Could Trump Trade Latinos for Blacks? Don't Count On It
For years Bruce Bartlett has been trying to help his fellow Republicans to reconcile their long-broken marriage with African-Americans. Timing has not always been his friend.
We first met when I interviewed the former economic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan on CSPAN about his book, "Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past," a chronicle of the Democrats' sorry history as the party of slavery, segregation and white supremacy.
Republicans often bring up that history as if they don't think we African-Americans have ever heard about it. I'm grateful for the crucial help that Republicans gave to black advancement, but I also ask today's Grand Old Party, what have you done for us lately?
In that spirit, I support Bartlett's effort to restore a healthy competition by both parties for the black vote, instead of the current state of affairs, in which African-Americans are taken for granted by one party and ignored by the other.
But, alas, unfortunately for his book sales and that valuable conversation, the book came out just as Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign was taking off. Not since GOP-nominee Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign had there been a worse time for the GOP to seek black support.
But now, with Obama's presidency almost over, Bartlett is back, trying to revive that conversation in a Washington Post op-ed last Sunday, headlined, "Donald Trump doesn't need Latino votes to win."
Oh, yeah? My first thought: Tell that to Mitt Romney, who lost his 2012 race, despite winning 59 percent of the white vote, by losing even larger majorities of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
Next year's Republican nominee will need 47 percent of the Hispanic vote to win the general election, according to a study by Latino Decisions. That looks bad for the GOP's front-runner Trump, who has made mass insults and expulsions of undocumented immigrants into central issues in his campaign.
But Bartlett suggests an alternative: Replace Latino voters with those of another large minority group that traditionally votes Democratic: African-Americans.
"I think some people, especially blacks, misunderstand my argument and think I am trying to hurt minorities by dividing blacks and Hispanics," Bartlett told me in an email exchange. "My main concern is with blacks and improving their condition."
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