"When Republicans from time to time try to reach out to blacks, they tend to do so ineptly, if not ridiculously. For reasons unknown, they seem to want to appeal to black voters in the same ways that Democrats appeal to black voters, by adopting a liberal stance.
Why would anyone who wants liberalism go for a Republican imitation when they can get the real thing from Democrats? Republicans do not have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the votes of liberal blacks.
Nor are they likely to win a majority of the black vote as a whole any time soon. But if Republicans can get just a fourth or a fifth of the black vote nationwide, that can shift the balance of power decisively in their favor.
It is not rocket science to see that whatever chances the Republicans have of making inroads into the black vote are likely to be better among more conservative blacks.
Black religious groups opposed to abortion or homosexual marriage are an obvious group to try to reach. So are black business owners or military veterans.
Does anyone think that President Bush's awarding a Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali was likely to appeal to such groups? Yet this continues a pattern in which Republicans have tried to approach black voters from the left."
He's absolutely right.
2006-02-07
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I have also thought for years that the repos have done a terrible job of appealing to blacks, with both a lack of enthusiasm and with poor execution, as described here by Sowell. Recently I was flabberghasted that Bush didn't move Clerance Thomas over to Chief Justice, and then nominate Janice Rogers Brown as one of the two nominees, and a mestizo as the other. Failure to do so has gained the repos nothing that they would not have gained from non-honkey promotions; had they done so would have cost them nothing, but would have increased the appeal that they are gaining among blacks and mestizos.
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