Politics

My standard anti-Michael Steele rant, because too many people don't know this story:

I lived in Maryland in the 2000's, and in 2006, Michael Steele (who was lieutenant governor at the time, iirc) announced he was going to run for Maryland's US Senate seat. He tried campaigning and, while he had some success in the more rural areas, he was heavily loathed in the cities, especially Baltimore; he was also heavily losing the black vote.

He tried to get volunteers to go into the city for him, but white people just got ignored or laughed at. He tried to get black volunteers, but only got a few; he tried hiring black people and got some more. But that turned out to be a losing proposition as well: as soon as his new recruits but cut streets, they got lectured on his real character and soon quit.

He also decided the best way forward was to hide his political affiliation. Soon the airwaves were filled with vague ads referencing the concerns of local voters - things he had never cared about (and actively worked against) in his term as lieutenant governor. All the ads prominent featured Steele "working with" and surrounded by smiling black "voters", and ended with a firm voice saying, "Steele, Democrat."

The yard signs and mailers were the same: Democratic Blue, no mention of actual party affiliation, and "Steele Democrat" in large white letters. (The mailers also had the smiling black people as well.) When challenged on the fact that he was not, in fact, a member of Democratic party, he claimed it was a "descriptive phrase" like "Reagan Democrat".

Comes close to the election, and Steele really wanted people just outside the poll limits, handing out his "Steele Democrat" flyers and urging then to vote for him. Problem was, he couldn't find any local black people willing to do that, and he really needed the flyer-people in Baltimore and some other areas to be black.

So he sent recruiters up to Philly, and the good people of Philly just laughed at him. So he turned to Philadelphia's homeless population. He promised them that, if they came to hand out his flyers, they'd get a cool t-shirt (his campaign shirt), three meals that day, a hundred dollars cash, and he'd hire buses to take them down to Baltimore and then back to Philly at the end of the day. [When you're homeless, intimate knowledge of the area you're in and it's resources are incredibly vital.]

So everyone gets bussed in, and I think they were given donuts and coffee for their first "meal". They never got lunch, nor did get the dinner they were promised. End of the day, polls close and the promised buses never show up. Nor does the money they were promised. Michael Steele essentially trafficked a bunch of homeless people into Baltimore and abandoned them - or he tried to. There was a bunch of local uproar over this that started to build, I think it lasted a couple of days? And then suddenly Steele was there, great big smiling grin, flashing hundred dollar bills, claiming it was all a big mistake, paying people and sending them back to Philly. And I have absolutely no doubt that, if this hadn't started to become A Thing, he would've left those people on the streets of Baltimore without a second thought.

Fuck Michael Steele.