I Bought a Wooden Whistle that Wouldn't Whistle - I Bought a Steel Whistle and it Still Wouldn't Whistle.
You would think that the GOP would have learned its lesson about shallowness with Sarah Palin's failed candidacy. The governor of Alaska was chosen by the Republican Party to be its nominee for president in response to Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. It is perhaps easy to forget in the wake of Barack Obama's revolutionary election just how much Ms. Clinton groundbreaking run as the first viable woman presidential candidate shook the world of American politics. So what did the GOP do to counter the notoriety the Democrats garnered for a landmark act on the political stage? They got one of their own. The fact that a presidential candidate may need certain qualities that transcend the mere fact of gender mattered little to the Republican managers, steeped as they were in the plastic culture of Madison Avenue and certain of the shallowness of the American electorate.
The Dems turned around and pulled off a miracle, electing the nation's first African-American president. Wouldn't you know it - the Republicans got one of their own. In appointing Michael Steele to head the GOP, the "party of Lincoln" not only got its first African-American sales director, it demonstrated once again its disdain for the intelligence of the voters.
Prior to ascending to the party chairman post, Steele's only major political accomplishment was a stint as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. In 2006, he ran for Paul Sarbane's vacated senate post and lost to Benjamin Cardin by a wide margin.
Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican party has struggled to find a way to redefine itself to an electorate that has clearly voiced its approval of the president. Thus far,the best that the GOP leadership has been able to come up with has been to roll-out shallow, knee-jerk imitations of diversity and to reassert its traditional themes of tax cuts for the wealthy, big defense budgets and appeals to the values of the Christian right. There is an old Sufi saying: I fear you will not reach Mecca, O pilgrim, for the road you are on leads to Turkestan."
You would think that the GOP would have learned its lesson about shallowness with Sarah Palin's failed candidacy. The governor of Alaska was chosen by the Republican Party to be its nominee for president in response to Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. It is perhaps easy to forget in the wake of Barack Obama's revolutionary election just how much Ms. Clinton groundbreaking run as the first viable woman presidential candidate shook the world of American politics. So what did the GOP do to counter the notoriety the Democrats garnered for a landmark act on the political stage? They got one of their own. The fact that a presidential candidate may need certain qualities that transcend the mere fact of gender mattered little to the Republican managers, steeped as they were in the plastic culture of Madison Avenue and certain of the shallowness of the American electorate.
The Dems turned around and pulled off a miracle, electing the nation's first African-American president. Wouldn't you know it - the Republicans got one of their own. In appointing Michael Steele to head the GOP, the "party of Lincoln" not only got its first African-American sales director, it demonstrated once again its disdain for the intelligence of the voters.
Prior to ascending to the party chairman post, Steele's only major political accomplishment was a stint as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. In 2006, he ran for Paul Sarbane's vacated senate post and lost to Benjamin Cardin by a wide margin.
Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican party has struggled to find a way to redefine itself to an electorate that has clearly voiced its approval of the president. Thus far,the best that the GOP leadership has been able to come up with has been to roll-out shallow, knee-jerk imitations of diversity and to reassert its traditional themes of tax cuts for the wealthy, big defense budgets and appeals to the values of the Christian right. There is an old Sufi saying: I fear you will not reach Mecca, O pilgrim, for the road you are on leads to Turkestan."
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