But the last thing Bush should do in response is cave and endorse the soft bigotry of affirmative action. He's taken the right first step with his appointments. The next important areas are criminal justice and education. If Bush could link an end to racial profiling in the police force with an end to the racial profiling of affirmative action, he'd have a lot more credibility across the color line. For a kicker, he should take on the civil rights establishment and push school vouchers for deprived inner-city kids in failing schools.
More fertile ground exists elsewhere.
Bush's best bet is with Latinos, Asians, and homosexuals. All these groups, unlike blacks and Jews, contain large segments that lean Republican. Each group comprises a fledgling array of thinkers and writers prepared to buck the groupthink of the left. With each of these groups, Bush has to go over the heads of a political leadership largely in cahoots with the Democratic Party's spoils system and appeal directly to voters. There's a bridgehead already.