Forty years after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, we have become a stronger union. Still, one still must ask: how can the black the vote can be best employed now? A good place to start would be to stop ghettoizing the black vote within the Democratic Party and begin building strong coalitions with Republicans around shared values. The problem is that the black vote has signed a loyalty oath to the Democratic party. At least one result is that the Democrats can take their vote for granted. Conversely, the Republicans may chalk the black vote up to a lost cause, and chose to focus their outreach elsewhere. In short, by voting as a block for the Democrats, the black populace has given away the bartering power that comes with their vote, and made themselves the easiest group for both parties to take for granted.

This is at least somewhat surprising given that blacks traditionally poll conservative. Furthermore, the Republican party is ripe for outreach. The burgeoning class of moderate Republicans, including fiscal conservatives like former New Jersey Governor and EPA commissioner Christine Todd Whitman, and former New York Mayor Rudy Guliani are searching for allies.  They would most likely welcome participation by blacks who could join them on the basis of shared economic and social values, such as the environment and lower taxes, plus an emphasis on small business and entrepreneurship.  That alliance could also resist the push of the moral majority to go overboard in repealing civil liberties. The above-mentioned is just one of many possible scenarios for regaining the respect of the black vote in American politics. 

The right to vote will continue to wither in influence if it is just given away to the Democrats. It will simply be taken for granted if politicians know that all they have to do is play the race card to get blacks to the polls.  Blacks will be derided as Pavlovian dogs in back-room meetings.  The savior from this degradation is independent intellectual and political thinking.  That will win both self-respect and the respect of others.