Former RNC chairman Michael Steele warned Republicans on Saturday that what happened in Georgia – Joe Biden carrying the state and two Democrats winning runoff Senate races – could happen all across the country if they don’t ditch the cancer of Donald Trump.
During a discussion on MSNBC, Steele said that Republicans didn’t see the blue wave coming in Georgia, and embracing Trumpism could only motivate what happened there to unfold all across the country.
“What we saw happen in Georgia was not an accident,” Steele said. “It was deliberate, and it was born out of the deliberate efforts of those who wanted to suppress the votes of black people.”
He continued, “Stacey Abrams said, no, that ain’t happening and she systematically took the system down. And she pushed back against it and she organized against it and she defeated it.”
“That’s the course,” Steele added.
Video:
Former RNC chairman Michael Steele says what Stacey Abrams did in Georgia is the model for how Democrats can defeat Trumpism. pic.twitter.com/fkU6TyQo8f
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) February 6, 2021
Steele said:
This is a battle. It is a battle over ideas. It goes to a lot of what Angela just said, about denying history, denying the narrative of this country, creating an America that never existed, quite honestly. It was never about white picket fences. These are the same people who ignore the white poor even in their own midst, so there is this sense of an America that they have idealized. So how do you deal with it? You deal with it the way we’re starting to deal with it. You have to confront it head on. I agree we’ve wasted a lot of energy on Taylor Greene. But it is necessary energy, because if you do not stop it cold in its tracks, it will continue to permeate and those policies will only expand. What we saw happen in Georgia was not an accident. It was deliberate, and it was born out of the deliberate efforts of those who wanted to suppress the votes of black people. Stacey Abrams said, no, that ain’t happening and she systematically took the system down. And she pushed back against it and she organized against it and she defeated it. That’s the course. It is part of our own history. We’ve watched the marches, and we’ve heard the speeches, but at some point it requires the level of action and engagement that we saw that turned a state blue that, I can tell you very frankly, the Republicans never saw coming. That was not on their reality scope, and so we need to change the reality. I say that as someone who’s tried to do it inside the party, now doing it inside and outside the party. But it has to be done.
Trump is out of the White House, but Trumpism is alive and well
Joe Biden beat Donald Trump last November in a presidential election that wasn’t all that close, but the work of defeating the cancerous Trumpism he left behind isn’t finished.
The worst thing that could happen right now is for Democrats to rest easy now that Trump is out of the White House. Complacency is what allowed him to win in the first place.
Trumpism must be organized against and defeated with the same energy that we saw in Georgia. Otherwise, two and four years from now, it can retake control of Congress and the White House.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
