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That's a winning argument among people who don't want to talk about bigger realities, such as the collapse and flight of industrial jobs that vigorously used to nourish traditional family life among all races.

Even conservative scholar Charles Murray shows in his underappreciated 2012 book "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010" how unemployment and out-of-wedlock birth rates climbed among white families since the 1950s, too, particularly in the lower education and income brackets.

Yet it's hard to beat racial stereotypes with dull, dry facts. Sometimes you have to quell other people's stereotypes before they can begin to hear your ideas.

Bill Clinton pulled that off in 1992. He broke his party's losing streak distancing himself from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, appealing to "the forgotten middle class" and promising to "change welfare as we know it." Since then, Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the last six elections. Even President Barack Obama knew better than to be "too black," even as others tried to paint him that way.

Ironically, Bill Clinton also endorsed the tough sentencing policies with his 1994 crime bill that his wife, today's Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, wants to roll back.

She's not alone. So do Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and a growing number of other fiscally conscious Republicans.

In her first major policy speech as a candidate, Clinton outlined an agenda "to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice." She proposed to overhaul the criminal justice system, increase the use of police body cameras and expand alternative punishments for petty drug crimes, among other ideas.

Each of these ideas also happens to have growing bipartisan support.

Just don't let Republicans' supporters know it. Agreement on anything with Hillary Clinton could be a kiss of political death.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)

(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.