An Open Letter to Michael Steele

Dear Mr. Steele:

Wassup?! (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

First, I guess I should offer some form of belated congratulations for being the first African-American to head the Republican National Committee. I've never intentionally voted Republican in my life (in the 2008 Election, I had to vote for a Republican judge because he was running unopposed), but you still made history - even though I believe you won the position mainly because America had just elected its first African-American President, and this was the RNC's way of saying "Yes we can, too!"

But that's not really the reason why I'm writing this letter. I'm writing in response to the recent comments you made to someone who asked if Black people had a reason to vote Republican. Yes, I know this is a rather old story, and we currently have bigger things to worry about, but this has been on my mind since I first read it:

Why should an African-American vote Republican?

"You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True."

A shocking comment coming from a Black Republican, but not quite as shocking as the following:

"We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans," Steele said. "This party was co-founded by blacks, among them Frederick Douglass. The Republican Party had a hand in forming the NAACP, and yet we have mistreated that relationship. People don't walk away from parties, Their parties walk away from them.

"For the last 40-plus years we had a 'Southern Strategy' that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, 'Bubba' went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton."

Of course, "Jamal" has been voting Democratic for even longer.

Now I'm not suggesting that Democrats can't be racially insensitive - Remember some of the anti-Obama rhetoric from Hillary's camp during the Democratic primary? Or Harry Reid's now-infamous "negro dialect" gaffe? - but Republicans, for the most part, don't even pretend to pursue the Black vote. Hell, half of the 2008 front runners didn't even bother to show up for a debate at Morgan State University, a historically Black college. And the above "Southern Strategy" comment proves you believe, like most Black liberals believe, that the Republicans view the Black vote in the same way I view an iPad: It would be nice to have, but it's not something worth going out of the way to get.

So I have to ask you, Mr. Steele: Why would you continue to identify yourself with such a political party?

Sincerely,

phive0phor

P.S.: No, I'm not suggesting you become a Democrat - you're a bit too conservative - but becoming an Independent doesn't sound like a bad idea. Ask Charlie Crist.