By Matt Rooney
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It’s presently impossible to say ANYTHING positive about the Trump Administration in polite company in light of the events of January 6th. That’s unfortunate even if you think Donald Trump deserves zero sympathy for the dark way in which his presidential tenure is ending, Save Jerseyans. Like Nixon before him, America’s 45th president is a deeply flawed man who nevertheless got some big things right. History’s titans are always complicated; the Donald is no exception. Throwing the baby out with the bath water in the weeks and months ahead would be the GOP’s greatest, worst possible error as the party plots its path forward.
One of the things he undeniably got right: talking with, instead of down to, black Americans.
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The popular media narrative at the moment is that black voters destroyed Trump in 2020 and won Georgia for the Democrat Party (in November and again in January). That’s a half-truth. While black voters in blue strongholds did turn out in high raw numbers, the available evidence suggests Trump actually improved on his 2016 performance with black voters and particularly black men. According to NBC News’s exit polling, President Trump won 12% of the black vote in 2020. That’s the strongest GOP presidential nominee’s performance with black voters since Bob Dole way back in 1996. Polling picked some of this up, too, during the actual campaign, so it’s safe to say these numbers can’t be attributed to the unreliability of exit polling.
How did he pull it off?
There’s been some speculation on this point and it’s all over the board; some on the Left (with no self-awareness of how horrible and racist this sounds) chalked it up to the Donald’s “toxic masculinity.”
I think the proximate cause is pretty simple. After years of being unfairly accused of being the party of racism by the Democrats and their media allies, GOP candidates are all-too-often terrified to engage directly with the black community. They speak of issues impacting black Americans in abstract, lifeless, cautious tones. You can smell their fear. They’re terrified of what white liberals will say about them, the same liberals who (uncoincidentally) are expanding their suburban reach and are therefore the real reason Trump lost states like Pennsylvania and Arizona in 2020. Black voters instinctively sense the establishment GOP politicians’ discomfort and balk.
Trump’s famous arrogance and bravado was actually an asset on this front.
He might care very much behind closed doors what people say about him, but in public? When he’s in go mode? The Donald is shameless. Why wouldn’t black people like me? You can almost hear him saying it to his aides or one of his children.
His confidence enabled the Donald to make the arguments Republicans are often too scared to make. He used plan language to blast Democrat stewardship of rotting urban centers like Baltimore. He refused to apologize or back down when Democrats accused him of being what they always accuse Republicans. He asked black Democrats, directly, what the Democrat Party had done for them to improve their access to the American Dream? The Democrat record is clear and horrendous, and the recently-departed black economist Thomas Sowell put it best: “If we wanted to be serious about evidence, we might compare where blacks stood a hundred years after the end of slavery with where they stood after 30 years of the liberal welfare state. In other words, we could compare hard evidence on ‘the legacy of slavery’ with hard evidence on the legacy of liberals.”
To the Democrats’ horror, Trump’s efforts to make inroads (backed up by dollars aimed at urban radio stations) paid off. 12% isn’t much, but it’s a significant step in the right direction.
Now we’re once again commemorating MLK Day and we’re mere hours away from Joe Biden’s inauguration. Democrats will soon enjoy complete control of the elected branches of the federal government albeit by razor-thin margins in both houses of Congress. This is the perfect time for Republicans to quit fighting each other, find their backbones, and make a strong play to earn 20% or better of the back vote in 2024. Trump showed them how to turn things around. It’s a simple question of will power at this point.
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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County).
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