Betty Winston Bayé: Lessons Learned By POTUS Barack Obama And Micheal Steele.
Lessons learned by Obama and Steele
By Betty Winston Bayé
America changed? Barack Obama and Michael Steele apparently thought so in the heady days following their elections as President of the United States and chairman of the Republican National Committee respectively. Whether there ever are repeats, no one can take from Obama and Steele that they were firsts.
“Change has come to America,” President-elect Obama said, and Mike Duncan, the RNC chair, who was swept aside in the wake of Steele's victory declared that, “The winds of change are blowing at the RNC.”
Obama and Steele took office on same day in January 2009. In political terms, they are young men. The President is 49 and Steele is 52. But baby, look at them. Each looks like some before-and-after, only in the opposite direction. Each, and right before our eyes, has been prematurely aged by the weight of their responsibilities. I'd like to believe that neither was naïve about how vociferious the political opposition would be in coming after them, but I can imagine that both are being stung by the degree to which former allies, and so soon, are scheming to throw them out.
Their honeymoons were shortlived. The President, for example, has seriously lost favor with “progressives” in his camp. Some can be heard echoing the Republican attack mantra that Obama is a punk who needs to “Man up” and take on Republicans, tough-guy style, perhaps in the mode of former Vice President Dick “never apologize even if I shoot you in your face” Cheney.
The New York Times published an op-ed titlted, “What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama,” by social critic Ishmael Reed, who believes that when progressives argue that like John Wayne, Obama needs to ride in on horseback, “slapping people left and right .. all they see is themselves. They ignore polls showing steadfast support for the President among blacks and Latinos. … And now they are whispering about a primary challenge against the President,” clearly not understanding, Reed said, that “Unlike white progressives, blacks and Latinos are not used to getting it all. They know how it feels to be unemployed and unable to buy your children Christmas presents. They know when not to shout.”
Matter of fact, Reed pointed out that blacks in public life who have or do shout have been derided as “paranoid,” “bitter,” “rowdy,” “angry,” “bullies” and accused of tirades and diatribes for more than 100 years.”
Some may disagree with Reed's analysis, but what be denied is that 95 percent of today's “progressive” political analysis is not coming from people of color. First black man in the White House notwithstanding, America's political roundtables that inspire Americans' notions about what's an acceptable tone and leadership style for a President are embarrassingly segregated, and hardly anyone seems to notice or to even care.
When I think about Michael Steele, I think that in times past more credit for the impressive Republican victories in the recent mid-term, including wresting leadership from Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, surely would have been given to the RNC chairman. Instead, some prominent Republicans are jockeying for Steele's outster, while many big Republican donors sent contributions that might otherwise have gone to the RNC instead to outside organizations controlled by former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, no fan of Michael Steele.
The thinking may be that Steele has served his broader purpose to be the GOP's black face after Barack Obama's election. There's also some thinking that whatever one black person says about another no matter how foul is no foul. Meanwhile, it's not from without, but increasingly from within, that Barack Obama and Michael Steele are being cast as failed experiments. You know, something to the effect of, “We gave the black guy a chance and he just couldn't handle it. Time to get back to normal with leaders more like the 43 others who preceded Obama and the 63 others who preceded Steele.
I can just imagine years from now, Obama and Steele, out of public life, sitting down over a couple of cold brews remembering their younger days when they thought of themselves as game changers but soon enough discovered that when they showed up, the rules of the game had been changed.
Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum and online at www.courier-journal.com/opinion. Her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.
By Betty Winston Bayé
America changed? Barack Obama and Michael Steele apparently thought so in the heady days following their elections as President of the United States and chairman of the Republican National Committee respectively. Whether there ever are repeats, no one can take from Obama and Steele that they were firsts.
“Change has come to America,” President-elect Obama said, and Mike Duncan, the RNC chair, who was swept aside in the wake of Steele's victory declared that, “The winds of change are blowing at the RNC.”
Obama and Steele took office on same day in January 2009. In political terms, they are young men. The President is 49 and Steele is 52. But baby, look at them. Each looks like some before-and-after, only in the opposite direction. Each, and right before our eyes, has been prematurely aged by the weight of their responsibilities. I'd like to believe that neither was naïve about how vociferious the political opposition would be in coming after them, but I can imagine that both are being stung by the degree to which former allies, and so soon, are scheming to throw them out.
Their honeymoons were shortlived. The President, for example, has seriously lost favor with “progressives” in his camp. Some can be heard echoing the Republican attack mantra that Obama is a punk who needs to “Man up” and take on Republicans, tough-guy style, perhaps in the mode of former Vice President Dick “never apologize even if I shoot you in your face” Cheney.
The New York Times published an op-ed titlted, “What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama,” by social critic Ishmael Reed, who believes that when progressives argue that like John Wayne, Obama needs to ride in on horseback, “slapping people left and right .. all they see is themselves. They ignore polls showing steadfast support for the President among blacks and Latinos. … And now they are whispering about a primary challenge against the President,” clearly not understanding, Reed said, that “Unlike white progressives, blacks and Latinos are not used to getting it all. They know how it feels to be unemployed and unable to buy your children Christmas presents. They know when not to shout.”
Matter of fact, Reed pointed out that blacks in public life who have or do shout have been derided as “paranoid,” “bitter,” “rowdy,” “angry,” “bullies” and accused of tirades and diatribes for more than 100 years.”
Some may disagree with Reed's analysis, but what be denied is that 95 percent of today's “progressive” political analysis is not coming from people of color. First black man in the White House notwithstanding, America's political roundtables that inspire Americans' notions about what's an acceptable tone and leadership style for a President are embarrassingly segregated, and hardly anyone seems to notice or to even care.
When I think about Michael Steele, I think that in times past more credit for the impressive Republican victories in the recent mid-term, including wresting leadership from Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, surely would have been given to the RNC chairman. Instead, some prominent Republicans are jockeying for Steele's outster, while many big Republican donors sent contributions that might otherwise have gone to the RNC instead to outside organizations controlled by former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, no fan of Michael Steele.
The thinking may be that Steele has served his broader purpose to be the GOP's black face after Barack Obama's election. There's also some thinking that whatever one black person says about another no matter how foul is no foul. Meanwhile, it's not from without, but increasingly from within, that Barack Obama and Michael Steele are being cast as failed experiments. You know, something to the effect of, “We gave the black guy a chance and he just couldn't handle it. Time to get back to normal with leaders more like the 43 others who preceded Obama and the 63 others who preceded Steele.
I can just imagine years from now, Obama and Steele, out of public life, sitting down over a couple of cold brews remembering their younger days when they thought of themselves as game changers but soon enough discovered that when they showed up, the rules of the game had been changed.
Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum and online at www.courier-journal.com/opinion. Her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.
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