Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Does Steele want to run the RNC?
I’ve tried to stay away from the train wreck known as RNC chair Michael Steele, but one thing is becoming clear in his brief tenure. He really doesn’t want the gig.
Whether it’s using language that was in style 30 years ago or going after Rush Limbaugh (and then going on Rush’s show to kiss his ring), Steele has stumbled around and done very little in making a viable opposition. Now he’s stepped in it again by going after the GOP’s main anti-abortion plank. In an interview in GQ magazine, Steele seems to suggest that abortion should be left to the states.
Sure Steele went crazy in a previous interview when he was asked about civil unions, but with GQ he says something that will need to be explained to a number of his Republican peers.
“Um, you know, I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can’t simply say, oh, like, ‘Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.’ It’s like saying, ‘Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.’”
Pause for a moment and listen please. The sound you just heard were the Exodus folk throwing a hissy fit.
While there are many Republicans who are pro-choice and have no issues with gays or lesbians, the base of the party isn’t there yet. And they are not going to get there with their leader thinking out loud in a national magazine. Steele’s musings are not going to garner him any good will at the GOP and it wouldn’t surprise if he were gone in the next few weeks. Or he’ll make another apology. Or blame the media for taking his words out of context. Or say his troubles are Obama’s fault.
UPDATE: Steele is already on the apology tour.
Thanks Mr. Withers.
“Tomorrow morning I’m going to stop being gay”.
Perhaps the best thing any politician in the U.S. has said so far!
Well he is starting to get it. I think most of the RNC gets it too, they just can’t offend their base. Obama is in the same situation, he can’t offend the African American community or the white redneck union folks by saying exactly what he thinks. The two of them are great examples of how homophobia represses heterosexual people.
In a way I pity the guy. Let’s be honest here, they wanted him to try and counter Obama on racial diversity, as the GOP is increasingly becoming a real White Party without the jockstraps.
But Steele has an impossible task. How is he supposed to try and win over moderate voters when the party’s Right wing has such a no-compromises mentality towards certain issues that moderates are most likely to want a compromise on?
Even many moderates who oppose same-sex marriages that are actually called “marriages”, many of them support things like civil unions. But the extreme Right of the party wants an absolute ban on ANY recognition of gay relationships and regards any softening of that stance as a betrayal of God and the GOP.
In this climate Steele has no room for maneuver. He’s never going to have the appeal with African-American voters that Obama does. Period. Nor will Bobby Jindral for that matter. GOP sensitivity to Latino issues remains low, so that group is another challenge. Moderate and Left leaning whites just can’t stand the religious extremism of the GOP and with their credibility shot in matters of fiscal policy they don’t have much of a leg to stand on.
Hence Rush Limbaugh outranks Steele in the GOP these days. He’s more in tune with their base, even if the rest of America thinks he’s an ignorant blow-hard.
Good grief. Great comments.
Mr. Withers: gurl, let him run it == his way ==, sweet thing. Why does it matter?
Look at the recent few weeks through the prism of an internal war going on for control of the party.
It’ll make sense then. Michael Steele is doing exactly as I expected when I supported his candidacy.
I mean, geez, everyone was crying and yelling out for a less religious right message and the minute we start instituting a more Ayn Rand feel, every liberals head explodes.
Steele is our token black LGBT representative within the Republican Party. Actiually, no one cares what his racial or ethnic origin is, except the neurotic left. We do not want him, because as an LGBT individual, his views do not comport with Republicanism or Conservatism.
RJLigier:
Please sir, what do you by an LGBT individual when referring to Steele??
“Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.’ It’s like saying, ‘Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.’”
It’s interesting to hear an African-American and a Republican leader say that sexual orientation is the equivalent of racial identity. Does this mean that he supports non-discrimination for GLBT folks in the same way that we have national legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race??????
Hey “Eddie in LA” most pro-labor Union people are not “white redneck union folks”. I know plenty of Union members who are liberal, gay, people of color, etc. Let’s leave generalizations to the Republicans and the Religious Right, Ok?
It looks to me like Steele is trying to pull the party back toward the middle, and away from the extreme right-wing positions that it has had in recent years. The extreme right wing nuts don’t like it, but it really is the only way the Republican party can survive. If he doesn’t succeed, the two big parties in this country a couple decades hence will be the Democrats and the Progressives.