Colin Powell’s third act: Republican scold
ANALYSIS - The 76-year-old is largely out of politics now, but when he emerges, it's almost always to lecture the party that once heavily promoted him...
Two decades ago, Colin Powell was the man people thought might be the first black president.
After successful tenures both as national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he flirted with a presidential run in 1996 before deciding he ultimately did not want to be involved in electoral politics. But even as he opted against running, Powell formally aligned with the Republican Party, leading him to become one of George W. Bush’s top campaign surrogates in 2000 and eventually the secretary of state.
His second act in public life was much less successful. Bush and his other top aides often ignored Powell. And the former general greatly damaged his credibility in 2003 when he became the public face for the Bush administration’s push for war against Iraq, particularly a high-profile appearance at the United Nations Security Council in which he Powell painstakingly laid out the U.S. government’s evidence (later provided either completely false or grossly overstated) that the Iraqi government had produced weapons of mass destruction and might use them.
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But Powell has found a new role that seems to fit him almost perfectly: Republican scold, particularly on issues of race. The 76-year-old is largely out of politics now, but when he emerges, it’s almost always to lecture the party that once heavily promoted him. In 2008, in endorsing Obama, Powell suggested his longtime friend, John McCain, had tapped an unqualified person to be vice-president in Sarah Palin and that Republicans had not only falsely suggested Obama is a Muslim, but suggested practicing that religion made someone unqualified to be president.
Earlier this year, he said a” dark vein of intolerance” motivated some in the Republican Party to oppose Obama. Now, Powell is formally criticizing Republicans for controversial voting laws they have pushed, most notably in North Carolina.
“They claim that there is widespread abuse and voter fraud. But nothing documents, nothing substantiates that. There isn’t widespread abuse. And so these kinds of procedures being put in place to slow the process down and make it likely that fewer Hispanics and African-Americans might vote I think are going to backfire because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote. And I encourage that,” Powell said Sunday.
All of these comments have resonance because of Powell’s bi-partisan reputation. His claim that he is a Republican is laughable at this point; he has twice endorsed Obama. But the former general is not an ideologue with a set of liberal beliefs he has long championed, or a down-the-line Obama backer. He has criticized the president on foreign policy and in 2010 suggested Americans were uncomfortable with the number of new initiatives Obama had pushed in his first two years in office.
Powell has long been a figure of the Washington establishment, and his views largely mirror that community. But they are very distinct from other black Republicans. Some African-American Republicans, such as ex-Rep. Allen West and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) have close identified themselves with the anti-Obama wings of the GOP and rarely say anything positive about Obama.
Other black Republicans, most notably Powell’s ex-Bush administration colleague Condi Rice, have expressed their pride in Obama’s election as the first black president but remained stalwart Republicans. (Rice spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention.)
Powell argues, correctly, that his politics have not changed, but instead the Republican Party has shifted to the right. What’s unclear though is if he thinks his broad declarations of the party’s failures will motivate the GOP to change. In endorsing Obama twice and publicly criticizing the GOP repeatedly, Powell has angered Republican officials, who are increasingly resistant to anything he says. An endorsement in a GOP primary from Powell would probably hurt, not help, a Republican officeholder.
But what Powell has successfully done is change his own reputation. He has spoken publicly about his embarrassment about what he told the U.N. and the American public ten years ago. Obama’s emergence gave Powell to chance to make sure missing weapons of mass destruction were not the last thing the general was remembered for. Powell has taken advantage of the opportunity.
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