When blacks gave 80 percent of their vote to the Democratic Party in 1964, black activist Malcolm X called them “political chumps.”

White voters, X said, “are so evenly divided that every time they vote, the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. Which means that any bloc, any minority that has a bloc that sticks together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it.”