Tokenism You Can Believe In [View All]

[ihavenobias]

NOTE: This was and I thought I would share it here. After you check it out, I recommend you watch this new video:

Tokenism You Can Believe In
By MRFred

The Republicans picked Micheal Steele as its chairman. What a surprise! Mr. Steel phrased it like this:

"This is a remarkable moment. Some say it's historic, but it's just one more bold step that the party of Lincoln has taken since its founding."

Let the freedom train roll on brother!

Well, on second thought, not as remarkable as the Republicans would have you believe. The Democratic Party elected its first black chairman, Ron Brown, in a remarkable moment in 1989. At the time the Democrats were unremarkably criticized by Republicans and "conservative pundits" for picking Brown, in their words, who was only chosen to "appease" black voters who supported Jesse Jackson in 1988. Limbaugh in his usual bombastic mode called it a "politically correct" move.

Regardless of Mr. Steele's spin (on his selection) all is not sweetness and light at the RNC. Steele was opposed by most "conservative" activists who accused Steele of being insufficiently conservative. You can read that to mean insufficiently white.

Mr. Steele has a daunting task, namely to convince minorities/African Americans, that the party that has sung the praises of segregationists like Strom Thurman, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, Tom Tancredo and others, cares about them.

Particularly since the conservatives new spin on the housing crisis and resulting recession tosses the African Americans they openly courted in 2004 under the bus in 2008.

In 2004 the “ownership society” in the Republican lexicon was used by black Republicans to explain why blacks and minorities should support the GOP. The “ownership society” according to Bush in a 2004 speech (at Freddy Mac headquarters no less) meant " homes and small businesses, increased self-reliance and small government." All allegedly key Republican core values to be sure. Of course this was made possible in the Republican spin by less government regulation, entrepreneurship and low taxes.

Not so much in 2008. The “ownership society” as envisioned by Bush and the Republicans is a failure. A broken promise, more precisely a false promise, in light of sub-prime mortgage scams that preyed disproportionately on minorities by unregulated entrepreneurs.

Subsequently the collapse of Wall Street financial houses and the federal bailout of the party insiders and contributors who orchestrated the now global financial meltdown has rightfully pissed off the African Americans that may have considered the GOP in the past.

Yep, the . After all, they reasoned, they are largely responsible because they have crappy credit. Yes, that must be it, affirmative action and fair housing, not greedy bankers and duplicitous Republican politicians, caused the problem. You know, those shiftless sub-prime minority borrowers. Remarkable. (Note By Ihavenobias: to read some brilliant reporting from Daniel Gross of Newsweek on why the conservative argument on these issues is complete BS)

In another "remarkable moment" Mr Steele was trying to put the best spin he could on why so few black Republicans were present at the 2008 Convention. During an on-camera interview Steele said the outreach effort "was inadequate".

Inadequate indeed. Consider the photo below of the 2008 Republican Convention opening ceremony. 10 African Americans were in attendance. 11, if you count the TV camera man at the lower left.



Steele's task is made all the more urgent by a recent poll by . The JCPES noted a 60-percent decline in black identification with the Republican Party as compared to four years ago. In 2004 the Republican National Convention in New York City, BlackAmericaWeb.com reported on the "record number" of GOP delegates of color in attendance, 167 or nearly 7 percent of all delegates.

At least Mike has a pretty low bar. Overall there were 36 black delegates representing 1.5 percent of the participants, the worst showing in 40 years. All he needs to do is recruit 36 more black delegates to have a 100% improvement.

If that fails he can increase the attendance numbers by counting the concession and janitorial staff at the next convention.

Remarkable, isn't it?