GOP Elects Steele RNC Chairman

On Friday, the Republican National Committee elected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele as the Committee's chairman. He takes over at a time of great flux in the GOP and in the conservative movement in the US. His mission is to revive the party's fortunes in time for the 2010 or 2012 elections. It may well be mission impossible

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Steele rightly noted that millions abandoned the party because “we behaved badly.” He added, “It was about the fact that we failed to lead. We grew the size of government. When we're saying we believed in less government, we grew government. When we said we believe in less spending, we spent more.” He might have added that the Republicans got America involved in an unnecessary war in Iraq-Nam and proceeded to mismanage it from the beginning as well as under-regulate Wall Street.

What must truly be troubling for Mr. Steele is the lack of depth in the Republican Party. The most effective politician they have, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is constitutionally unable to serve as president (he was born an Austrian citizen) and unable to serve another term as governor. During the Fox interview, Mr. Steele cited as the new front bench Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. These are hardly the brightest bulbs in the box, and note, not one single legislator made the list.

Some party activists worry that Mr. Steele isn't conservative enough on social issues. Looking back on the four years he was the right hand man to Governor Robert Ehrlich, one can hardly keep a straight face on that point. The assault on gay rights was horrendous, including the labeling of Equality Maryland (a gay rights group) as a “security threat” by the state police. One would have thought the group was a gay version of Al Qaeda.

The unpleasant truth for Mr. Steele is that the Reagan coalition of social conservatives, Wall Street welfare queens, small government dreamers and big government imperialists is falling apart. While they were winning elections, they didn't mind the fact that they didn't have much in common. Having been beaten in 2006 and 2008, they now control no part of the federal government, except perhaps for the Supreme Court. It's time for them to review their situation realistically.

That doesn't mean claiming that conservative values were poorly communicated. It means that conservative values may need to evolve and be redefined. Is it conservative to bail out the banking sector or merely pragmatic, and is pragmatic merely another word for conservative? Is the size of government the issue or its effectiveness? Maybe the various factions need to split up – what do the social conservatives have to show for voting Republican for 3 decades? Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, and gay marriage will be a fact of life in the US before 2020.

This is a daunting prospect for Mr. Steele. In 2009, there will be a special election in New York's 20th Congressional District and two gubernatorial races (Virginia and New Jersey). He's got very little time to re-brand the party and find a decent set of candidates. Even if he does, it is quite conceivable that the GOP will lose all three, which wouldn't bode well for Mr. Steele's tenure.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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