Georgia GOP Politicos Downplay Polls Showing Minimal Minority Support for Donald Trump

John. Setting aside your choice of language about “blind loyalty,” I think I can answer you.

It’s not blind loyalty. It’s a wide-eyed appreciation of the alternative.

Here are the main political problems facing African-American voters. Black people are discriminated against in the job market, at school, in the courts, in housing and in small business lending decisions. The unemployment rate for black Americans is twice as high as whites, and that’s true even for people who have education and skills, leaving black families with a poverty rate twice as high as whites. Black students face harsher discipline than white students for the same infractions, are more likely to face arrest for the same crimes, and face longer sentences — all of which make black people more likely to be poor.

Red-lining still happens. Lenders generally refuse small business loans to black applicants unless forced by the threat of law. Property values in black communities do not rise, largely because white people generally refuse to live in black neighborhoods, shrinking the available sales market to people with less income to devote to a mortgage. Neighborhood schools with mixed incomes and racial integration tend to produce better schools for all concerned, which increases property values. White flight thus creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for black communities. The result? Net wealth for white households is around $120,000 because of housing appreciation. Net wealth for black households is about $5,000.

Republicans campaign as though these issues are a feature, not a bug.

“Local control” can be a good thing, but often means exclusionary zoning to prevent too many poor (read: black) families from invading white neighborhoods. “School choice” and vouchers means being able to get white kids out of black schools. Affirmative action is attacked as undemocratic. Antidiscrimination legislation is attacked as bad for small businesses. Bias in law enforcement and courts is dismissed as “coddling criminals.” On and on.

The choice, for black voters, is between Clinton’s half a loaf … and Republicans with no loaf at all.

It’s not about blind loyalty. Do Republicans truly not understand how damaging their political platform is to black people who simply want to have stable families, advance their careers and build wealth? Everything I just described is a real problem. At best, Republican policy recommendations ignore these problems. At worst, they make these problems worse.

Note that nothing I just wrote has one damned thing to do with entitlements, or welfare, or Medicaid. As a practical matter, the diminishment of government handouts isn’t relevant to black voters. Do you know why? Poor black people don’t vote. Those making less than $15,000 a year made up 13 percent of the population in 2008 … but just 6 percent of voters. Roughly a third of that 6 percent is black. Two percent of the electorate overall. One seventh of the black electorate.

Black voters understand this. But the screaming about welfare still looks like a taunt. It’s a message aimed at racist white voters who view the primary purpose of government policy as the real or perceived punishment of black people. “Lots of black people are poor, right? So, vote for me, and I’ll hurt poor people … to get at them.” Given the context of southern conservative messaging, it’s a reasonable conclusion to draw. But Republicans seem to think that they don’t need to address the implied racism of this position — that seeing racism here is the fault of the listener, and why stoop to defend it? So no effort, at all, at all, comes from the Republican Party to address how that looks, which black voters take to mean it’s a deliberate part of the message.

And that’s enough reason for the rest of the black electorate to hear that and say screw those guys.