Steele 1; Douthat 0

Steele on GOP makeover.

See, now this below is what cracks me up and why I dismiss so many of the Right's so-called top tier political pundits. Hahvahd grad and author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, Ross Douthat, fancies himself just the guy to talk smack to Michael Steele about how ya really gonna reach da brudder in the hood. Having spent more time on more American streets with blacks and Hispanics than Douthat ever read about in, How to show them you really care 101,or maybe a summer of social work at Harvard, it's Douthat's response that's laughable, not anything Steele has said.

Michael Steele sounds clownish, and merits some mockery, but he isn't entirely wrong: Symbolism matters in politics, and there are almost certainly some votes to be gained for the GOP simply by easing the party's optics and rhetoric in a more youth-oriented, multicultural, self-aware direction.

What a tower of babble that is. He'd last less time on the street than Hitchens did in the Middle-east before he almost had his ass kicked. The average person on the street in many a Blue State couldn't really tell you what either party's policies are with any depth. To them there has never even been an option, politically speaking.

Policy choices matter most, and for a losing political party whose current raft of policy proposals are deeply unpopular, better communication strategies and candidate recruitment only make sense as a supplement to a message adjustment, not as a substitute for it.

Try talking to all colors of families in Blue States, including in impoverished areas - find out what they really think of all that liberal government they've been getting from Democrats. They are not happy and mostly turn a blind eye and vote for it, assuming they vote at all, because there is no other choice in their mind. The GOP has been letting the DNC define them there for far too long.

Talk seriously to them about freedom to make your own decisions, about really saving families in some areas where the concept hardly exists among too many in the youngest generation. The average working class voter in a Blue State is probably less liberal than is conservative Ross Douthat.

If Steele and Douthat both had 15 minutes on a corner in Newark, Steele would be coming back with voters, while Douthat would be running for the car.

Enough said.

Comments

[SacTownMan]

"If Steele and Douthat both had 15 minutes on a corner in Newark, Steele would be coming back with voters, while Douthat would be running for the car."

And Steele would be holding this panty waist's lunch money to boot!

Steele is the perfect choice to lead the party. He isn't one of the "old boy" types and "did I mention he's black"!

[Lala]

Most people hear, over and over, the Republicans are for the rich and big business and the Democrats are for the little people.

I know a Dem who holds elected office as a Republican. I won't go into the why of this, but he does a good job with the exception of a couple of things which don't go over well with the Party. I had found a "test" online that asked about 20 questions; answered honestly, the "test" would then tell the person which party they actually had most in common with. I asked my friend to take the test and the results were that he agreed with Republicans on 18 of the questions. He was very surprised, however, one of his hang-ups with Republicans is unions. He believes in them, mostly because he belonged to one that wasn't bad, as unions go, and isn't aware of so many of them being corrupt.

He makes it his business to attend NAACP meetings and other minority functions in his district and he reaches out to all his constituents no matter which party they belong to. Consequently, he keeps getting elected in a Dem district.

His view is that the Republicans don't do enough to reach out to minorities and that they are a party of old men, with old ideas and they are not encouraging young people to join them.

[Michael]

Because when I want to know what impoverished minority groups really think, I turn to Dan Riehl...

[Dan]

"I turn to Dan Riehl"

Why not? I grew up in a duplex shared with a black family way back then - and couldn't even walk the streets at night now where I grew up, though I have been by during the day on more than a few occasions. Two cops were pulled from their car and beaten last year - wanna tag along for a visit sometime, hot shot?

[Fred Beloit]

Douthat is a soldier like Steve Benen. Steve Benen, Steve Benen??? Oh yes, he and his partner seem to own Memeorandum, where Steve's moonbat opinions are featured about twenty times a day. Now Steve is a lefty who knows all about how to shuck and jive and, you know, do all that other president stuff: http://www.wikio.com/video/852894
One libtard wacking another, how sweet it is.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/81182/chris_matthews_thinks_black_americans_and_college_grads_aren%27t_%22regular_people%22/

"Steve received his Master's degree from the George Washington University in 1996, and has written for Democratic candidates nationwide. He lives in Vermont with his wife."
See Steve is very careful to live in the Lefty kremlin of Vermont, where the African American population is not even one percent.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/50000.html

[Michael]

Gee, Dan...thanks for the offer to "tag along" for a visit to your old stomping grounds (you actually lived in close proximity to a black family? You brave, brave man...) But, personally, I'll rely on my own experiences in Brooklyn's East New York/Bed-Stuy districts than your scary, scary 'hood. Although I understand if you're reluctant to go into places where your essential beliefs will get your ass kicked.

Come to think of it, you should've mentioned that to Hitchens...

[Jumbo]

Yep. Steele is your guy. He will bring the destitute GOP back from the dead. You betcha? Next you are going to have sarah palin and joe the not-plumber thumb wrestling. Next after that is newtie gingrich trying to explain why he left his dying wife to cheat on her with a married lady? next after that will be Larry Craig and david Vitter giving lessons on how to communicate with little people. Yep, you all surely have an 'A' team assembled. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - takes deeep breath - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You folks are great, really.

[Dan]

"your essential beliefs"

Could you be anymore clueless? Yeah, that's right. So a white guy is walking through the hood at night and these two black dudes approach: Yo, man, whats yo essential beliefs??? LMAO Happens every day, riiight!

[Michael]

Do try and keep up with the subject og your own post, Dan...If you and Michael Steele went on the average street corner in East New York, Newark, West Philly, etc, etc, explaining to people why they should support the defunding of the very government safety nets that they and their families rely on, both of you would have your clown shoes inserted where the sun doesn't shine before you got past your first stereotypical "yo." Because you clearly don't think anyone who comes from those areas could possibly be well-spoken or in any way knowledgeable about their world. Dey's jes' too dumb to vote for anyone but Dummycrats, right, Dan?

Which, might I add, neatly underlines my original point, that anyone who comes to you for insight on how the average minority person speaks, thinks or behaves is like asking Marilyn Manson for etiquitte tips.

[Lala]

Remember when Jimmy Breslin got beat up in Crown Heights?

http://tinyurl.com/ammtts

[Mountaineer]

"...defunding of the very government safety nets that they and their families rely on..."

You are jacka$$ of the lowest order. These same "government safety nets" are the programs that have made millions of people in this country federal cheese addicts for the last 50 years. And, yeah Michael, many of these addicts happen to be white people...ever take a stroll through a trailer park, in say, southern WV? Try it sometime. Every new moonbat (see yourself) promises more, the addicts pull the lever, and guess what Michael? Nothing changes, generation after generation, still clinging to those wonderful "government safety nets" that their grandfathers were told they "desperately needed to survive". And race-bating douche-bags like yourself, ever committed to injecting the cry of "racism" into every issue that confronts this country, will be there to taint a new generation, and sell them the same bag of goods that helped doom their ancestors. Nice job. Do this country a favor and go rot somewhere.

And for "Jumbo" above...better keep an eye on your own festering house. I'll take a "Larry Craig" and "David Vitter" over, lets say, Patrick Leahy & Barney Frank, "there's nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie", Chuck "I steal peoples credit records" Schumer, Durbin, Rangel, Murtha...you get the point...well, then again, you probably don't.

[libocrat]

Which Democrat leads by example.

Anyone?
Beuhler?
They are users. They are liars and cons.