Colin Powells Wake Up Call to Republicans

In less than 4 minutes on Meet the Press, former Secretary of State Colin Powell poured out a cri de coeur, a passionate cry from his heart. He appealed to his Republican Party to turn away from extremism and intolerance and return to its traditional roots. Secretary Powell offered a message of moderation to all of us. Unfortunately, the message is being lost in the fog of racism.

Secretary Powell accused the Republican Party of having an identity problem. That is not news. The party is in the midst of an internal civil war between the Reagan Republicans that Powell grew up with and what he calls "the far right wing of the political spectrum." Moderates, like Powell, are being purged as the Party moves further to the right. And he doesn't like it.

At its heart, Powell's complaint is that the current political agenda of the far right is self-defeating. It ignores the real problems of injured minorities and looks down on the people who are very shortly, in one generation, going to be a majority.

In his passion, Secretary Powell committed a political sin. He talked openly about racism in America. We don't do that, it's impolitic. Even worse, he complained directly about the Republican leadership's racist treatment of President Obama. For this sin, Powell is being widely condemned with little or no concern for the broader message he was preaching.

What Powell was really angry about is the acceptance of racism in the Republican Party. Three instances stand out. The first is his statement that "Republicans were trying to keep us from voting. (Emphasis added but it is the only place he identifies himself with the persecuted.) Then, he almost spits out an explicit condemnation of racist language like "shuckin' and jivin'” and other slave era terms. He accuses "the whole Birther Movement" of racism and asks why senior Republicans tolerate it in the Party.

Finally, he nails it down with the perfect soundbite. "There's also a dark – a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party." Powell had a hard time getting that phrase out. It rings with enough pain that you don't have to be Black to feel its power. Just listen to the right-wing pundits.

Despite all that, Powell's main message remains hopeful. He wants Republicans to "take a look at those less fortunate than us." He really believes in compassionate conservatism. He says the conservative agenda has to address its responsibilities for the big issues like healthcare, immigration, education and climate change. The most important tactical advice is his call to concentrate on what the party represents rather than who's going to be the next candidate.

Everyone recognizes with Colin Powell that "The Party is in difficulty." But most of what Powell offers is simply ordinary common sense which seems to have fled much of the Republican leadership. The campaigns of John McCain and Mitt Romney were embarrassing and the results showed it. The demographics are overwhelming. Old, white guys are dying out and being more than replaced by Hispanics, Blacks and other hyphenated Americans. Powell tells Republicans that they can't look down on the people "lower down the food chain, the economic chain" and expect them to vote Republican.

Powell asserts forcefully that he is still a Republican, that he adheres to the conservative faith he was raised in. He sincerely believes that the Party has lost its way. All he is asking is that the party look to real problems and address them with sincere efforts based on traditional Republican values.

Colin Powell has done our country and his party a great service. Nowhere have I heard racism so explicitly admitted, so effectively condemned. It could well be, now that President Obama has been reelected, the beginning of a real dialogue on race.

But maybe not. A review of some of the more prominent conservative blogs reveals an angry, negative response to the accusation of racism and no discussion of moderation. Admittedly, bloggers are not in the business of being moderate but I see little or no response to Powell's central complaint of extremism.

The most serious impediment to Powell's message is Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy of the 1960s and 70s. President Nixon directly appealed to the racism of the South to pry them loose from the Democratic Party which was pushing against racism with the civil and voting rights movements. Powell is saying that that strategy is still in effect but must be abandoned.

The Republican Party has gotten its wake-up call from a thoughtful conservative. Now if we could only get the liberals to offer up some elder statesman to challenge the Democratic Party on its boot-licking, willful submission to the financial sector.