The 2000 census just released showed that the black and Latino communities are both exploding as a percentage of our nation's population. These statistics are an ominous sign for the Republican Party as George W. Bush received less than a tenth of the black vote and less than a third of the Latino vote.

If these trends in voting continue into the next several decades, the Republican Party will become a permanent minority party. The time is now for the Republicans to break the Democratic stranglehold on the black vote while preventing the Democrats from manipulating the Latino community in the same way they have manipulated blacks for the past half-century.

Republicans should not alter their conservative message of limited government and government reform to appeal to minority voters. The GOP already has issue positions that would greatly benefit these constituencies, but they must be more articulate in their delivery of the message and reach out to these minority voters.

President Bush, as the leader of the Republican Party, is the key to broadening the tent of the party. With Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and many members of the Black Caucus disputing the legitimacy of Bush's victory, President Bush has his work cut out for him in courting minority voters.

Bush and the GOP must first emphasize the importance of the partial privatization of Social Security to the black community. The potential benefits of investing a portion of the substantial payroll tax into a relatively risk-free mutual fund affect blacks more than others in America.

Currently, the rate of return on Social Security for blacks is the lowest of any demographic group. Because the average lifespan for blacks is lower than most other constituencies, they end up paying much more money into the system than they receive from that system.

The Republican plan to revitalize and save the system will allow the money accumulated in retirement accounts to be passed onto heirs. The average black person pays about $320,000 into the current system and receives about $180,000 from the current system. Under the Republican plan, that substantial amount of difference would be passed onto the individual's heirs, a terrific way to provide economic assistance to that family.

For example, a 21-year-old black single mother who makes about $20,000 per year can expect to receive a rate of return from Social Security taxes of only 1.2 percent. By comparison, investing her Social Security retirement taxes in a portfolio of 50 percent government bonds and 50 percent stock index funds would earn almost $383,000 for retirement--or $192,000 more than she can expect to receive from Social Security.

In addition to Social Security reform, the Republican plan for reforming education will produce similar benefits to this community. Under experimental voucher programs (essentially giving people money to send their children to a school of their choice), black students benefited the most. Allowing families the opportunity to choose which schools to send their children to produces competition among schools, which makes them better while providing a way out for children stuck in schools that 'will not change and do not teach.'

Do Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and most other members of the black community support school choice or Social Security reform? Of course not. They have too much power in the Democratic Party to go against the grain. So what instead do these pawns of the Democratic Party emphasize to rile up their audience? First, affirmative action.

Affirmative action based on race sends a damaging message to the black community. As John H. McWhorter, a black linguistics professor at Berkeley states in his book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America that the black students he sees have been taught by affirmative action that blacks have been "so profoundly broken by their history that modern policy must treat them as eternal cripples."

The principle behind affirmative action is fair -- people who come from difficult circumstances should have those circumstances weighed when a decision is made. There should be affirmative action in some respects, but it should not be based upon race. McWhorter asks why affirmative-action advocates "see no problem whatever in the black child of a municipal lawyer and a high-school principal being admitted to Berkeley with lower grades and scores than the white child of an insurance executive and a travel-agency manager?"

Affirmative action based on race needs to be rethought because it's unfair to everyone. Many deserving candidates do not gain acceptance because of unfair quotas. And many minorities are taught by affirmative action that they deserve special treatment, sending them a damaging message of permanent victimology.

Secondly, black Americans are told by the elite in the Democratic Party that Republicans are unsympathetic to them because they oppose hate crimes legislation. The most vicious ad of the 2000 campaign was run by the NAACP, in which the group depicted a truck dragging a chain behind it in an attempt to make the claim that because George Bush didn't support the particular hate crime bill in Texas he killed James Byrd a second time. (Byrd was dragged behind a truck by three disgusting members of society.) The NAACP showed that it would go to any low to manipulate black Americans on a completely bogus issue.

The rhetoric sounds good, though, so they use it. "Those Republicans are at it again. This time opposing hate crimes legislation." What would this legislation do? Is the death penalty not severe enough? All violent crimes must be treated the same; it doesn't make sense for them not to be. The crimes like the one committed against James Byrd are heinous and the most severe punishment will be sought against the accused.

The Democratic Party perpetuates the notion that blacks are victims to gain electoral support without regard for enhancement of quality of life. The Republican Party needs to hammer home issues, like Social Security and education reform that will enhance standard of living. The Democratic Party has taken advantage of this constituency for far too long, and it is time that the GOP to engage blacks and vigorously work towards the ultimate emancipation of black voters from a Democratic stranglehold.