Why Isn't GOP on BET?

The Republican-leaning Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley has this in today's paper. I don't agree with the central premise which seems to be that African American voters support the Democratic Party because the party does a better job of outreach through media.

Meanwhile, the Republican elites will sit back, carefully assess the demographic trends and reach the wrong conclusion. They will note that more and more blacks are stockholders, own homes, graduate from college and earn middle-class incomes. They will cite data showing high approval, particularly among black GenXers, for Republican hobbyhorses like school choice and personal retirement accounts. They will point to Colin Powell and Condi Rice as GOP role models. And they will tell themselves that it's only a matter of time before voting blacks break with Democrats in significant numbers.

They are kidding themselves. This isn't about issues; it's about perceptions.

Why don't people like Riley listen to people like Rev. Al Sharpton? Rev. Al addressed Bush's remarks at the DNC convention:

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.

We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men (inaudible) soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham.

This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.

This vote can't be given away.

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

While I don't agree that the modern Democratic Party has earned the African American vote, I do understand and respect Rev. Sharpton's perspective. The view that the GOP simply needs to do a better job of advertising is nonsense.