One issue on which the Republicans hold all the high cards, both morally and politically, is school choice. The Democratic Party is far too beholden to the teachers' unions to permit black parents to take their children out of disastrous public schools.

Polls have for years shown the black population to be the strongest supporters of vouchers, even though black and white Democrats alike have fought bitterly against the idea.

Recently, however, a few blacks in politics -- notably the mayor of Washington -- have decided that it is more important to save the future for the next generation of black children than to preserve the public school monopoly for the greater glory of the teachers' unions. Here is a golden opportunity for the Republicans to go after a segment of the black vote by being Republicans, not imitation Democrats.

Crime is another issue where the Republican position can find resonance in the black community which, after all, suffers more from crime than anyone else. There have been years when more blacks than whites were murdered -- in absolute numbers. But here, again, there is no point going after the liberal-left portion of the black vote, even if that is the largest portion.

The black voters whom the Republicans have a chance of winning over are those who are tired of seeing criminals turned loose by liberal judges and tired of seeing criminals armed to the teeth while "gun control" laws only prevent law-abiding citizens from being armed in their homes, as a deterrent to criminals.

Republicans need a small base of black voters on which to begin building a larger constituency later on. But Republicans cannot begin to create that base on the left side of the political spectrum with such things as a slave memorial.