Wonkette
A few days ago the RNC thought, “Hey, Juneteenth, isn’t that Black People Day? Make a video of Steele hip-hopping or whatever.” It’s a great video and reminds us that the Republican party has a long history of doing great things for black people, spanning all the way from 1863 to 1876. [YouTube]
They even slid Ken Mehlman into that video. GOP luvz blaks and teh gheyz.
I love that they just called people up on the phone and got them to say something, onto the tape recorder machine. Couldn’t they have just recorded them IN PERSON to make the sound better?
Steele is bragging that the GOP had the “forty acres and a mule” idea? That really didn’t work out, though, did it? He’s saying that the GOP stands for promises made that aren’t kept, essentially. Finally, truth from a politician.
Steele talks more better when he reads teh tElEproMpteR. ‘Cept the part ’bout the “inexplicable link between the party of fat old rich white guys and African Americans.”
Dave J.: I did the same thing when I was producing radio spots for my buddy’s primary run at State Legislature (in 1984). We had a total advertising budget of $4000.
Haha! We lost bigtime.
Dave J.: I think even the people who they featured in the video are too embarrassed to be seen in public as a black Republican that they’d only do it over a phone. That is if they were black– I was half expecting some sort of disclaimer saying “I’m not African American but I play one in on a video”
It doesn’t get much more Juneteenth-y than a video shot at the local PBS television studio featuring an unlicensed podiatrist impersonator reading Civil War flash cards over the soothing Windham Hill-esque strains of Zamfir and Steve Vai.
Play on, playa!
What a silly Negro.
My browser can’t even look at that video. So I give it a LOSE, whatever.
One day this man will wake up and realize he was being used. That there were no mobile nuclear labs.
Wait. Wrong guy.
I’m still kinda surprised that Michael Steele’s friend Trevor wasn’t asked to take part in that video.
None of these voices sound black. Also. The music is white beyond pale.
He seems to be signaling that 40 Acres and a Mule is something to laugh about. Is he trippin’?
as an African American i will totally start voting republican now LOL
Why do Michael Steele’s eyes look bugged out all the time. He has an eye expression like that runaway bride from Georgia, or like he just snorted a few rails of meth. Also.
I am a Democrat because of the party’s heroic stance against that scoundrel Nicholas Biddle and his blatantly unconstitutional Second Bank of the United States.
HFS, he did say “40 acres and a mule”. Any historically-minded person would reflect on how, after becoming free, the ex-slaves mainly found work as tenant farmers for their former, er, employers, on barely better terms, with no other options to speak of, until WWII (if they were fortunate) or perhaps about when the Voting Rights Act was signed (if they were less so).
Who WROTE that POS? Some damn home-skewler?
I can’t wait for Steele’s Freaknic video.
I can’t wait until he does a video with his brother, Lexington Steele.
“Hello. As one of the deluded 3% of African Americans who vote Republican, I am proud to stand behind my party as it brags about reneging on promising us 40 acres and a mule and accomplishing things that might have been cool to bring up 44 years ago. I’m also proud to have a black party chairman who bows down to the de facto Massah of our generation, Rush “Boss Hogg” Limbaugh. The RNC. Helping us black folk move boldly into the 21st century 9 years after it arrived.”
It doesn’t get any Juneteenthier than that.
I can hardly wait for the “Mid-Term Election Shuffle”
Did he just give the Republicans credit for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965? If anyone in Congress was opposed to those acts it would have been Republicans, particularly those from southern states. And I believe LBJ pushed for the acts to get passed.
Jesus Christ, the Republican Party is just amazing these days with all the stoopid.
I can haz pr0n muzik in teh background of my video?
Scrodd: I want to see the porn flick he does with Remington Steele. Well, maybe not.
Wow. So the GOP reached the Negro mountaintop what… 45 years ago? I guess they figure they’ve done enough.
FOr some reason, when I listen to Michael Steele speak, I either think of the old Tootsie Roll commercial with the owl, or the theme song to “Fat Alber and the Cosby Kids”… Wait does that make me a racist?
19kevin8: Yeah, kinda. Now tell us what you think about when you read the latest about Clarence Thomas.
octupletsmom:
I couldn’t believe he actually referenced 40 acres and mule anyway. A giant symbol of the failure of Reconstruction, which had virtually nothing to do with Republicans anyway.
“40 acres and a mule” was a military order given by General Sherman in FL, GA and SC. He had so many refugees following him on his march that he took the land and gave it to freed slaves in 40-acre allotments, mostly just to get rid of them. (The mule was never mentioned - it was a myth that took hold on the Confederate internets.)
Gen. “If elected I will not serve” Sherman didn’t want any part of Republican politics, and dopey Democrat prez Andy Johnson reversed the order, anyway.
Now it’s just the name of Spike Lee’s production company. Do you think Spike directed this video, and is giggling every time he sees it? “Just a sampling?” Are you kidding me?
octupletsmom: I think “tool” and then my attention instantly wanders.
imissopus: Remember the South was primarily Democratic in 1965.
