Trump on to something in talking of black woes

Who would have thought that Donald Trump, of all people, would be addressing the fact that the black community suffers the most from a breakdown of law and order? But sanity on racial issues is sufficiently rare that it must be welcomed, from whatever source it comes.

When establishment Republicans have addressed the problems of blacks at all, it has too often been in terms of what earmarked benefits can be offered in exchange for their votes. And there was very little that Republicans could offer to compete with the Democrats’ whole universe of welfare state earmarks.

Law and order, however, is not an earmarked benefit for any special group. It is a policy for all that is especially needed by law-abiding blacks, who are the principal victims of those who are not law-abiding.

Education is another area where something that is needed by all segments of the population is especially needed by blacks and other low-income minorities.

No matter what policy Republicans follow, they are not going to win a majority of the black votes this year. Nor is that necessary. Just an erosion of the Democrats’ monopoly of the black votes can benefit Republicans and the black community, who are taken for granted by the Democrats. Republicans may also get more white votes if they are no longer seen by some as racists.

Education is a slamdunk issue for Republicans trying to appeal to black parents with schoolage children, as distinguished from trying to appeal to all black voters, as if all blacks are the same.

Education is an issue with little, if any, downside for the Republicans, because the teachers’ unions are the single biggest obstacle to black youngsters getting a decent education — and among the biggest donors to the Democrats.

Republicans have nothing to lose by taking on the teachers’ unions, which donate more than 90 percent of their money to Democrats. Again, Republicans may not win a majority of the votes of even those parents who have children in public schools. But that is where inroads into the black vote can begin.

That initial step should include appeals not only to black parents with children in successful charter schools, but also the larger number of black parents on waiting lists for charter schools, and anyone else in the black community who sees a good education is the key for the next generation to advance.

The black vote has not always been a monopoly of the Democrats. From the time of Abraham Lincoln to that of Herbert Hoover, the black vote was Republican. Even in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the black vote was one of the few that went to President Hoover in 1932.

Even after President Franklin Roosevelt won over black voters in a 1936 landslide, Republicans continued to get a significant share of the black vote over the next 20 years. But not in recent elections.

Blacks voters are not the property of the NAACP; they need to be addressed as individuals, over the heads of special interest organizations that have led blacks into the blind alley of being a voting bloc that has been taken for granted.

Whether other Republicans will rethink their approach to attracting minority voters is an unanswered question.