RNC Chairman Michael Steele is set to deliver a speech today to state GOP chairmen, seeking to re-energize the party.
“The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done,” Steele will say. “We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the rearview mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future.”
When has the GOP been apologizing, you might ask? In all fairness to Steele, he could be referring to his own speeches in which he himself has owned up to the Republican Party’s mistakes. As he famously said in February: “Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad.” So does this mean the Republican Party is going to stop apologizing — or more specifically that Steele, in his position as chairman, is going to knock it off?
In a companion op-ed piece in the Politico, Steele further lays out his vision that the GOP needs to remember the example of Ronald Reagan — and not look backward:
The Republican Party has turned a corner, and as we move forward Republicans should take a lesson from Ronald Reagan. Again, we’re not looking back – if President Reagan were here today he would have no patience for Americans who looked backward. Ronald Reagan always believed Republicans should apply our conservative principles to current and future challenges facing America. For Reagan’s conservatism to take root in the next generation we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age.
