Is America Ready for a Black RNC Chairman?
The Washington Times reports today that failed Senate candidate Michael Steele has been asked to chair the Republican National Committee. This is major—the RNC chairmanship is probably the most visible party position outside the top echelons of Congress and the executive Cabinet, and having a black man in it would be . . . interesting, to say the least. Tokenism is one thing; peppering a few brown people here and there in low-profile positions is a safe strategy for satisfying those who tend to raise a stink about such things, but the GOP is taking a real risk by sticking Steele at the helm of their main machine. The RNC maps out fundraising strategies, decides which candidates to back strongly and which to leave hanging, and most critically, determines the party’s issue platform. Those of us who have long suspected that the Republican party’s base includes a significant contingent of closet racists might get a chance to see if that’s actually true or not—it’s difficult to imagine anyone who was swayed by the Southern Strategy taking something like this lying down. It’s probably a tad premature to start talking about a viable conservative third party at this point, but I dunno, the evangelicals are getting restless too . . .
Published on November 10, 2006 at 12:56 pm.
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