I’m probably the last one who should comment on not being familiar with the latest trends, but do people still actually use the phrase “off the hook” anymore? Well, Michael Steele does:

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

What was I saying about falling into the trap of insulting stereotypes? Changing public perception and adopting different symbolism are important successes that Cameron has had in Britain, and Freddy discusses how Cameron has managed to rebuild the Tories through consistently making vague gestures in different “reform” directions: sometimes as a modernizer, sometimes as a Red Tory sympathizer, and sometimes as a Blairite knock-off. However, these successes would not have been sufficient to win back voters lost to the Tories for decades had Labour not so thoroughly abandoned its working-class constituencies. It seems to me that Steele’s remarks are an example of the sort of “hug a hoodie” Cameronism that Republicans should definitely avoid. There is nothing so head-smackingly condescending as a Republican politician trying to show that he is trendy and familiar with the latest pop culture. More often than not, the pol simply is not familiar with the latest pop culture, and the attempt to appear so becomes an occasion for eye-rolling embarrassment for all involved. It also sends the message loud and clear that the pol not only doesn’t know how to speak to the voters he wants to reach, but that he doesn’t even know that he doesn’t know.

All that said, let’s give Steele a break for a moment. This is not necessarily that different from Howard Dean’s famous “guys with Confederate flags in their trucks” line, which was tone-deaf in its own way but at least demonstrated some awareness that his party consistently failed to win the votes of most white men in national elections. However, the idea that Dean was trying to articulate was that the Democrats had to try to compete in all fifty states and pursue voters whom they had largely neglected and ignored, especially in regions where the party had been competitive in the past. Five years after he said that, the Democrats are the majority in Congress, control the White House and are well-represented among the governors and state legislatures around the country. It is safe to say that Dean was as far removed culturally from Confederate flag-owning white men as Steele is removed from the voters he is referring to here, as the clumsiness of the remarks makes clear, but Dean did have some idea how to translate his clumsy pander into something like an effective method of recruiting local candidates who could compete in traditionally hostile territory. Jim Webb, Heath Shuler and Travis Childers are just a few examples of the success of that approach.

What remains to be seen is whether Steele has the imagination to apply the lessons of Democratic success to the GOP. It is also not certain that the rest of the GOP leadership will go along with a similar recruiting effort in the Midwest, New England and the Pacific West if it means backing candidates who are insufficiently party-line on this or that issue. The profile of the right candidates would have to differ depending on district, but before you could discover the right candidates for these districts you would need to be willing to try. Nothing I have heard from Steele since his election suggests that he will be, but perhaps he will surprise us.