How is it that the Party of Lincoln — which fought the bloodiest war in U.S. history to end slavery, passed the first Civil Rights Act for blacks (in 1866), and gave the margin of victory for the second one (in 1964) — today can’t get one black vote in 10?

According to National Review’s Kevin Williamson, there are basically two reasons. First, because Republicans have not yet understood what blacks perceive to be their own self-interests. Second, because the GOP is allegedly the “partisan home of old-fashioned white racism and our newfangled white-grievance politics.”

As for the latter, the claim of widespread Republican racism is demonstrably false, yet still widely believed, thanks to the Democrats’ brilliant execution of the “Big Lie” technique advanced by the Nazis. Of the Big Lie, we’ve all heard the quote attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Reich Minister of Propaganda: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Even if he is unlikely to have actually said such a thing, it does convey the technique accurately.

One has only to attend a Republican National Convention, or even a local party meeting, to see that blacks (and all minorities) are welcomed with open arms. They are instant celebrities. White Republicans are well aware of how successful Democrats have been at painting them as virulent racists, and they welcome the opportunity to prove the claim untrue.

This would explain why progressive Democrats save their most vicious, hateful, relentless attacks for minorities who question the Democrat narrative and who preach conservative principles as the foundation for peace and prosperity.

As for the former, Williamson says blacks “do not share Republicans’ traditional confidence in free enterprise as a force for social good, their (vanishing) preference for market-based solutions, or their (considerably diminished) hostility toward reflexive statism.”

On that point, what is the answer? To adopt the Democrats’ Big Government, cradle-to-grave, nanny-state philosophy? Will that improve the lives of black Americans?

Williamson correctly notes that the switch of black voters to the Democrat Party was complete by 1946, the last time Republican congressional candidates won the majority of the black vote. Black voters last chose a Republican presidential candidate in 1932, with Herbert Hoover. In 1936, with blacks disproportionately suffering under the nation’s high unemployment rate, FDR’s New Deal, with its lavish spending and make-work programs, offered blacks a (false) sense of relief.

But that temporary relief came with a steep price. Bolstered by the monolithic black vote, Democrats have since passed major welfare programs that effectively destroyed the black family.

Today, every major city where blacks are suffering most from unwed pregnancies, fatherless homes, high murder and violent-crime rates, crushing poverty, and failing public schools are controlled by Democrats. Democrats reflexively blame Republican racism, but when they have controlled these cities for half a century or more, the accusation is glaringly false.

Yet thanks to the incestuous relationship between the Democrat Party and the media, which parrots leftist talking points as the gospel truth, and a public school system that teaches America is a racist nation where blacks can’t succeed without the benevolence of woke white liberals, is it really any surprise that many black Americans still believe the lies?

So, will the “Trump/Republicans are racist” narrative undermine the GOP’s chances in November?

Or will black voters look at President Donald Trump’s record — lowest black unemployment rate in history, black median family income up thousands of dollars, record-high funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and criminal justice reform — and decide that, though he often shoots himself in the foot by speaking carelessly on matters of race, his record on improving the lives of black Americans makes him and his party worthy of their votes?

The Democrats’ Big Government programs have kept millions of blacks mired in poverty for generations. Democrat opposition to school choice keeps poor black children uneducated and trapped in slums, with many turning to a life of crime. Democrats fund Planned Parenthood when abortion takes the lives of 250,000 black babies every year.

It is inarguable that Republicans have yet to find a way to get their message to resonate with the black community, but that doesn’t mean the message is wrong or should be abandoned. Conservative, limited-government, free-market principles are colorblind. Adherence to those principles inevitably leads to stronger families, better education, financial prosperity, less crime, and societal peace. (For the last two reasons, some 80% of blacks even support police.)

Williamson is correct that Democrats picked Kamala Harris not to bolster the black vote (they certainly didn’t vote for her in the primaries) but to help secure the affluent, college-educated white vote and the youth vote, especially women, who buy into the “woke” mentality.

Republicans will never get fair treatment by the media, so rather than constantly whining “we’re not racist!” they’d do better to hammer home those conservative principles that are the foundation of the American Dream — a dream that is in reach of every American, regardless of race.

Democrat-run cities are literally burning, murder rates are skyrocketing (the victims predominantly black), and rioters and looters are destroying black-owned businesses, while Democrats call for defunding the police.

The time is ripe for black voters to hear the Republican message.