In this reply I tried to define the job at a time when the Republican Party was absolutely broken and dispirited. Fate dealt us a card as Obama overplayed his hand and the country has become increasingly appalled at the naked thrust to govern against the people. Nevertheless, the Republican Party is still leaderless and that gap has opened the way for a potential third party movement which would be fatal to any chance unhorse Obama and the Democrats' supermajority.
In the seven months remaining until that midterm election, it is the task of the Republican Party to become the natural home of the conservative movement and the tea party and to give voice to the grassroots' visceral reaction to the excesses of the Obama administration. The job is to nationalize the election and make it in a referendum on Obama. We have no spokesman to do this and we have no man in charge of the Republican National Committee in whom the grassroots of America can park there confidence for the season. No man to organize, no man to provide a theme, no man to inspire new candidates, no man to raise money. A great opportunity to save the Republic can be forfeit.
At a time when the Democrats are cynically trying to portray any opposition as hate filled and racist, our black chairman has not even adequately stepped up to the plate and put pay to this calumny.
Here is the reply from a year ago:
I think the position today is unique in its historical context. The chairman will become the default spokesman of the party. I suspect he is also going to be the leading policymaker-if he has the stuff for it. He must carry his policy with his rhetoric and he must contrive a policy which will justify the rhetoric. I see no one else on the horizon at this time who can step up to that role. By virtue of their offices the minority leader of the Senate and the minority leader in the House might offer themselves. Mitt Romney might evolve to a party spokesman but that will be awkward for an undeclared candidate. By default, Michael Steele will be the face of the party and probably its brain.
As you point out, his responsibilities include the nuts and bolts of running the party and that means herding cats but also a host of other duties: although he inherits $20 million, he must raise tens of millions more; the entire IT footprint of the party must be adapted to the Blitzkrieg introduced by the Democrats in the last two elections; candidates must be found who can wage credible campaigns at least in a few areas where we might regain some ground; a strategy must be developed to penetrate the red states and that implies selling something that the voters want to buy; legislative strategy must be coordinated with our minorities in the House and Senate so that the party speaks with one voice; discipline must be established and ruthlessly maintained; and finally, a sense of urgency and destiny must be imparted so that the whole country knows what is at stake and what must be done, they must believe it can be done, they must believe that it will be done. They must believe that only the Republicans can do it.
In sum, he must define conservatism and throw down the gauntlet to the creeping statism represented by Obama and his ilk. He must define the limits; this far and no further!
These responsibilities call for a Winston Churchill or a Newt Gingrich. They beg for charisma. The Republican Party might have only one more chance for survival. We need a wartime leader not a conciliator. The best analogy I can think of is that of England in 1930s reluctantly shaking off Neville Chamberlain, its exponent of appeasement, for Winston Churchill whose warnings had been so terribly vindicated that no one now could gainsay him. He told him what his policy was: to wage war. to wage war on land, sea and air. He told them what his aim was: victory. Victory at all costs, victory whenever the price, victory no matter how long or hard the road.
Since the Republican Party is that it position analogous to Great Britain after the fall of France, anything short of this level of commitment dooms the party which in turn shelters and nurtures conservatism and that ultimately dooms the Republic.
This is no time for business as usual. Can Michael Steele grasp the nettle?
