Former RNC Chair: ‘We Need Messengers Who Look Like Me’

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” that the GOP needs more diverse messengers.

“We need messengers who look like me. We need messengers who are Hispanic, Asian Americans, women, a cross section of folks who represent communities across the country,” said Steele, who served as RNC chair from 2009 to 2011 and is also former Maryland lieutenant governor.

“I think from the Democrats’ perspective, they got an affirmation of the policies and the direction that the president articulated. Now as a Republican, I would argue there wasn’t much articulation there, but be that as it may, I think that they showed two things,” Steele said when the host asked him what happened Election Day.

Steele said the Democrats excelled at getting their people to the voting booth and were successful at picking up seats in the Senate – “one of those firewalls that the Republicans needed.”

“One, politically, they are superior in terms of their ability to get their vote to the table and the voting booth. And secondly, I think from a policy standpoint which particularly with the pickup in the Senate – I think a lot of people kind of looked at the Senate as one of those firewalls that the Republicans needed,” Steel said, calling it a “come-to-Jesus” moment.

“To pick up two seats was a profound effort as well, and it really kind of makes the policy discussion take on a very different hue than it otherwise would. And I think for the Republicans, it was one of those come-to-Jesus moments politically where they have to reassess and re-evaluate exactly whether they want to be a relevant political party going forward,” he added.

“And how do you do that?” the host asked. Steele replied that the GOP needs to get out of the “old mindset that I believe that they’ve been stuck in.”

“For at least, I like to say, for two bright shining years, we were able to prove that you can win coming off the ash heaps of 2006 and 2008, the brand is in the tank. People aren’t joining the party. The money is nowhere to be found, and we were able to pull around, turnaround by doing one very simple thing - empowering the state parties to build a grassroots operation on the ground,” Steele said.

He said during his time as head of the RNC, he modeled his chairmanship after former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean “with the 50-state strategy, putting emphasis on states where Republicans had not typically won in the past, to go in there and not try to win it all, but to win some, win a county council’s race, win a mayor’s race, win a state legislative race, and to build that from the bottom up, to have a message that resonated with folks.”

“And I think a lot of that was missing in this campaign for a lot of reasons,” Steele said. He added that it’s not helpful to second guess though.

“And so, you know, all the recriminations, finger-pointing and all that is not helpful. Second guessing, you know, should we have picked Mitt Romney? Yeah, duh, you did. Should he have picked Paul Ryan? Absolutely. Why not? He’s a smart political figure and has a lot to offer the party and I think resonated very well with the electorate, so all of that second guessing right now is typical Washington inside craziness,” he said.

“You need to hunker down. You need to look at your ground game. You need to look at your organization. You need to look at your message, and you need to look at your messengers, and we need messengers. We need messengers who look like me. We need messengers who are Hispanic, Asian Americans, women, a cross section of folks who represent communities across the country,” Steele said.

And spoken like a true disciple of the GREAT Ralph Waldo Emerson, which I also consider myself to be.
I have been thinking in recent years of possible analogies that could be drawn in American thought through the nineteenth and 20th centuries, starting with
the two main cutting edge philosophers of their period: Thoreau and Emerson. Analogies and parallels to representative thinkers aligning themselves with basic currents of thought as exemplified by those two. As I matured, I started to prefer Emerson, by a huge margin over Henry David.
BTW, I have been trying to track down a quote I am pretty sure was from Emerson for years.....something about “events being brass” , as distinguished from mere ideas,which start as some baser metal,or material, I think it was....do you know the quote?

Accepting that when the counting of the votes is compromised no one can beat the thief, and to have real elections in the future the GOP will have to take greater care in the tabulation of votes, (or no size turn out will be able to win) here are the replies to the lies that were never presented, and would have delivered even more votes to the GOP:

1. The 1% lie: Those in the 1% are the winners in life, the ones we all want to be, the ones people come from all over the world to have a chance at becoming....they are NOT deamons, they are heroes......they pay way more than their share, the give the most to others and to charity and we should salute them and defend their success.

2. Welfare, food stamps and the rest of the enslaving handouts the government gives away: Americans work hard to succeed and play hard when at rest......

Americans never look for a hand out, they look for a way up to be self sufficient....those that just offer “stuff” enslave those they give to and feed the addiction to that stuff by providing it.....

3. America women have been the strongest part of the family and they have never turned to the government in replace of their husbands and families for their needs....

4. While Americans do not wish to be the police of the world, they have graciously accepted this role because it was good for the world to have such a generous nation with such generous people maintain stability in that world

5. People around the world look to America because she celebrates the individual. We are not evil, we are blessed.....No nation on earth has ever given to others defense and not taken their land or their riches.....America is good because her people are good

6. America is a goal that other nations and peoples aspire to, and we should never allow others, especially those running for office to degrade the accomplishments that Americans have achieved.

7. Who needs God: Latin Americans and Conservative Blacks should turn to the GOP because we share the same values and work ethics.....I work along side both these groups and they work hard, do their jobs and have a deep respect for the Lord....America is a Christian nation that accepts all religious beliefs unless they hurt others....God is alive in our people and we should never run from that fact

8. You don’t need laws if your cause is just: if you want people to eat, work, slim down, not pollute you can EDUCATE them to that end, you do not need laws for that end.

9. We have all grown and no longer need unions and their back stabbing greed for them selves....Employers have learned that a happy workforce is a good work force.

10. The EPA is no longer needed to pass laws and regulations, they should use education as the means to the end

We are not sorry for what we HAVE BUILT together as Americans and we will never be, and not even a minute should pass between the lies and their rebuttal.....with the media available to us today, there should be instant response to lies and false hoods.

Have we become so ignorant of our accomplishments compared to other nations that we will allow lies to stand without reply?

NEVER.

I am an American and neither bama, Muslims or anyone anywhere will tear me down or make me less proud of what we have accomplished.

AND THESE GOPers BETTER WAKE UP AND GET SOME BACKBONE AND DEFEND AMERICAN SUCCESS TO ALL COMERS.

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