In a conversation before the event, Steele said he’s heard the concerns about the economy and the war in Iraq — what he said are the two signature issues in the 2008 elections. He doesn’t discount their sentiments, though he does discount the poll, or “anything that comes out of the New York Times and CBS.”

There are families in distress, he said, but he would like to see “less sky is falling” talk and more about how the country — and his party — will grow and rebuild.

The Republican Party must embrace African American voters, casualties of a Southern strategy by Republicans that won presidential elections but “lost credibility on the one issue that matters most” — the civil rights of all people, according to Steele.

There is still racism, he said. “I don’t remember passing that mile marker saying you are now entering a post-racial era.” But he said Democrats don’t have all the answers.

Charlotte Observer

Steele is referring to the Nixon campaign’s “Southern Strategy” where they basically exploited racial anxiety among white Democrats to win their votes and pull them over to the Republican Party. It worked. The GOP now has close to a solid lock on the southern states and we have won seven out of the last ten Presidential elections, but at the cost of alienating close to 90% of black voters around the country, people who use to be solid Republican voters because of our party’s victory in ending slavery in this country. Things have changed, though. The party is more conservative than in those days and very welcoming to anyone that believes in the principles of small government and personal freedom, but there hasn’t been outreach to pull minorities back in.

Steele sees contradictions between the welcoming words of many Democrats and their actions toward African Americans, which he characterized as: “We’ll let you know when you get to lead; we’ll let you know when you get to take charge.”

“Barack Obama broke through the system,” Steele said; he admires him for that, if not his politics.

Steele said he will advise McCain to not “miss this opportunity” to speak to black voters

In his appearance in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King on Friday, McCain apologized for opposing a federal holiday for the civil rights leader. Apologizing was the right thing to do, Steele said.

He said he planned to challenge those at Friday’s dinner to “bring a friend, bring a neighbor, bring someone different” to the next event. In the GOP, “we haven’t been the most welcoming of souls.”

In this year of Democrats making history, Steele doesn’t seem worried that his party has fallen behind.

“History will take care of itself.”

Steele has an excellent point regarding the way the Democrat Party has treated black voters. They use them when they need them at election time and nothing more. After 40 years of practically non-wavering allegiance to the Democrats black Americans are worse off today than they were in the late sixties and seventies, in my opinion. Over 70% of black children are born out of wedlock. The vast majority of inner cities are made up of black Americans and they are over ridden with crime, drugs, and filth. It was the Democrat Party that opposed the Civil Rights movement and they seem to have succeeded. While black Americans are no longer slaves or second class citizens, they have been kept at the bottom of a caste system through race baiting poverty pimps padding their pockets and a government controlled welfare state that has destroyed their families, neighborhoods, and schools.  This was not the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr spoke of.

It is conservative policies that will lift black Americans out of being the poorest socio-economic class in this country. Conservative policies of school choice so they can get their children out of failing and dangerous schools. Conservative policies of low taxation and regulation will spur jobs and development in their neighborhoods and make goods and services more affordable. Conservative policies of a strong family unit would drastically cut down on out of wedlock births and children born into poverty. It should be a no brainer, but the Democrats have done a bang up job over the years of addicting them to the state and convincing them that the Republican Party is a party solely for rich, white men.

The GOP needs to start taking a more active role in doing what Steele suggests. It still irks me that he was passed up for RNC Chairman over Mel Martinez, not because he is black, but because he is a great visionary who can appeal to Americans of all color and creed. Michael Steele is not going away. We are going to see more great things from this man going forward.