Republican Change

Excellent post! Also, we lose a competitive advantage if we don’t pay attention to the realities of their shift. Just as the American public didn’t fall for the boogeyman stereotype of “tax-&-spend” liberals this election, so too they won’t fall for boogeyman stereotypes of republicans if Michael Steele succeeds in leading the republican party in a new direction.QT

Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Bush is a pretty direct chain, the players remained largely unchanged (Cheney, Negroponte, Rumsfeld et al). It’s naieve to think that suddenly the GOP is going to stop being the party that brought us Jean Schmidt, Michelle Bachmann, Darrell Issa, Alan Keyes, JC Watts, and a whole slew of other minority candidates who would love nothing more than to bring about Moralist/Christian Sharia law in this country. It’s fucking goofy to think that now that one of these horrible sellouts has ascended to RNC chair that anything is going to change with the GOP.I’ll evaluate Republican change as soon as any actually happens. Which is to say, not now, and probably not any time soon.

Just to be somewhat nitpicky, the GOP was never really the party of T.R. With the exception of Roosevelt and Eisenhower, the party’s leadership and presidential nominees from the 1870s through the present day, were in the pocket of big business and the Chamber of Commerce set. Whereas Ike could bargain with these types, Roosevelt was little more than someone they threw on the ticket to garner votes and he only became president due to McKinley’s death. His reformist agenda and independent streak never really sat well with the Mark Hanna’s who actually ran the party (thus, his failure to secure the party’s nomination in 1912 when he decided that he’d like to return to the White House).

What about the 177 House Republicans that voted no against “THAT ONE”? I am sure Eric Cantor will never support anything that President Obama puts foreword for “SOME REASON”. Steele is a tool nothing more. Do you know what the GOP thought they did wrong the last two elections? “It wasn’t our message or our policies but the fact that we didn’t sell our message correctly.” That means they want to use the internet and maybe,”COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS” to sell their message of hate but with a nice fluffy twist to it. I am sorry but I am not seeing the “CHANGE”. Ron Paul would have been a change minus the racism. But I think you will be hard pressed to find any GOP member that doesn’t hate someone or some large demographic of people. I am willing to bet that Steele hates black people. It would be the perfect irony. So try and spread this message of love, bipartisanship, unity, post civil rights era crap all you want and watch every GOP member piss in your boots with a smarky smile on their face. Don’t be fooled.

It’s not nitpicky to be historically accurate.

I appreciate your optimism, Lee, I truly do. But I think it is a bit early to pop the cork and celebrate the new Republican party.Yes, an African American is now the leader of the RNC. But in the same week, House Republicans voted along strict partisan lines against a stimulus bill and Rep. Gingrey had to grovel at the feet of Rush Limbaugh and beg his forgiveness for a brief moment of clarity.To me, the election of Steele feels far too much like the selection of Sarah Palin – a move designed to try and change the image of the Republican party, without actually changing the party from within. I am glad an African American was chosen and I am glad we have come this far. But I have doubts he would have been chosen had an African American not been our president.I hope the Republican Party does move away from the politics of their past. But what they did on Friday doesn’t erase what they did Monday through Thursday. They still have a long way to go before I can believe there has been any change.

I’ll have to agree with Travis on this one. Picking Steele does not signify change for the GOP when they show that their ideology is the same. I’ve seen Steele in numerous interviews and he’s no different than any other non-thinking Republican. The only one I’d separate out would be Pawlenty in understanding what it takes to change the party. But what did they do instead? They put Bobby Jindal front and center as an up and coming leader a few months agoduring the campaign and propped up Palin. That sounds like courting the ethnic and women’s vote to me, while trying to solidify the base with the same, old message. You may view that as cynical, but I have yet to see them do something substantive to change my mind.

i can’t comment on this topic anymore. i just wanted to say that i have stored your view point in a wrinkle in my brain and will remember it each and every time the republicans show their true color. which happens to be a pasty white.

Hi everybody! Also, question. Last night, Olbermann noted that the last RNC took himself out of the running, and that one of the other candidates also dropped out. If I remember correctly, there were 5 people originally in the running. With two dropping out, I think that only left Blackwell, Steele, and the Barack the Magic Negro dude… is it at all possible that they were faced with the choice of a black guy, another black guy, and the “Magic Negro” guy? I’m just saying it was always going to take extraordinary circumstances for this to happen, I’m just wondering how against the wall they were. (Assuming that with two black people and someone who’d just been in the news for race-based douchebaggery would have drawn some bad press). Thoughts?

Ahh thank you interwebs information gods. It was just Steele vs. the whites only country club guy… And he still only won by six votes. Ahhhhhhh, Good times.

ElMystico -In the end it was between Steele and the guy from SC that quit his restricted country club (I forget his name). Saltzman from Tennesee was the magic negro song guy and he was the one that withdrew.While I think that Michael “The Tool” Steele is animatronic simulation of a black man being operated by the Klansman behind the curtain, it is also true that he was the best choice out of a very bad lot.Having heard Steele speak, I think I have a better understanding of the black community than he has. I am no expert.

From my understanding, the ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ dude was the first to drop out of the race, right after Contessa Brewer got into it with him on that exact topic on MSNBC.The GOP is not the party of progressive ideas. Lincoln was an exception, not a rule (and even his reasoning was moreso ruled by practicality than his belief in progressiveness).The same way Palin was used to get the vote of women, Steele is being used to get the vote of African Americans. It doesn’t matter to the GOP that the ideas being presented by their counterparts in the other party is completely opposite of theirs; as far as they’re concerned, they want women, WE got women! They want black folks, WE got black folks.Which makes it more of the same with different faces.

comeon… u buy this crap from them?this is the republican leadership here doing the voting no? those who love palin and bow to rush.and somewhere in your head you think this happened as they just up and wanted to do the right thing? because their hand was forced by history???dude lol Lee man seriously now

I guess I feel that I have a more realistic view of change – it’s not instant, it’s not overnight. I never said this was a huge change; but it IS a change and could very well trigger more changes.It’s like the philosophy 101 example of Locke’s Socks – you have a pair of socks. They get a hole, which you patch. Eventually, more holes…more patches until at one point the sock is ALL patches. So – is it the same sock?I see a lot of comments that seem to think there’s a magical transition from one version of a political party to another. Doesn’t work that way. It’s always ‘the old party’ that starts the process of change….because THAT’S the party.I’m not ‘fooled’ by Steel but you’re only fooling yourself to pretend it’s not one bit of change.

Eventually, more holes…more patches until at one point the sock is ALL patches. So – is it the same sock?If you put it on the same, stinky foot? Then yes, it’s the same sock.

I’ll wait for further patches before I decide if the sock feels different.

At the risk of giving the Republicans too much credit I have noticed one change in their M.O. recently. That is that the Dems have given them plenty of ammo to use against their recent Cabinet appointees. Geithner and Daschle have been an embarrassment.Both highly experienced and intelligent men not taking care of business by paying their taxes like we are all expected to. There are NO excuses. We aren’t talking small change here either.This is more like something I would expect from a Republican. But, my point is the Republicans have taken some well-deserved shots at both men but have shown restraint and seem to be willing to look at the big picture and at what the country needs. I for one appreciate it.