Are Michael Steele, the GOP Really Patriots?

By: Zack Burgess

"The two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a ‘gentleman's agreement' of non-recognition, no matter how we vote ... May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either the Republican or the Democratic Parties." - W.E.B. DuBois, 1922

If ever there was a home for fighting, the United States Congress is it. Once known as a bastion of freedom, it has now become a governing body so full of vitriolic behavior that it makes one wonder why we continue to watch and a support such immature antics in our politics - and political discourse.

Congressman Joe Wilson had the audacity to yell at the president, calling him a liar. Conservative radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh has called for his failure. And the chairman the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, is cool one minute – if you get what I mean – and divisive the next. Yes, it’s that ugly. Which makes one wonder: What’s happened to patriotism in the age of Obama?

Unfortunately, the cognitive dissonance is a serious reality. Instead of them being happy that our perception around the world is improving, the GOP seems satisfied with the status quo. Do Republicans live in an intellectual void? Or is it a tiny box of irrational, reflexive nationalism, girded by a vicious partisan savagery whose shame knows no boundaries? The concern, frankly, is that it appears that Republican opponents of President Barack Obama either do not understand or simply do not care about what’s at stake for our country. 

Are Michael Steele, the GOP Really Patriots?....

Black or Not, Is Steele Okay with GOP's Racism?

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

When Michael Steele became the first black to chair the Republican National Committee, I harbored hopes that he might turn out to be the face of racial change in a party whose future hinges on it broadening its base beyond Southern white people.

Sadly, he’s become the face of complicity.

Black or Not, Is Steele Okay with GOP's Racism?....

Mr. President, While You Were Out

Republicans tried to kill health care. (P.S., see governors, Virginia and New Jersey.)

By: Terence Samuel

President Barack Obama and his family are on vacation and, for a while anyway, the angry, disfigured faces of the health care town halls have faded from the news. But we know what’s waiting for him when he gets back—more of the same—and so far he hasn’t been handling it well. Supporters are urging him to fight, and some of us are expecting that pretty soon he will don his explainer-in-chief cape and put the whole health care debate to rest with a definitive explanation of why failure is not an option.

But so far, not so good. The problems are dramatically evident in the president’s retreating poll numbers; his job approval rating was down to 51 percent in August from 57 percent a month earlier in the most recent Quinnipiac Poll. On his handling of health care, 52 percent say they disapprove—up 10 points from a 42 percent disapproval rating last month. That growing antipathy toward the president may also be showing in the poll numbers in the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and the White House would be wise not to underestimate the damage losing one or both of those races would do to Obama’s legislative agenda.

Mr. President, While You Were Out....

Michael Steele: Rush Goof Was Part of My Strategy

RNC Chairman Michael Steele on CNN, March 25, 2009