I’m With Patrick Ruffini
Last week, Republicans jumped all over Michael Steele for getting drawn into the artificial Rush controversy. I thought it was a disgusting sight, frankly, because we were attacking a great spokesman for the Republican Party. Granted, he made a mistake but it wasn’t the type of mistake that deserved calls for him to step down as RNC Chairman.
Today, I found Patrick Ruffini’s post on the subject. Here’s the part of Patrick’s post that I most enthusiastically agree with:
Michael Steele made a tactical mistake in getting drawn into this argument, but I still want him to be a successful RNC Chairman. Steele was elected Chairman as a fresh face and a reformer, a basic orientation the Republican Party will need to embrace in 2010. He remains one of the most compelling public faces of the party. If I were a Democrat, I would rejoice if Michael Steele were somehow made less relevant. Moreover, his challenge of the party’s blind support for incumbents, conservatives’ #1 frustration with the RNC, is probably more relevant to his leadership as Chairman than his Rush comments.
AMEN Brother Patrick!!! It’s time we figured out that Michael Steele’s unwillingness to just blindly supporting traitors like Benedict Arlen is exactly the right mindset for the RNC to adopt at the time when that mindset is needed most. It’s time that the GOP became the party who supports people who best embody conservative principles. More importantly, it’s time the GOP morphed into the party that won’t support the Arlen Specter and Linc Chaffee types.
It’s also important that we keep Michael Steele around for his prioritizing outreach to minority communities. The GOP has a chance to make longterm inroads with the various minority communities. Let’s be clear about this: I’m not suggesting that we abandon our conservative principles. Quite the opposite. It’s time we put a greater emphasis on sharing our conservative principles with minority communites.
Our goal should be to expand the GOP into every part of America. That’s the basis for the 435 District Plan.
As enthusiastically as I agree with Patrick’s earlier opinion, I passionately agree with him on this:
Taking a step back, and it’s easy to see why the Obama team must be rejoicing. Some of the Republican Party’s most charismatic and influential voices are being attacked…from within. Conservatives appear flailing and divided, embroiled in controversies against the leading talk show host, the party chairman, and one of the party’s rising stars.
I could deal with the “flailing and divisive” narrative if it were aimed at public embarrassments, like Bunning, or against more expendable, transactional pols, people whose removal would not hurt the cause and in fact could help it. We should be highly vigilant, however, when the attacks are aimed at people who would be significant public scalps for the Democrats, and who are not easily replaced.
The sooner that Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Michael Steele are the image that the GOP projects, the sooner we’ll return to being a truly national majority party. None of these political figures are flawless but they each appeal to demographic groups where the conservative message is routinely rejected without the people giving it a second thought. If we want to have a truly national party, we need to appeal to every demographic group.
I suspect that many of the attacks against Michael Steele are disgruntled, formerly entrenched, staffers who now find themselves looking for employment. Similarly, I suspect that many of the attacks against Rush that originate within the GOP are coming from blueblood Republicans who don’t know a thing about main street conservatism other than it isn’t country club conservatism.
If we want to move forward, it’s important that we hold our fire on influential people like Bobby Jindal and Michael Steele. Having them play significant roles in today’s GOP is nothing but a net positive.
That’s the biggest reason why I agree with Patrick Ruffini.
Technorati Tags: RNC, Michael Steele, Bobby Jindal,Sarah Palin, Reformers, Rush Limbaugh, Conservatism, Arlen Specter, Linc Chaffee, RINOs, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
March 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
We have a LOT of work to do, and not much time to get it done. This Dems will do a lot of damage through socialism between now and the 2010 elections, so we need to have a serious sweep to gain back the legislature and reverse the damage ASAP.