. It always does.
posted by Abstentus at 7:09 PM
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