How The GOP Can Reach Out To Black America

'The GOP Actually Has A Lot To Offer Black Voters'
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul address the audience at the 50th annual Kentucky Country Ham Breakfast, Thursday Aug. 22, 2013 at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul address the audience at the 50th annual Kentucky Country Ham Breakfast, Thursday Aug. 22, 2013 at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

If you want a sense of how much black voters dislike the GOP, consider this: Both Mitt Romney and John McCain scored single digits with blacks, 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively. The last time this happened, it was 1964 and the Republican presidential nominee—Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater—had pledged his opposition to the bulk of the Civil Rights Act, driving blacks out of the party just four years after they gave Richard Nixon a sizable minority in his presidential bid.

Put another way, the last time Republicans were this unpopular with black Americans, their nominee had sided with white supremacists. Which is to say, the party has a serious image problem, to say nothing of an electoral one.

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