Steele is so cool though. He is probably the only Republican Party leader that can get away with the term “bling” in public discourse. He urges a cultural makeover of the GOP in the image and likeness of Tupac Shakur. He fearlessly ventures into the ‘hood,’ where other Republican leaders dare not tread, and lives to tell about it. Surely one cannot question the courageousness of this self-appointed godfather of suburban hip hop.
That’s all fine and dandy except for the fact that whenever he reaches beyond the comforting clutches of fellow Republicans he comes off looking spineless. “You didn’t have to go much further than the Republican National convention,” CNN host DL Hughley argued, “it literally looked like Nazi Germany.” “You’re right,” responded Steele, who was then rudely interrupted by fellow guest Chuck D of the famed rap group Public Enemy. If Steele really believes that the Republican convention looked like Nazi Germany, why did he even bother to show up? Could it be true that he believes he’s now the “de facto” leader of the Nazi party?
No one is seriously suggesting that Steele believes anything of the sort. But his overly accommodating stance in the face of confrontation has undoubtedly led to some rather compromising situations.
All of this leads to the obvious question, Mr. Steele: who are you, really? Once you step off the stage after playing a liberal pro choice activist one day, and a histrionic Nazi party infiltrator the next, what’s left of the real Mr. Steele? One thing9 9s for sure. No one since the Egyptian Proteus has exhausted so many guises of identity. Perhaps in these slips of the tongue, Steele is offering us a set of clues as to his true identity as no one, secretly hoping he’ll be discovered. Perhaps, he acknowledges deep down inside that the he is putting on an act such that, like the tragic Iago, he can legitimately claim, “I am not what I am.”
Despite all the miscues, it’s unlikely that Steele’s days as Party Chairman will soon come to an end. The Republican Party can ill afford to endure an internecine war at this stage, as it attempts to gear up for state and national elections. And, after all, no one else seems to be stepping forward to take the party in a new direction. Eventually, one hopes that he will grow weary of tedium and terror of being so many people all at once and exit the national stage. At that point he could retire to some small town, taking on the role of local impresario, keeping himself busy by minding his stock portfolio and teaching acting lessons at the local community cen ter.
In the meantime, Mr. Steele should concern himself, not so much with crafting a new Party platform (that may be a bit much to ask at this point), but with making sure his own glibness doesn’t not cause the Party to regress any further. Rarely has the Hippocratic Oath, “first, do no harm,” seemed so apropos.