RNC chair Michael Steele discusses bipartisanship

With his election on Jan. 30, 2009, Steele became the first African-American to chair the Republican Party.

Steele and Glaude discussed bipartisanship in Washington, the importance of socioeconomic “individuality” in the African-American community and wealth creation before a full house in McCosh 50. The conversation follows the publication of Steele’s new book, “Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda,” in January.

Steele emphasized the need to move away from bipartisanship in the current economic climate.

“By its very nature, politics is partisan,” Steele said. “At important times like now — where you have people without healthcare, people without jobs — you need leadership to work towards consensus.”

Steele also explained the importance of becoming familiar with the political agendas of both Democrats and Republicans when Glaude asked about the intended audience of “Right Now.”

“You want to be intellectually armed to talk to your opponents,” Steele said. “So [the book] is written for you. You may not agree with it, but at least when you’re done, you’ll understand why I say what I say.”

Glaude then asked Steele about the Republican Party’s response to the issues of poverty and unemployment faced by many in the African-American community. In response, Steele stressed the importance of black Americans relying on themselves rather than the government for financial security.

“It’s not about what the Republican Party is going to do; it’s about what we want done first and who we turn to to get those things done,” he said.

He explained that the African-American community had “allowed” its “agenda to be hijacked by a political mindset” for an extended period of time and added that it was “lost in translation.”

“The question I’ve always grappled with is, ‘At what point do we say enough?’ ” he said. “Not at what point does this white man say enough, not at what point does the provost say enough — at what point do you say enough?”

Steele cited his mother as an example of “individuality.” Though her family and priest criticized her for refusing to go on welfare, he explained, she did not want the government to raise her children.

“For her, there was a point that she would not cross,” Steele said.

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But Glaude argued that the circumstances surrounding Steele’s mother’s decision were dramatically different from those currently faced by many black Americans. He questioned whether “substantial economic inequality” was “compatible with democracy.”

“Since 1980 — and I’m not trying to be partisan — what we’ve seen is that the majority of the growth in the economy has gone to the top 1 percent and the top 2 percent,” Glaude said. “We’ve seen wages stagnate among everyday workers. Yet productivity goes up. If workers are working harder and longer, but their wages are stagnating, who’s making the profits?”

Steele said that it was important to consider wages from the workers’ perspective, but that since business owners create jobs, Americans must also look at wages from the standpoint of the “risk takers.”

“The job isn’t coming from the bottom up,” he explained. “So when we look at wealth creation, we’ve got to look at the marriage of the two.”

Members of the audience remained in the auditorium following the talk to shake hands with Steele, pose follow-up questions and express their thoughts on the exchange.

“This is an important conversation,” African American Studies professor Cornel West GS ’80 said. “I just think my dear brother Michael Steele has a difficult time justifying the contradiction between being so pro-corporate and embracing the individuality of every American, especially the poor.”

Andra Gillespie, a visiting fellow at the Center for African American Studies, said she would have liked the conversation to more deeply explore the origins of, and ways to ameliorate, the inequality between whites and blacks in the United States.

“The system is really stacked against the people on the bottom,” she said.