PHILADELPHIA -- During the course of customary dinner party conversation last week, the gentleman to my immediate right snorted, ''It boils down to this: If you're black, you don't want to vote Republican.''
The remark was tossed out with such simple matter-of-factness that the listeners seemed to take for granted that it was true.
As a fourth generation black Republican, I was deeply sensitive to that remark, and it irritated me to see my peers reflexively bobbing their big heads in agreement. It irritated me because, like these dinner companions, a large majority of the black voting populace never bothers to understand a simple fact: They actually agree with several key Republican initiatives.
According to a 1996 article that David Bositis wrote for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, ''large majorities of African-Americans favor positions that could not be described as anything but mainstream Republican.''
For example, the article says, ''pluralities of African-Americans favor no benefit increases for single mothers on welfare who have additional children (49.2 vs. 44.7 percent), and support school vouchers (48.0 vs. 43.5 percent) ... 75.8 percent of black Americans favor school prayer, 73.4 percent favor a $500-per-child federal tax credit, and 72.6 percent favor `three strikes and you're out' laws ...''
General Colin Powell, the first black head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and one of the Republicans' most visible supporters, did not miss this rousing point. Declaring his support for Bush during a moving address at the Republican National Convention Monday evening, Powell praised Bush for his outreach efforts to minority groups while serving as governor of Texas.
''Some call it compassionate conservatism. To me, it's just about caring for people. And he can do the same thing as president,'' Powell said.
Powell also praised the family values that have long animated the Republican Party, declaring, ''It's time to stop building jails and time to get back to the task of building our children.''
Still, Powell's enthusiasm for traditionally Republican values was tempered by his acknowledgement that the Republican Party has failed to establish itself as a symbol of inclusion. He explained that getting blacks to sign an oath of loyalty to the Republican Party would involve ''a sustained effort.''
Thus, Powell acknowledged that many black Americans feel like they are more welcome in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party.
Whereas the Emancipation Proclamation once formed a powerful psychological marriage between blacks and the Republican Party, the Democrats' more recent support of minority voting rights, civil rights initiatives, and affirmative action, combined with the ethnic diversity of the Democratic Party has now established it as a powerful symbol of inclusion.
The Republicans, Powell indicated, will never fully garner similar levels of like and trust among black Americans until they own up to some of the hangover from last 35 years - sparring with Democrats over civil rights, voting issues, and affirmative action. That is not to say the Republicans must reinvent themselves. It merely means that the Republican leadership should admit certain insensitivity in the past to African-Americans.
With a pledge to change, a grassroots effort to build bridges on the local level, a move toward facilitating more ethnic diversity within the party (and the ripple effect this will bring in terms of hiring and establishing a conduit to black Americans' chief concerns), the Republican Party will go a long way toward increasing like and trust. This increased trust will open up forums for Republicans to better explain positions and to engage in a genuine give-and-take with the black American community.
Only then will the Republican be able to adequately convey a simple truth: Their ideas actually mesh with those held by a large segment of the black voting populace.
Armstrong Williams is a radio and television show host.
