 |
The
Republican Party elected Michael Steele as the first ever African
American chairman just days after the nation elected Barack Obama as
the first ever African American president. Steele, the former Maryland
lieutenant governor, was also the first black to be elected to a
statewide office in Maryland. Ironically, Steele rose to prominence in
2004 when he was chosen to speak at the Republican National Convention
as a way to offset the dynamic address given by then-Senator Obama at
the Democratic National Convention [Steele is of no relation to
renowned conservative author Shelby Steele, also an African American].
The election of Steele, a Georgetown University law graduate, as head
of the Republican National Committee after a highly-contentious
campaign is seen by pundits as a way to accomplish five main
objectives:
1. Steele, 50, is looked upon
to revive the Republican Party after the brutal thrashing it took from
the electorate in the 2006 and especially the 2008 elections. The party
is viewed as disjointed and fractionalized after key battleground “red”
states [so-called Republican strongholds] voted “blue” [Democratic] in
the latest election.
2. Along with right-wing
commentators Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, Steele hopes to counter
the mass national and international appeal of Barack Obama, who was
swept into office 11 days ago.
3. Steele is a gifted and
eloquent orator who Republicans hope will shepherd the conservative
message to African Americans, Hispanics and suburbanites who voted
Democratic in the last two major elections, decisively shunning
conservative ethos.
4. As a successful black
Republican in the traditional Democratic state of Maryland [Steele
lives in Prince George’s County, Md., one of the wealthiest black
counties in the world that straddles the Washington D.C. border], party
members believe Steele is the best ambassador for the GOP outside of
the conservative South.
5. Steele vowed to close the
digital divide with Obama and the Democrats. Obama’s team brilliantly
used the Internet to galvanize the electorate, raise an unprecedented
amount of money and build a brigade of foot soldiers nationwide to work
for the Democratic cause.
As political observers have said since the Nov. 4 election, Republicans
needed to provide a fresh face, both literally and figuratively, at the
helm of the GOP in order to rebuild the base on the rubble that was
once a proud edifice of political conservatism. Time will tell if the
election of Steele was the right strategy. –terry shropshire
