Michael Steele's Menu for attracting minorities to the GOP... "Y'all come. ... I got the fried chicken and potato salad. ...." At least he left out mentioning the watermelon.
In addition to getting a clue, the hapless Mr. Steele needs to reread his U.S. History.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele attended the recent meeting of the Young Republicans in Indianapolis... the session at which the young'uns elected Audra Shay as their head.
He was asked by a blogger from Colorado how the GOP could attract minorities. His response wa, "Y'all come. ... I got the fried chicken and potato salad. ...."
Steele went on to say that proof of the inclusiveness of the Republican Party was its fight to end chattel slavery. He also said that the Republican Party not only fought for the rights of Blacks, but also included the concept in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights.
A little history lesson for Mr. Steele:
- The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, and was ratified by the thirteen original states between December, 1787 (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) and May, 1790 (Rhode Island). The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation after the ninth state ratified it (New Hampshire in June of 1788). The national government under the Constitution began functioning in 1789.
- The first ten amendments to the Constitution (the "Bill of Rights") were added in 1791.
- Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the Bill of Rights said anything about the rights of African-Americans. The only Constitutional provisions that dealt with African Americans were:
a. Article I, Section 2, which defined other persons (slaves) as "three-fifths" of a person for the purpose of determining each state's official population, and thus the size of its delegation in the House of Representation, and for the apportionment of direct taxes;
b. Article I, Section 9, which denied Congress the power to restrict the importation of "such persons" (i.e., slaves) until at least the year 1808;
c. Article IV, Section 2, which required that States extradite fugitive slaves and return them to their owners upon demand; and
d. Article V, which prohibited, prior to the year 1808, any amendments or legislation affecting the provisions of Article 1, Section 9, respecting the importation of slaves.
- The Republican Party was not founded until 1854. Therefore, it played no role in the shaping or ratification of the Constitution or of the Bill of Rights.
- The party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin by Abolitionists. In its early days, the Republican Party championed the freedom of African Americans, and after the Civil War ended, many African Americans attained elective office in the South as Republicans. They lost power once Reconstruction ended, Federal troops were withdrawn, and the (White) Democrats regained power and imposed Jim Crow racial segregation.
- The Civil RIghts Act was indeed passed with the help of moderate Republicans like Everett Dirksen and Jacob Javits.
- In disgust, Dixiecrats like Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans, and Richard Nixon and others exploited White resentment through the "Southern Strategy," which former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman said was wrong in speaking before the national convention of the NAACP in 2005.