Republicans And Blacks

I know this a topic that some people will find uncomfortable and others may find downright irritating, but it is a topic that will inevitably come up and we must deal with it at some point before November. Better to do it earlier than later.

Dr. Thomas Sowell's most recent column contained the following:

Senator McCain was booed at a recent memorial on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In typical Republican fashion, he tried to apologize but the audience was not buying it and let him know it. Why would Senator McCain choose a venue where his rejection was virtually guaranteed? Not only did he not get his message out, the message that came out through the media is that this black audience rejected him, which is readily portrayed as if blacks in general rejected him. The Republican strategy for making inroads into the black vote has failed consistently for more than a quarter of a century. Yet it never seems to occur to them to change their approach.

As I implied above, this is not very flattering towards Senator McCain, but Dr. Sowell is right on the mark. Why would Republicans simply make the same offer to blacks that the Democrats are already making? It certainly stands to reason that the black community would not trust the Republican offer since it goes counter to the Republican Party's Core Principles.

But, Dr. Sowell does offer some suggestions of messages that Republicans should be sending out:

A sober presentation of the facts-- "straight talk," if you will-- gives Senator McCain and Republicans their best shot at a larger share of the votes of blacks. There is plenty to talk straight about, including all the things that the Democrats are committed to that work to the disadvantage of blacks, beginning with Democrats' adamant support of teachers' unions in their opposition to parental choice through vouchers. The teachers' unions are just one of the sacred cow constituencies of the Democratic Party whose agendas are very harmful to blacks. Black voters also need to be told about the tens of thousands of blacks who have been forced out of a number of liberal Democratic California counties by skyrocketing housing prices, brought on by Democratic environmentalists' severe restrictions on the building of homes or apartments. The black population of San Francisco, for example, has been cut in half since 1970-- and San Francisco is the very model of a community of liberal Democrats, including green zealots who are heedless of the consequences of their actions on others. Then there are the effects of tort lawyers in raising prices, liberal judges turning criminals loose and other influential Democratic Party constituencies whose effects on blacks are strictly negative.

Dr. Sowell also rightly points out that the "game plan" of constantly catering to blacks via leftist proposals will always be a failure. Telling the truth would be a better option.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Republicans And Blacks
Dr. Thomas Sowell
TownHall.com
April 10, 2008