The Simplest 'Outreach': Ask black Americans for their votes, for heaven's sake - African American voters continue to ignore Republican candidates

National Review, March 5, 2001 by Ramesh Ponnuru, Richard Nadler

'Why do blacks hate us?" It's a question that has long perplexed conservatives and Republicans. They've been asking it with new intensity since November, when "compassionate conservatism" struck out with 91 percent of the black electorate. Increased black turnout helped Democrats gain Senate seats in Michigan, Washington, Florida, and Missouri.

Most Republicans recognize that they need to win more black votes. There has been no shortage of advice on how to do this. Republicans have been told to soft-pedal old issues, and to devise new ones. They have been counseled to push harder on school choice, to oppose immigration, to rethink the drug war. One Republican suggested that the party "co-opt" or even "buy" black leaders.

The multiplicity of suggestions is a sign that the party really has no idea what to do. The prevailing mood is one of resignation tinged with despair. Republicans feel they have done as much as they can, while remaining Republicans, to court blacks. They pointedly avoided campaigning against racial preferences. (Even in Florida, where they were an issue, the Republicans tried mightily to defuse it.) They found every black person they knew and put him onstage during the Republican convention. Since his election, President Bush has appointed blacks to powerful offices, met with left-wing black congressmen, and proposed welfare reforms that would direct millions of dollars to black churches. None of it seems to work.

Some Republicans are therefore tempted to surrender. Since blacks constitute only 10 percent of the electorate, they figure the party should find its votes elsewhere. But for the GOP to give up on blacks would be a mistake. For one thing, in many states blacks are a substantial and growing percentage of the electorate. In addition, blacks are among the few identifiable populations that contain more conservatives than Republicans. They should be no more out of reach for George W. Bush than blue-collar Democrats were for Ronald Reagan.

It would be a mistake, finally, because it is not in fact true that the Republicans have done everything they can to get black votes. They have neglected, for instance, to ask for them. Policy intellectuals are naturally tempted to devise programmatic responses to the party's problem with blacks: modify this position, accentuate that one. Pundits like to ponder big issues such as the effect of America's racial history on blacks' political psychology. But they're overlooking a simple, but big, part of the problem: Republicans aren't running ads that reach black voters.

Consider the case of Kansas City. We choose it not just because it's our hometown, but also because it was the second biggest market in the country for political ads in 2000-right behind St. Louis. Missouri was a swing state in the presidential race. It was also the site of hard- fought races for senator and governor. Two congressional seats were contested in the area, one on either side of the Kansas-Missouri state line. In the end, high turnout among blacks, who were 5 percent of the Missouri electorate in 1996 but 12 percent in 2000, yielded narrow Democratic victories for Bob Holden over Jim Talent (governor) and Jean Carnahan over John Ashcroft (senator).

The most popular black radio station in Kansas City is KPRS-FM, "Hot 103 Jamz." Here's a synopsis of the political ads that KPRS listeners heard during four hours of drive time on November 2, five days before the election:

--The notorious NAACP ad accusing George W. Bush of indifference to the brutal racial killing of James Byrd.

wAn ad by the Missouri Democratic party in which the announcer says, "Under George W. Bush, 75 percent of juveniles are incarcerated in Texas, and 100 percent of the juveniles in adult prisons are minorities."

--Another ad by the Democrats implying that more low-birth-weight babies will be born and more old folks will go hungry paying for their medicine unless listeners vote Democratic.

--A union ad for Bob Holden, the Democratic candidate for governor, promising that he will vanquish the "forces of darkness arrayed against us that would turn back the clock on our community."

--A National Education Association ad lauding Kansas Democratic congressman Dennis Moore for supporting its agenda: smaller class sizes, school construction, universal preschool.

--A Missouri Democratic-party ad that tags Republicans for the racial profiling of black students whose sole crime is "DWB-driving while black." (The ad is repeated minutes later.)

--An ad from a feminist PAC about Jean Carnahan ("when women vote, women win").

--Another union ad, this one featuring a pastor who says that Holden's opponent, Talent, "doesn't represent our values" because he "voted with John Ashcroft against our kids to slash federal education funds, cut student loans, against affirmative action, and to repeal the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons."

--The NEA ad for Dennis Moore again.

--A Bob Holden campaign ad.

--The racial-profiling ad, again.

--The ad about Holden fighting the "forces of darkness," again.