What it is NP, is that the Dems have been more successfully linked to Civil Rights than the GOP in recent years. Civil Rights are of particular concern to minorities.
BINGO! Then what followed was the Civil Rights leadership who have understandably come to be idolized segued into new careers as Democrat politicians. Today its at a place where for blacks voting democrat is an act of patriotism.
FYI: For those interested in seeing more blacks identify with the GOP there are two paths, as I see it. Most of my black friends who are republican have had one or both of these two factors play an important role in their lives.
1. Being involved in a Church where nothing mattered more than figuring out what God wants as communicated in the Bible and pursuing that agenda, which spills over into political ideology chiefly on the social issues.
2. Being involved in the US Military. I'm not in the military so I cannot offer an explanation as to why but from what I've seen blacks who join the military have a greatly likelihood of eventually switching to the GOP than other black Americans especially those who stay in longer. Not a guarantee, simply a greater likelihood.
What doesn't work IMHO and actually drives black support in the direction of the Democrats even more are:
-Dismissing or even defining as a negative thing, black history and heritage instead of celebrating it.
-Pandering messages to black constituents that are obviously not in line with the mainstream GOP agenda/ideology. Obvious efforts to manipulate through deceit.
-Showing insensitivity toward hard working accomplished blacks by insinuating any black who has achieved success got there due to racial preferences.
-Insulting hard working blacks by insinuating blacks are addicted to the welfare state ignoring facts like black women more than any other female group in America as more likely to own their own business and rank among some of the highest percentages in the country of people with college degrees.
-Saying dumb things on the campaign stump like the days of slavery were better times in America for blacks because everybody had a job, etc.
-Failure to understand that for many black Americans, Obama's administration represents something far more important than policy disagreements, that in most cases were done by Republicans first anyway where few complained: Bush bailouts, Romneycare, Reagan's and Bush's deficit spending, etc. Because of this its often seen as just an unexplained double-standard driven by a passionate movement to see him fail and not based in principle or Romneycare and Reagan's push to raise the debt ceiling should have been opposed too. Because of the special importance Obama represents to blacks it might be a good idea to wait until he's out of office before intense outreach efforts are undertaken to win blacks over to the GOP.
