There is no point in Republicans trying to placate people like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or the current leaders of the NAACP. That would just muddy up the message and forfeit credibility.
The Democrats' fundamental problem is that they have no new ideas with widespread appeal. But they don't have to, so long as they have huge automatic majorities among particular sets of voters, such as minorities, environmentalists, public sector unions and the countercultural left.
Minority voters should be the ones most readily detached from that Democratic coalition -- not all at once, but enough to make a difference. That is because they personally suffer the consequences of counterproductive liberal policies in failing schools, violent crime and housing prices that skyrocket in the wake of severe land use restrictions.
An economic study in the fall issue of Regulation magazine makes clear that land use restrictions are the key factor in runaway housing prices. The key factor behind these restrictions is the environmental cultists among the Democrats.
Limousine liberals can insulate themselves from the bad consequences of liberal policies, but most minority group members cannot. Blacks and Hispanics cannot simply pay private school tuition to get their children out of bad public schools, or pay the costs of living in gated communities to escape crime, or buy homes on five-acre lots, as some land use regulations require.
Whatever the issue, Republicans have more to gain as Republicans than as imitation Democrats. And, given their currently very low support among minority voters, they have less to lose by trying a new approach.