And so, roughly half a century after Rosa Parks sitting on a bus and George Wallace standing in a doorway, and Martin Luther King’s dream and Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor’s nightstick, and Little Rock and Selma and Montgomery, the Republican Party belatedly declares itself the party of all Americans, and hopes it’s not too late to look preposterous.
By naming Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, as its new party chairman, the Republicans not only break their own color barrier – they acknowledge the changing face of the American electorate.
And they hope nobody finds it anything but coincidental that Steele’s election, the other day, comes just three months after Barack Obama breaks the color barrier at the White House as a Democrat.
It’s a new political day in America. The Republicans make Steele the new public face of the party, and finally it’s the face of an African-American. This is the face that the Republicans found it convenient to ignore, or to denigrate, or to demonize, over the past half-century in order to divide the country and conquer the ballot box.
They did it with code words and backroom politics. They did it by trying to stand in the way of every piece of civil rights legislation originated in Washington, and they did it by dividing voters along racial lines with Richard Nixon’s so-called Southern strategy, and Ronald Reagan’s talk of welfare queens, and they do it even as their current immigration politics alienate Hispanics and their sense of political humor includes a song called “Barack the Magic Negro.”
In naming Steele their new chairman, they offer at least a symbolic gesture of a more inclusive political stance.
For their sake, it had better be more than symbolism. The old political arithmetic is changing faster than they imagined. Since 1965, America has tripled its minority population – it’s now roughly one-fourth of the electorate – and they’re voting heavily Democratic.
At the same time, white working class voters – who once comprised more than half the electorate and tended to vote Republican – now make up less than 40 percent of voters.
Now it’s up to Steele to show that he brings the Republicans more than a new complexion.
“We’re going to bring this party to every corner, every bedroom, to every neighborhood, to every community,” Steele said when he got the job. “And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike: ‘We want you to be a part of us. We want you to be with us, and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ ”
Well, those are pretty strong words, and many people of good will hope Steele means them.
This is a guy whose biggest political job until now, as lieutenant governor, involved a do-little position with a do-nothing administration. And parts of his record don’t stand up very well to even the mildest scrutiny.
How about the time his boss, former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr., held a $100,000 fundraiser at a segregated country club? Asked his reaction, Steele said it was “not an issue” for him because “I don’t play golf.”
That was like Rosa Parks saying she wasn’t bothered by segregated seating on buses because she always took taxi cabs.
Then there was Steele explaining his opposition to stem cell research, comparing it with Nazi experiments during the Holocaust. Maybe we’ve heard the last of that kind of political opportunism since President Obama welcomed “science” back into American life in his inaugural address.
The Republicans need Steele for reasons beyond his skin color. They are a party without a face of any color. John McCain’s still their best known image in the Senate, but whatever happened to him? The man who was slandered eight years ago by George W. Bush chose to toady up to him during his failed presidential campaign last year. The man who was ripped by Rush Limbaugh during the last campaign now toadies up to Limbaugh.
Then there’s House Minority Leader John Boehner, who looks like he just missed the final casting call for “Ocean’s 11.” In a time when 70 percent of the country’s backing Obama, Boehner’s the public Republican face as every member of his party voted against the president’s economic stimulus bill.
So Steele, plucked from obscurity to become lieutenant governor of Maryland, and then defeated four years later as he ran for the U.S. Senate, gets a second chance to make some political imprint.
As Ehrlich’s No. 2 guy, his postelection effect was minimal. As Republican Party chairman, he intends to send a message: Anew day has arrived. But it’s up to Steele to see that the message is real, and that he’s not just a good-looking face signaling nothing but his own complexion.
