RNC Chairman Michael Steele has been under fire for most of his tenure as leader of the Republican Party and he attributes that to his race. This is ridiculous. If anything, the convenient fact that he became the face of the Republican party in January 2009, the start of the age of Obama, may have had more to do with race than the criticisms against him. Let’s be real for a moment, the Democrats are the ones who specialize in using the race card, they specialize in reducing an argument to an accusation of racism claiming that every legitimate policy argument against them masks violent hatred based on the color of one’s skin. And now we have chairmen Steele taking a page right out of the Democrats’ playbook, crying that the standards are too high, the margin of error too slim simply because he is not white. He should run into the Democrats’ arms where he can get sympathy because he is “different.” Now, for me and for all the conservatives I know, he is under fire specifically because he is not different, he has a job to do and that job is all that people care about. He has a tough job, I give him that, and the pressure is high because the GOP is down right now… what does he expect? Flower petals to fall from the sky when the press got wind of Republicans using donor dollars on strippers?
While it’s good that they did damage control, recovering the money from that event, an event that was not sanctioned by the RNC, it’s much more damaging when Steele comes out on ABC’s “Good Morning America” saying that his race is making his job harder. These statements make it clear that the RNC is trying to be like the DNC, to use race as a weapon, as an excuse. His missteps have been exceedingly plentiful and he should thank his lucky stars that Obama is around. Imagine how it would “look” if Michael Steele were fired during the age of Obama, the charges of racism from the Left would be deafening… but this is exactly the problem with America today. We are moving backward, to a place where race trumps qualification and merit. I want to be “progressive” in the sense that I want our society to progress to a point where we are all truly equal, where charges of racism are reserved for real-life racism, not for the appearance of racism.
The first political party in the United States to adhere to the principles of freedom and equality espoused by our founding fathers in our founding documents will save this nation from the ruinous path that we are on. If the Republican Party wants to be that party, then it must stop acting like the Democrats, it must start treating people like people, not as props. Steele is making himself a prop, a talking face constantly on television, on talk shows, an entertainer instead of a leader. He does not represent conservatism, especially when he utters nonsense and plays the race card. Once the Republicans embrace personal responsibility instead of an entitlement society, embrace individuals for their merit not their race, and embrace freedom instead of the endless expansion of a central government, they will become the majority party and they will truly represent what America is all about. A good first step toward this goal can be to ask for Steele’s resignation, not because he is black, but because he is not mobilizing voters, because there exists a vast movement of conservatives that are impatiently waiting for a champion of freedom and the Republican Party under his leadership has not heeded that call. Americans must treat each other fairly, no matter the color… the American Dream is the ability to benefit from one’s own hard work despite class, race, religion, or any social “distinction,” anything that undermines this is Un-American and brings us closer to tyranny.
-AG
