Can Michael Steele Reverse US Republican Party's Steep Decline? By Jim
Fry
Washington
*18 February 2009*
video: Michael Steele at RNC - Download (WM) [image: video clip]
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video: Michael Steele at RNC - Watch (WM) [image: video clip]
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With President Barack Obama, a Democrat, barely settled into the White
House, the opposition Republican party picked a former state official and
African American as its national chairman.
[image: Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele speaks after being elected
first black RNC chairman at Party's winter meetings in Washington DC, 30
Jan. 2009] Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele speaks after being
elected first black RNC chairman at Party's winter meetings in Washington
DC, 30 Jan. 2009 Michael Steele took the reins of the *Republican National
Committee*<javascript:HandleLink('cpe_0_0','CPNEWWIN:NewWindow%5Etop=10,left=10,width=500,height=400,toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizabl...@http://www.gop.com/news/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=2496c3bf-0764-4bde-90c9-3ef2a92ecc8b');>at
end of January. This month, as the United States marks Black History
Month, political experts are considering whether Steele can reverse his
party's steep decline in attracting support from African American voters.
African American voters turned out in unprecedented numbers in the 2008 U.S.
presidential election.
A survey of voters found the prospect of electing the first black president
generated enthusiasm. Ninety-five percent of blacks voted for President
Barack Obama. Lillian Jackson from Ohio was one such voter.
"I thank God I lived to vote for him," she said.
David Bositis of the *Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies*<javascript:HandleLink('cpe_0_0','CPNEWWIN:NewWindow%5Etop=10,left=10,width=500,height=400,toolbar=1,location=1,directories=0,status=1,menubar=1,scrollbars=1,resizabl...@http://www.jointcenter.org/');>analyzed
the exit polls. "There was a record turnout of African American
voters," he recalls.
The 2008 election set records in estimated total numbers - more than 16
million black voters - and in African American turnout. Over 66 percent
voted.
Even around the peak of the civil rights movement, both numbers were
smaller.
The chairman of Howard University political science department, Darrel
Harris, watches such trends.
"I can't say they we will continue to see this kind of enthusiasm," Harris
said. "Obama's the first. And firsts, in most things, are significant."
And now there is another first. The Republican Party chose a black man and
former state elected official [former Maryland lieutenant governor] as its
national chairman. Michael Steele promises a new direction.
"It's time for something completely different," he said. "And we're going to
bring it to them."
This month, as the nation celebrates the 200th birthday of the man who freed
the slaves, Abraham Lincoln, African Americans lead both major political
parties.
Republican strategist Tom Feehery says President Lincoln would be pleased.
"That people can be judged not on what they look like," Feehery said. "But
what they do."
In November, the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, won only four
in 100 African American votes.
In 2006 Steele ran for U.S. Senate in Maryland. He won one quarter of the
black vote. And some on the party's national committee say Steele could help
broaden the appeal of the party's message.
"The message of personal responsibility, liberty, free markets, it's a
message that can appeal to anybody," Seth Wimer, Delaware Republican
chairman said. "Regardless of age, race, gender."
McCain won only in states in the south and west where religious
conservatives dominate in some states.
Exit polls showed three out of four white evangelicals voted for McCain,
voters who usually oppose abortion and gay rights but often express
antipathy toward government.
In black churches, ministers often preach similiar religiously conservative
themes.
But African Americans, as a group, are poorer than whites. The government
lists nearly one quarter below the poverty line while fewer than one in 10
whites are considered poor.
And so Harris says, unlike Republicans, many blacks regard the government as
protecting their communitys' interests.
"You just can't go to the black community and say, 'We share personal values
with you, family values with you and then turn around and engage in policy
decisions that have a negative impact on the community," he said.
Bositis' analysis is more stark. "So long as white southern conservatives
are the core of the Republican Party, black voters will never support it,"
he said.
Republican strategist, Feehery, agrees and hopes the party will quit running
against government if it is to broaden its base to include African
Americans.
"I think what Steele can do is he can start the process of recasting the
party," Feehery siad. "As not the party of the white southern male, by his
mere presence."
In these days of economic meltdown, when the new president touts legislation
he says will create millions of jobs, Steele maintains a hardline on
spending. The new Republican chairman recently asserted that government has
never created even one job.
--
"I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of
control, and at times hard to handle, but if you can't handle me at my
worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." ~Marilyn Monroe
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