Juan: "Republicans seem to write off blacks, because the vast majority vote Democratic"
Juan, I understand why you say that but I don't think it's true.
"Conventional Wisdom" says having the "news media" behind a candidate - or party - is worth 17% at the polls. I believe it. I think both Kerry/Gore/Clinton, etc, got at least that much more support at the polls than they would have IF the media hadn't championed every liberal against every conservative! It is THEY who ignore what the conseratives really say, distort much of it and then decry that conservatives don't care for poor folks! Since the old media still dominates, that has a corrosive effect over the two or three years before a major election cycle.
All the liberals/media (they're locked at the hip, why not as a word?) feel is the proper support for blacks, browns, yellows, greens, is competition for who will lavish the most money on them for being "poor". They are poor because they ignore the free educational opportiunites available and won't work at the jobs they are qualified for, so their lot can't possibly improve!
It wasn't always that way. Back in the early 60s black unemployeement wasn't much higher than for whites, their illigitamate birth rate was only about 11-12% and their education opportunities were being taken at every opportunity. Blacks were making progress back then. But compare that to what they endure now, all as a direct result of liberal policies for welfair without restraint, many excuses for not working, silly forgiveness for criminal behavaior. The black's road to today's hell has been paved with liberal good intentions devoid of common sense, LBJ's "Great Society" was the spring board for it. (And the "Voting Rights Act" of '68 was passed with a higher percentage of Republican support than Democrat - Sen. Robert Byrd fillibustered it - but few liberal politicians or their media chose to remember that!)
When any conservative tries to bring an element of common sense into the political discussion of race. Jesse Jackson. All Sharpton, the Congressional Black Caucus, et all, run to a microphone and before the cameras to moan of the unfairness and hardheartedness of conservatives who disagree that giving away ever larger bundles of "free money" is the only answer and the media provides them all the forum time they want.
The media takes the professional black failure-supporters word as gospel and then go out to ask conservatives questons. I've seen them say, in effect, "Sir, it's been said that conservatives still want to lynch blacks. Is that true?" I want to scream, "It's never been true and you distort the facts!"
No, it's not conservatives who ignore blacks/hispanics. It's just that the determined media want it to seem so. So long as people listen to the old media, little change will be possible.