It’s actually true a higher % of Repubs voted for the act in 1965 that Dems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965#Vote_count
However, Steele’s argument is ridiculous for the recent debate, since Reagan made it clear to Southern racists that they belonged in the Republican party. In 2006, R’s lead the efforts
against the act (ibid).
imissopus: Eh, not really. Plenty o’ “Dixiecrats” held up civil rights legislation until LBJ leaned on ‘em.
imissopus: To be fair, most of the opposition was from Southern Democrats, who were the only people who could be elected from the South in those days, because, you know, Lincoln. The South didn’t become solidly Republican until after — and because of — the Civil Rights Act. When LBJ signed it, he said “We’ve lost the South for a generation” — and they did!
No, Steele cannot give the Republican credit for something that LBJ did. He may have been a war criminal, but he was OWR war criminal.
re: LBJ and civil rights, though, here’s my theory of what went down:
LBJ: Now, Earl, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d wrap up this report real quick like. Oswald did it. No need to bore the public with gory details.
Earl Warren: I understand your concern, Mr. President, but it may take a great deal of time to sort through the details.
LBJ: I’ll give you all the civil rights legislation you want.
Earl Warren: I can have it next week. How many pages do you want?
My name is some 15 year old boy from 1992, why are you using my stock footage in your retarded ass commercial? Steele needs to start wearing some colorblocked shirts and Chicago Bulls gear if he’s really serious about this thing.
imissopus: I think the video also implied that MLK was a Republican and that Abraham Lincoln was African American. I must speak to the editors of my high school history textbook.
imissopus: The South swung heavily to the Democrats up till the passage of Civil Rights Act. The voting for the bill itself did not follow party lines. It was more a question of the South versus everyone else [with some notable exceptions].
On the one hand, the bill originated with JFK, was promoted by LBJ, and the Democratic heads of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees were instrumental in bringing it to vote….but on the other hand, it was Southern Democratic Senators who tried to filibuster the bill.
The real point here is that it’s impossible to drawn conclusions about either party based on the past, except to point out that this time period is precisely when southern, racist, goat-fucking, crackers began to shift to the Republican party forming a powerful three-way alliance with the self-hating, closeted gay, bible-thumping hypocrites and the nihilist self-serving, money-grabbing, war-mongering minions of Satan.
Josh Fruhlinger: A person of color with a long view would remember that the GOP sold them out in the Hayes/Tilden election in 1876, and that was all she wrote for being particularly helpful to the majority of American black people. Not that, in those days, the Democrats earned more points. But the historical helpfulness of the Party of Lincoln can be measured in a mighty brief span.
In West Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground is where I spent most of my days
Chillin out relaxin actin all cool
Shootin some B ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started causing trouble in the neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
And said, “You movin with your auntie and uncle in BelAir”
Republicans: we gave you what you want, now shut up already.
There will be no nig-noggery here!
Themington Steele reminds me of Ralph Ellison’s classic “Invisible Man.” Well, not really. I just wish that he was invisible.
“40 acres and a mule” indeed. This guy just has no idea what a clown he is.
From wikipedia: By June 1865, around 10,000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) in Georgia and South Carolina. Soon after, President Andrew Johnson reversed the order and returned the land to its white former owners. Because of this, the phrase has come to represent the failure of Reconstruction and the general public to assist African Americans.
I love that rockin’ distorted guitar in the background alongside the patriotic trumpet; it’s like they’re trying to appeal to both the disaffected youth and the hardline old folks. If said disaffected youth were still huge fans of Dennis DeYoung, and it was, oh, maybe 1987.
Just so we’re clear, the Republican Party is now officially in favor of reparations, right?
imissopus: As a matter of fact, they have to raise their hands and get permission from Obama to change any voting laws in their base states.
octupletsmom: Completely right. The Repubs cut a deal to pull Federal troops from three states in exchange for 20 electoral votes. Effectively this left black voters unprotected. Soon after came the the rise of the Klan and “Jim Crow” laws.
So hey, without the GOP enabling segregation there would be no civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s!
Eh, I thought the Dixiecrats had pretty much gone over to the Republican side by the mid-60s. And I’d forgotten about that LBJ comment about losing the South for a generation. Thanks, jfruh.
Sweet Fancy Moses, that man is dumb! 40 Acres and Mule?! Really? Really?!
When he was running for the Senate, he went to a Jewish audience in Montgomery County and compared abortion to the Holocaust. I know that’s a popular idea in the forced pregnancy community, but I grew up in MoCo, and I was astounded that he’d use that idea on the Jewish community there. They were probably horrified.
I may be a white shiksa, but I know an insult to people’s intelligence when I hear one.
I want to make some of that Republican earned money. How do I earn it, well I take kickbacks,payoffs,and would be really good at stealing any money left in the public coffer.
People who earned it? Cheney,Bush,Brown,Gonzales……