Posted on 06/01/2018 11:41:03 AM PDT by Liberty7732
The perennial question posed during every election season is: How can Republicans win back the black vote? As a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chairman of the National Black Republican Association, I can tell you there are clear steps to take.
But before we can get to solving the problem, it is necessary to first understand the root cause.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Republican Party has never turned its back on black Americans. It continuously conducts black voter engagement, as is done for all identifiable groups, including Hispanics, rural Americans, the middle-class in “fly-over country,” young voters and women.
The root cause of the refusal of most black Americans to vote for Republicans rests squarely with the Democratic Party establishment (which includes the media and much of the education structure) that has convinced most blacks that the Republican Party is a racist party. Every election cycle, Democrats go into black communities and preach hatred against Republicans and get blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans — not a vote for Democrats.
This has been overtly detrimental to blacks. To read details about how the race-mongering by Democrats harms blacks, see Walter E. Williams’ “The True Black Tragedy.” See also “Why the Left Can’t Let Go of Racism” by Shelby Steele.
Even though only about 25% of black Americans live in urban communities targeted by Democrats, the false narrative that Republicans are racist is broadcast to the rest of the country by the liberal press that functions as the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
Progress is being made with the educational campaign to set the civil rights record straight and recapture the rich civil rights legacy of the Republican Party, which is the mission of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA).
The Republican Party of Florida is at the forefront of this educational campaign and is the home state for the NBRA that was founded in 2005 in the West Palm Beach headquarters of Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media, at the behest of former Republican Party of Palm Beach County Chairman Sid Dinerstein.
When Democrats and the media are confronted with the strong Republican voting record for blacks, the fiction created to explain it is that everyone switched parties in the 1970s, just changed hats. That did not happen.
It does not pass the common sense test to believe that the parties switched sides after: Republicans fought the Civil War to end slavery; amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment); and championed every piece of civil rights legislation from the 1860’s to the 1960’s, including voting in higher percentages for the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. For an extensive, fact-filled history of civil rights and where Republicans and Democrats stood, read Kevin D Williamson’s “The Parties Did Not Switch Sides – Update: The Republican Party is The Party of Civil Rights.”
When addressing economic issues with black voters, it is essential that Republican leaders recognize that the party’s conservative message of low taxes, smaller government and prosperity through free enterprise does not resonate with the average black voter.
Why?
First, a far higher percentage of black Americans are employed by the government than other races or ethnicities. So when they hear that Republicans want to reduce taxes and the size of government, they hear that Republicans want to take away their jobs. And of course, the media is quick to spread that word.
Second, according to a report “The State of Working America,” among racial and ethnic groups, black Americans had the highest poverty rate, 27.4 percent, followed by Hispanics at 26.6 percent and whites at 9.9 percent. Therefore, when poor blacks hear that Republicans want to reduce taxes and the size of government, they hear that Republicans want to take away their welfare checks.
Notably, according to a Heritage Foundation report, since the War on Poverty began under President Lyndon Johnson, welfare spending has exploded to sixteen times its original size and the cost has risen to a staggering $22 trillion — three times more than what the government has spent on all wars in American history.
That report finds that massive welfare spending has not led to a drop in the poverty rate. Another finding is how misleading it is to think that Americans are not better off today. Noted is the fact that a household receiving $50,000 in welfare benefits would still be classified as poor, if its pre-welfare income fell below the poverty line. Statistics show that 80 percent of America’s poor households have air conditioning, two-thirds have cable or satellite television, half have a personal computer and 43 percent have access to the internet. Virtually all have smartphones.
Given the above information, it can be concluded that a winning message for Republicans to deliver to black Americans, as well as all Americans, is being very explicit about how tax cuts and deregulation result in more jobs and higher wages for everyone. Under the Trump Administration, these actions have resulted in historic low black unemployment and rising wages.
Republican leaders would also do well to emphasize the prison reform, school choice programs and the faith-based initiative implemented by President Donald J. Trump — all issues that do resonate with black voters.
Worth noting is that, according to the most recent U.S census data, there are nearly 325 million people in the United States, and the voting age population exceeds 235.2 million, with African Americans comprising 12.5 percent. Since it is estimated that about 10 percent of blacks align with the Republican Party, that means that there are about 2.9 million Black Republicans. That’s not a miniscule amount. But it can be a lot more.
The issues of why tax cuts help blacks, along with prison reform, school choice and faith-based programs need to be pointed out to black voters to counter the false narratives coming from the Democrat media establishment.
