There are some obvious alterations the GOP and the conservative movement must make to attract black voters. Any project that looks like anti-black voter suppression should be first on the list to go. The Randian rhetoric of “takers” must go too. It not only alienates parts of the existing GOP base, but is pungent with contempt for those, like African Americans, who view themselves as unfairly held outside and below the the sphere of social concern. Perhaps most difficult of all, conservatives need to bring their well-paid yappers to heel, lest they find another case like Trayvon Martin’s death, and use it to enflame a totally spurious debate about “the real racists.” Such arguments make conservatives look like self-involved idiots and aggrieved monsters…

Lectures about anti-slavery Republicanism in the 1860s are fine, but the way to win black voters now is to actually be solicitous of their interests today. Where do they align with a center-right coalition? Conservatives are wise to rethink the tough-on-crime policies that imprison so many non-violent offenders, depriving communities of their young men and black families of their fathers. They should take things like Mike Lee’s middle-class-family-friendly tax code revision and push them further so that they help poorer Americans form families too. Republicans might consider the reform of social programs that promise resources to African Americans only so long as they do acrobatics through administrative hoops. Find a libertarian angle against that racially-tinged paternalism. Most important, go out and consult black voters, constantly and respectfully.