What Conservatism Has to Offer Black Americans

Conservatives in 2009 should be sufficiently confident in their ideas to believe they can appeal to people of all races and creeds. The challenge of reaching out to black Americans was firmly and directly faced by Ronald Reagan nearly 30 years ago and by every Republican president since him. While there is little to show in election results for all this effort, most conservatives realize this is the result of factors other than the content of their ideas.

So it is disappointing to read Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution where he writes about race and civil rights, arguing that conservatism has little to offer black Americans. In a recent Wall Street Journal piece, he wrote, “In an era when even failed moral activism is redemptive--and thus a source of moral authority and power--conservatism stands flat-footed with only discipline to offer.”

Because liberals treat black Americans as a means to their own end (redemption), blacks are denied a true identity and are only begrudgingly given any say or control over their destiny, Steele contends. The result has been a long train of failed social programs aimed at doing things for and to the black community that have damaged black institutions, such as the family, and left the community poor and fragmented.

Conservatism, “with its beautiful idea of a free man in a free society,” Steele writes, offers no way for whites to redeem themselves, “no way to show deference to minorities for the oppression they endured. Thus it seems to be in league with that oppression.”

This is where Steele ends his analysis, but it is far from the end of the story. Conservatism is a robust philosophy of life that played a major role in black history and still does in the black community today, and it is the source of policy prescriptions just as bold and as easily sold in the black community as were the programs of the Great Society in the 1960s or of the Congressional Black Caucus today.

Conservative Themes

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) is the foremost exemplar of the black conservative vision. He rose from slavery to become one of the most famous and respected men of his time. He is known best for founding Tuskegee University and for his lifelong advocacy of quality education for blacks of all ages.

Washington’s philosophy had three important themes: education, self-reliance, and entrepreneurship. Economic success, he both demonstrated and taught, is the surest path to social and political success.

Millions of black Americans have used the three rungs of education, self-reliance, and entrepreneurship to climb the ladder of success. Opinion polls show they are more conservative than whites on several issues.

Nevertheless, self-acknowledged “black conservatives” are rarely seen or heard in public debates. One reason is obvious: Conservatism in the black community is widely associated with white racism. Liberals, both black and white, work to create that perception in countless ways. Some white conservatives do the same. The perception, largely left unchallenged, is widely accepted as reality.

Conservative thinkers and think tanks practically overflow with ideas to improve education, reward self-reliance, and boost entrepreneurship, while the liberal cupboards are bare. School choice, core curriculum, vocational education, economic education, saving and investing for the future, respect for entrepreneurs and success in the business world, faith-based initiatives--these are all ideas that resonate in the black community, and they come from conservatives and libertarians, not liberals.

Conservative Policies

Similarly, blacks benefit from conservative policies. Tax cuts make a bigger difference to low-income families, entrepreneurs, and small investors than to the rich and secure. Deregulation lets small companies and people with new ideas compete with big corporations. Privatization of Social Security would be a boon for blacks, who often die before they become eligible for its benefits.

Nearly all the benefits of programs that expand school choice, such as vouchers and tax credits, go to black Americans and other minorities. White families can afford to move to districts with better schools (most already have) or send their children to private schools.

Welfare reform, too, benefits primarily the black community by rewarding work and self-reliance and discouraging dependency. But how often do we see the black beneficiaries of conservative policies labeled this way in the news?

As Booker T. Washington noted, education, self-reliance, and entrepreneurship are the only real solution for both individuals and groups, and people of all races tend to understand that. Hence it is certainly reasonable for conservatives to argue, as Washington did, that the best outcome for black Americans will come not from forced transfers of resources from other people but instead from full participation as free people in a free society, to paraphrase Steele’s apt image.

A Matter of Trust

Simply making that argument, however, is not enough. Steele is correct to note that although the logic of freedom makes sense for all, it is exceedingly difficult for many black Americans to trust people who seem reluctant to acknowledge mistakes of the past. The answer is for conservatives to recognize and emphasize the right’s positive record of reform in this area and to repudiate past efforts to stand in the way of positive change.

For example, conservatives would do well to remind the public that it was Southern Democrats who worked feverishly to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that the bill was saved by the efforts of Republican Senators such as Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Thomas Kuchel of California. Southern Democrats voted 20-1 against the bill, while Northern Republicans supported it by a resounding 27-5 majority. Even Barry Goldwater, who notoriously voted against the bill, opposed only one part of it (strictures against private businesses engaging in interstate commerce) and had supported earlier civil rights bills in 1957 and 1960.

Similarly, as economists including Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have noted, conservative , free-market economic policies have shown the best results for people of all backgrounds. Both writers have extensively outlined the liberal policies that have harmed blacks, such as job-killing high taxes and minimum wage laws, skyrocketing housing prices caused by restrictions on building, softness toward criminals that has victimized blacks more than any other group and destroyed neighborhood economies, and above all, the Democratic Party’s captivity to teachers unions and consequent opposition to school choice, which dooms black children to inferior education and locks them out of good jobs.

Sowell astutely cites the GOP’s attempts “to appeal to blacks by offering the same kinds of things that Democrats offer--token honors, politically correct rhetoric and welfare state benefits. Blacks who want those things know that they can already get them from the Democrats.” The result: “The Republican strategy for making inroads into the black vote has failed consistently for more than a quarter of a century.”

The Truth Will Prevail

Instead, Sowell argues, “A sober presentation of the facts [will give] Republicans their best shot at a larger share of the votes of blacks. There is plenty to talk straight about, including all the things that the Democrats are committed to that work to the disadvantage of blacks.” And on the positive side, making the case for political and economic freedom and showing how conservatives have supported them over the years--not perfectly by any means, but much more consciously and consistently than the opposition--are the ways to reach black Americans who see through the platitudes and false promises of the Left.

As Sowell noted, “The truth is something that can attract people’s attention, if only for its novelty in politics.” Thus the way for conservatives “to show deference to minorities for the oppression they endured” is to acknowledge those past national shortcomings openly and outline a positive agenda that will draw black Americans up the ladder of success more quickly.

In addition to being true, such an agenda would connect respect for the past with an optimistic vision for the future--exactly what the most successful conservatives have always done.

Lee H. Walker is a senior fellow for The Heartland Institute and author of Rediscovering Black Conservatism (Chicago: The Heartland Institute, 2009). Joseph Bast is president of The Heartland Institute.