How does <15% help? 1% would be a disaster for the GOP.
My boo boo.
The Democrats make that case, every election. But in reality socialism can be profitable for a substantial fraction of the public in the short run only. It is devastatingly (see, “Venezuela”) counterproductive in the long run. And the short run is not 50 years since LBJ’s “Great Society,” it isn’t even ten years.In no time at all the promises of socialism turn out to be hot air.
Although our modern socialists' promise of greater freedom is genuine and sincere, in recent years observer after observer has been impressed by the unforeseen consequences of socialism, the extraordinary similarity in many respects of the conditions under 'communism' and 'fascism'. As the writer Peter Drucker expressed it in 1939,'the complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian society of unfreedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion, and it has proved as much an illusion in Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.’No less significant is the intellectual outlook of the rank and file in the communist and fascist movements in Germany before 1933. The relative ease with which a young communist could be converted into a Nazi or vice versa was well known, best of all to the propagandists of the two parties. The communists and Nazis clashed more frequently with each other than with other parties simply because they competed for the same type of mind and reserved for each other the hatred of the heretic. Their practice showed how closely they are related. To both, the real enemy, the man with whom they had nothing in common, was the liberal of the old type. While to the Nazi the communist and to the communist the Nazi, and to both the socialist, are potential recruits made of the right timber, they both know that there can be no compromise between them and those who really believe in individual freedom.What is promised to us as the Road to Freedom is in fact the Highroad to Servitude. For it is not difficult to see what must be the consequences when democracy embarks upon a course of planning. The goal of the planning will be described by some such vague term as 'the general welfare'. There will be no real agreement as to the ends to be attained, and the effect of the people's agreeing that there must be central planning, without agreeing on the ends, will be rather as if a group of people were to commit themselves to take a journey together without agreeing where they want to go: with the result that they may all have to make a journey which most of them do not want at all.
____________— F A Hayek,
But socialism for blacks with white people’s money could go on for a long time without precipitating a Venezuela.
To speak in terms of “the black vote” is sort of silly
All that is required is <18% or so. There is no need to try to get the black vote.
Only a rather small part will do the job
The Road to Serfdom (May, 1945 Reader’s Digest Condensed Version)
Easy
TRUMP
Keep providing jobs and tax cuts.
It raises some good points but I am extremely uncomfortable talking abut white votes and black votes. These are American citizen votes first and last.
That is the traditional Republican view, which I share. The Democrats have been only too successful selling the contrary view.
Plus one
I’ve been saying that that for decades
They don't. Accept that and move on. The Republicans have shown time and again they can win without it.
Nixon got 30 percent of the black vote in 1960; hardly any in 1968 and 1972.
Dewey competed for black support in 1948 but still fell short.
“made a credible case that life as free people within a prosperous community grounded in moral and ethical behavior is superior to government dependency.“
How Eurocentric of you!
“The GOP must become the White party, for our Dale. The Trump 2.0 needs to talk about “European” values, heritage, and people with the same frequency and pleasure that the Dems talk about “Hispanics” and blacks.”
AMEN!!! And it’s high time we stop acting like British cops who think that they turn back the clock on their soaring crime by STILL not carrying guns.
Likewise here. If every group except whites lines up with Democrats, whites would be TOTAL IDIOTS to keep giving nearly half of their vote to those same Democrats. That’s called GAME OVER. If we wanted to keep two viable parties representing our interests, we should have NEVER allowed our country to be flooded with immigrants, but we did, and now we have to live with it. There is no turning back of the clock.
In 2008, Obama wasn’t trying to win the white vote - he was trying to win 40% of it. That was the magic number his pollsters told him was needed. So he did JUST ENOUGH to get that 40%. He divided us up ethnically, whether we liked it or not.
But only 4% of black women vote republican.
Black men have some sense and can be reasoned with when it comes to voting, but what is wrong with black women?
They seem to be the biggest left-wing bloc in existence.
I'm sure that even Trump got more than 4% from the gay community.
I think you’ll see blacks voting Rep in November, and as much as they can see employment going down, in 2020, I think 15% will vote Trump/Rep.
I agree. The only people nowadays still talking and thinking in terms of “we are all Americans” are some white conservatives, no one else. Every other voting bloc is predicated on identity politics, and ethnocentric interests (with the feminist/gender connections). For us (white conservatives) to continue to ignore this fact on the ground is just blind and suicidal.
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