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AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE GOP

Phillip Aaron left the Democratic Party nearly seven years ago to join the Republicans.

The African-American attorney from Seattle, who once worked for Jesse Jackson, said he had tired of the Democratic Party, he had tired of black leadership rhetoric that led nowhere, and he had become angry that Democrats took black support for granted.

”My philosophy is: If it doesn`t work, I`m against it,” said Aaron, now general counsel for the National Black Republican Council.

”They`ve created this victim mentality that means we have to go back to the leaders for survival. Well, that hasn`t worked, and there are other black folks saying the same thing.”

The Republicans, some black GOP members said, offer a party that mirrors their own philosophy of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, of promoting self-help, gaining home ownership and developing local businesses.

”I`m a Republican simply because the Democrats are hoodwinkers,” said Catherine Van Noy, a 30-year Republican and a delegate from Long Island, N.Y. ”The Republican philosophy is: If you are interested in helping yourself, let us help you. Democrats say: Here`s $100 for the week. Now sit over there in the corner and be quiet.”

When Republicans gathered this week in Houston for their party`s presidential nominating convention, blacks represented 4.8 percent of the delegates and alternates, the largest share since 1912 when it was 6 percent, according to a study issued by the Joint Center for Political Action.

By comparison, nearly 18 percent of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in New York last month were black.

Blacks are not strangers to the Republican Party. When Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, freed the slaves and called for equal protection under the law and suffrage for blacks, African-Americans represented a sizable core of the party.

In the last 50 years, however, as the civil rights movement began to gain momentum, black voters crossed over to the Democratic Party.

Many African-American voters feel the GOP, which also must placate its right-wing members, is making only half-hearted attempts, at best, to appeal to blacks and other minorities.

When conservative newspaper columnist Pat Buchanan spoke Monday night at the convention, criticizing gays and lesbians for their lifestyles and calling for Republicans to take back the country and their culture, his comments fell flat for some black Republicans.

”I think Pat Buchanan is representative of the white male ethnic view that feels like they are losing ground,” said Bryan Anderson, a Connecticut delegate and 18-year Republican.

One of the toughest battles, say some black Republicans, is educating fellow party members and members of their own communities about one another, since each group holds misconceptions about the other.

”Most blacks don`t see the conservative label as the most appropriate one. We are liberal, moderate and conservative. We have to do a better job of marketing both our diversity and the party`s,” Anderson said.