Better late than never, I say.

Nearly two decades after the Democrats anointed Ron Brown as the first African-American to head their national committee, the Republicans finally caught up. They recently tapped former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele as their first black party chairman.

At this rate, I guess the GOP will nominate its first black presidential candidate by 2029.

Yet and still, the Republicans’ decision to tap Steele as their leader does, at least, show that they are dipping a big red toe into the new purple mainstream of American politics. This mainstream is one that is ethnically and racially diverse; one that defines itself on issues that it can build upon, not divide itself against.

It was that mainstream that swept Barack Obama into the White House – and Steele into the GOP party chairmanship.

So instead of just thanking the Republican leadership for his new job, Steele ought to be thanking Obama – because if his guy, John McCain, had won, he wouldn’t have had a chance against the guy who George W. Bush foisted on them.

Understand though, that Steele’s ascension doesn’t mean that the Republicans have suddenly unearthed their inner-Lincoln. His nomination, in fact, was hard-fought. Steele, who bills himself as a conservative but is moderate on issues like affirmative action and abortion rights, lobbied for the position for more than two months.

It took six ballots and a five-hour voting marathon before he was proclaimed the winner.

And while Republicans have been willing to trust black people with top positions – witness George W. Bush’s appointments of Colin Powell and later, Condoleezza Rice as the first black secretaries of states – they’ve also been known to expect acquiescence, and not attitude, from them.

It’s like they’re willing to give black people and minorities top jobs – with the understanding that they behave as slaves.

That has to change.

Maybe that will stop now that this last election exiled the GOP to the political wilderness – along with the Old South states that it once hung its victories upon by way of the Southern strategy. That strategy was largely built on the bones of segregation and white supremacy; it was kept on life support by catchphrases like “states rights,” “law and order” and other coded language designed to play to the racial fears of white voters.

The problem, though, as Obama’s victory proved, is that the only way that Old South states like Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama will be decisive in the South’s role in electing a president again is if they secede from the union.
 
Old hate is giving way to new hope.

States like Florida, North Carolina and even Virginia – once the capital of the Confederacy – went blue during this last election. And the growing strength of Hispanic and black voters is bound to keep adding more colors to the electoral map.

I believe that Steele sees this – and I believe the Republicans who voted for him to lead their party see this as well. In fact, he even pledged to work to change the perception that Republicans are “a party unconcerned about minorities, a party that’s unconcerned about the lives and dreams of average Americans.”

Maybe the time is ripe for him to try that.

The Republicans can still hold fast to the principles like smaller government – a principle that was all but obliterated by Bush – and still create a platform that is welcoming to blacks and other minorities. But in order to do that, they have to assure blacks and Hispanics that they’re no longer a party whose political lifeblood depends on a base that is obsessed with marginalizing them. It .....

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