And they should have campaigned against race preferences. It could hardly have inflamed blacks against Republicans any more than the Democrats did. And any substantial political realignment of blacks will in any case have to follow the destruction of the corrupt networks of racial patronage that keep today's black political elite in power. All the evidence of the last five years suggests that the conservative coalition cannot expand much within the bounds of the existing electorate. The Christian conservative movement has stopped growing.
Libertarian conservatives are thin on the ground.
The Democrats are not content with the existing electorate. That's why Clinton and Gore have sped up immigrant naturalization at election time. Unlimited immigration is expanding the Democratic constituency for big government and multiculturalism. Since the beginning of the Republican party, voting for it has been a mark of assimilation to the national culture. Republicans can change the electorate, too, in more salutary ways.