David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the KKK and former Republican congressman from Louisiana isn’t happy about the GOP’s new choice for chairman of the Republican National Committee. I wonder why…
I got the news from www.BlackVoices.com on Twitter, but I had to go to the horse’s mouth to check it out.
Sure enough, Duke calls former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele “Obama Junior” and “a radical Black Racist”. He blasts Steele for his pro-affirmative action stance, his opposition to assault weapons and his opposition to the death penalty.
More pointedly, Duke attacks the Republican party for betraying the Republican base.  According to the blog post on his site, Duke told the Washington Post:
I am glad these traitorous leaders of the Republican Party appointed this Black racist, affirmative action advocate to the head of the Republican party because this will lead to a huge revolt among the Republican base. As a former Republican official, I can tell you that millions of rank-and-file Republicans are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore! We will either take the Republican Party back over the next four years or we will say, “To Hell With the Republican Party!†And we will take 90 percent of Republicans with us into a New Party that will take its current place!
Is Duke right? Many people on the left have accused the Republican Party of racism over the years. Surely the election of Michael Steele is a political move designed to erase that image and attract more Blacks and other minorities to the GOP.Â
No surprise there, especially after former Tennessee GOP chair, John “Chip” Saltsman, dropped out of the race unexpectedly. Saltsman, who was campaign manager for Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid, had come under fire for distributing a cd with a song called “Barack, The Magic Negro” to GOP Committee members.
Perhaps someone in the Republican Party is looking at the numbers. In a United States where minorities are steadily overtaking the majority in population, the GOP’s best hope for survival and a return to power may be to reach out to conservative leaning Blacks, Latinos and other ethnic groups. Many Blacks and Latinos lean to the right on social issues anyway. Someone like Steele helps them at least appear to make up some of the ground they lose to liberals.
If Steele and other rising superstars like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal represent the new GOP, how successful will Duke’s threat to split the Republican Party be? Certainly there is a large number of conservatives who agree with Duke’s views. Will Michael Steele and others like him be the saviors of the Party of Lincoln, or will they be its downfall? Or, is David Duke the GOP messiah who has been there all along?