“When I first came into office, the head of the Senate Republicans said, ‘my number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president.’ Now, after the election, either he will have succeeded in that goal or he will have failed at that goal.”
These words were spoken by Barrack Obama in the weeks and months just prior to his re-election. He was addressing the words spoken by the leader of the senate, Mitch McConnell, immediately following his election as president. Those words were almost certainly meant to convey a message to the Republican base. As a political science major and a minority within that Republican base, I am well aware of another message that it communicates. A message that undermines our ability to attract a larger number of minorities, when it is uttered by the highest ranking member of the party.
First, as I mentioned, I majored in political science, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was, and still am, the guy who loved reading the history of America's political system and the histories of the men and women who played key roles in it. I was, and still am, the guy who can spend hours watching and interpreting the Sunday morning news shows. I like seeing the people who make and change the weekly headlines, by sharing their opinions and attitudes about our national news. Whether I agree or disagree with the talking heads all across the political spectrum, for me, is not the point. The point is knowing that the Rush Limbaugh's and Rachel Maddow's of the world, both represent and create perspectives for the America in which I live.
However, for me, it is just as important to be aware that my life does not exist in a vacuum and these opinions are not formed in a vacuum. America has a history and that history informs the opinions, tone, and texture of America's politics. While it is more fun and much more comforting, especially for a conservative of color, to assume that the backlash against Barrack Obama is based solely on his politics. History tells a much more colorful story. American politics in the last century can be readily defined as the gradual shifting and changing that has occurred around a few central issues. Within that story, there are two central figures, which are always at play: Race and Religion. In fact, if I listed all the potential reasons why Americans have voted for or against many ballot measures, these two factors would be ranked first and second in that tally.
Much to my dismay, when my Political Science professor posed the question in 1987, "which was the more powerful factor?", it was not religion. Said another way, groups of people who consider themselves "Christians" have not voted together as closely as people who consider themselves for, or against, issues delineated by race'. Example: Being "Christian" has not moved people from the Republican party to the Democratic party, or vice versa. However, being for or against the Civil Rights legislation passed in the 1960's did move millions of people across party lines. That being said, the massive, mostly southern shift that occurred as a result, is one that both political parties are still shaped by today.
When Mitch McConnell stood up and said "his number one priority would be to make certain" that our newly elected President, Obama, "would be a one term president", he was also communicating something else. In a way, he is paying homage to the political transformation that occurred across the southern United States following the passage of the Civil Rights legislation. Even fifty years later, Senator McConnell chose to remind the generations of former Southern Democrats of the very reason they are now Republicans. Sadly, whether we are students of history or, like the vast majority, just living our lives, Mr. McConnell's words impact us. Even those of us who refuse to allow a debate, resolved before we were born, to dictate our political positions or ideological preferences were dragged back into the rehashing of history. Fifty years can be a lifetime, but fifty years is but a moment in the history of mankind.
Strictly from a political standpoint, I recognized what Senator McConnell was doing. As a student of history, I know that he wanted to reassure the Republican base that all was not lost and that the fight would be ongoing. However, I wonder if looking back on it today, with Donald J Trump now seated in the Whitehouse, McConnell wishes he had chosen an issue-based focus rather than making everything personally about Obama. For my money, the Republican leadership completely overplayed their hand. By focusing everything on being anti-Obama, while not having a single piece of legislative or budgetary excellence to recall during Obama's re-election campaign, Republicans (and not just Mitt Romney) made a second term inevitable. Voting and re-voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (and even branding it Obamacare) has not borne much fruit, other than with the most conservative people within the party. Meanwhile, a laundry list of military triumphs, legislative achievements, and fiscal accomplishments, have brought the country back to a vaguely familiar place. The trend lines resemble the Clinton years, with a little less growth and far less scandal. Furthermore, because the Obama administration has largely avoided scandals, Obama has not become the easy target that Bill Clinton was by this point in his administration.
In retrospect, I hope McConnell recognizes the opportunity he missed. By playing to the worst instincts of the Republican base, while making everything about Barrack Obama, it was McConnell who began the roll out of the red carpet for Trump. Sure, the constant drumbeat of negativity and the refusal to acknowledge a single accomplishment of Obama's kept his poll numbers relatively low. Sure, having almost every Republican governor avoid being seen with him, even as storms and floods impacted their states, has impacted his popularity nationwide. However, the enormous amount of political clout wasted trying to make Obama look bad, has not left the Republican party unscathed. In fact, the Republican Party is on more shaky ground than at any time in modern history.
If anyone had told me in 1987, that one day the single most recognizable figure in the Republican Party would be Donald Trump, I would have laughed. Mostly because Trump was not even a Republican in the 1980's. That fact aside, the 1980's Republican Party included unmatched political thinkers: Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, William F. Buckley, Jack Kemp, George Will and the list could go on and on.
Truth be told, it was the University of Oklahoma connection, represented by J.C.Watts, that went a long way toward opening my mind. I feel confident, not one of those guys would choose a former Russian KGB agent over a sitting American president, even if that president was Barrack Obama.
It is an illogical reality that the current American President would compare the sitting President unfavorably with a Cold War adversary seeking to re-establish his country's position on the global stage. That is a reality co-sponsored by the current leader of the U.S. Senate. The ultimate political miscalculation was delivered with a smile that surely belied the opening of this Pandora's box. Mitch McConnell's miscalculation of the long term consequences of an off -the-cuff remark about a new President has become this. Whatever this now is?
The one lesson that I am certain will be learned in the coming election cycles is that we must forever resist the temptation to go backward. As a Republican Party, we cannot afford political blunders. We cannot fall victim to the one, ever present, temptation that came with the influx of millions of new members from the 1980's forward. Without a positive theme, platform, or a guiding principle, pulling us toward a well-planned future, we will always be subject to fall back. At a time when we need ALL HANDS ON DECK, we cannot be divided by some reverence for the past. The world will not wait for the United States to get our act together. We cannot be admired for moving forward and leading, while secretly longing to go back.
