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Why Latinos stumped for Trump He represents an anti-communist, work-hard-play-hard America

She's a fan. (Credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

She's a fan. (Credit: David McNew/Getty Images)


November 4, 2020   3 mins

The state of Florida went Republican last night because of President Trump’s massive gains in Miami-Dade County — typically a Democratic stronghold. It was, most likely, the Cuban-American vote that swung it. The county still went for Biden, but the margin was so slim — especially when compared to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance — that Democrats, and pleasantly surprised Republicans, have been shaking their heads and asking the question: how did Trump, the beacon of the white working class, perform so well with Cuban-Americans?

The short of it is that Cuban-Americans, staunch Republicans due to the GOP’s anti-communism rhetoric, were always going to break for Trump. But the massive gains signal the birth of a broader political realignment, which aims to transform the Republican Party from a white working class party to a multicultural working class party. The coming days will show that it wasn’t merely Cuban-Americans who strongly favored the President in Miami-Dade, but also Venezuelans and Nicaraguans and other Latinos previously considered unattainable by Republican think-tankers. To put it simply, the President, to the dismay of Democrats who’ve labelled him xenophobic and racist for years, built a formidable Latino coalition.

The driving force behind this realignment is the fact that the blue-collar sensibilities that drive the white working class also animate Cuban-Americans and other Latinos. Many Latinos, and especially Cuban-Americans, are ferociously patriotic and have a deep love for America, a country that grants them the ultimate immigrant dream: if you work hard, you get to play hard. The month leading up to the election has been one big party in Miami, with caravans, concerts, and massive boat parades. If you’ve been to one of these raucous events like I have, you realise that they have an all-American good-times NASCAR vibe to them. You might hear more Spanish than English and run into various salsa dancers, but there’s an unmistakable American energy to these get-togethers — it’s all freedom and fun and unironic Americanism.

Democrats, so often embarrassed by America’s more “uncouth” elements, are no doubt mystified by this jovial Latino Americanism, because they fail to see what is most obvious: Latinos see themselves not as Latinx, or even Latino, but as Americans.

Democrats increasingly miss the obvious due to their commitment to wokeness, an ideology that will never be popular with proud working-class Latinos. The elite media class and woke Democrats have somehow convinced themselves that in order to ingratiate themselves with Latinos they must talk down to them and act as white saviours to these poor “people of colour.” This is repellant to Latinos, but especially to Latino men, who are traditionally masculine and will never accept the victim label the woke love to thrust upon chosen minorities.

Post-election numbers will show that Latino men went for Trump in massive numbers — and not just in Miami-Dade — as the touchy feely, feminised wokeness of the Democratic Party is the antithesis of the machismo found in Latino male spaces. The Cuban-American UFC fighter and Miami resident Jorge Masvidal, who recently stumped for Trump, is a prime example of the type of guy drawn to the President’s bravado. There are many others out there like him. Masvidal, who is certainly rough around the edges and a certifiable badass, would make the Democrats cringe with his “problematic” tastes and beliefs; but he represents the young, urban Latino male — unlike the effete and focus-grouped Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Democratic Party favourite.

Which brings us to that lovely word so beloved amongst the young, hyper-woke consultants that so often set the tone for the Democratic Party: Latinx. I’m not saying that the usage of Latinx has led to the Latino realignment, but the commitment to a word that is incredibly unpopular to the group that it is supposed to signify, says it all and speaks to a greater Democratic failure: woke Democrats believe that merely assigning a group a label grants them dominion over said group.

Latinos, many of whom left countries that sought to impose their will on them, will resist this dominion at all costs. This should be common sense, but as the Democratic Party increasingly focuses on the fringe beliefs of woke elites, the failure to see the obvious will only increase. The “socialism is coming” angle of Trump’s Latino outreach, for instance, was considered fear-mongering by the Democrats, but it never occurred to them that this would be an extremely potent message to Cuban-Americans and other Latinos that had escaped repressive regimes and who actually fear socialism; instead of allaying the fears, they criticised the messaging.

It should go without saying but let me spell it out to the Democratic Party: Latinos come to America because they want to live in America, which means that they want to be Americans. They don’t want to be Latinx or “people of color” or token trinkets without agency. It’s right there in the name after all: Cuban-AMERICANAmerican. If you look, instead of label, you just might see it.


Alex Perez is a Cuban-American writer based in Miami, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Perez_Writes

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Rafael Aguilo
Rafael Aguilo
3 years ago

Let the woke Democrats keep their labeling ideas to themselves. I moved from P.R. to the mainland in 1982 and have NEVER looked back. Now at 69, I have lived most of my life here. I feel more AMERICAN than way too many local born ones. In a nut shell: Too many “Americans” don’t KNOW, UNDERSTAND, or even APPRECIATE what they have. My barber, who happens to be a Russian immigrant, and has his own business, was mystified as to why people here were even considering Socialism. He summed it all up: “People who believe in Socialism are stupid. The BEST thing this country has is OPPORTUNITY.” It will be a very cold day in hell before I listen to the siren song of Socialism. And, just like you, I’m NOT a “LatinX”. I’m a Puerto Rican born AMERICAN. Did i “forget” to mention I’m still a registered Democrat (life long, by the way).

croftyass
croftyass
3 years ago
Reply to  Rafael Aguilo

and if they ever manage to get socialism they will (literally) shit themselves -their knowledge is all derived from what they have read and been told-the cold reality is somewhat different.

mike otter
mike otter
3 years ago

Spanish speaking Americans are getting wise to the Democrats inverted racism and their vote will grow as their population increases. African-origin Americans also wising up, perhaps more slowly. Long term the dems can only win if they trash the economy and impoverish those trapped on their planatations. Trump has shown those on the plantation they don’t have to take it any more. If Trump can persuade the courts to strike out the voter frauds in Michigan and Pennsylvania there is a genuine chance the USA will make strides towards equality of class and race that we have not seen since FDR in the 1930s.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

This was no surprise to those of us who have been following the #WalkAwayFromTheDemocrats campaign, Blexit (Black Exit From The Democrat Party) and various other trends and podcasters etc. And I congratulate all those who have seem through the Dems. Like the Labour Party here in the UK, they are the party of the woke, white, urban elites i.e. the worst of the worst.

Sadly, I fear that all the work of Candace Owens, Officer Tatum, Larry Elder, Anthony Logan Brown, Bevelyn Beatty and so many others was not enough this time. Apparently Beveyln Beatty, a black Trump supporter whose podcasts I sometime watch, was stabbed last night by Trump-haters who were probably white.

But if they can get the right candidate, I’m sure they can do it next time.

Brian Dorsley
Brian Dorsley
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Sad to hear about Bevelyn Beatty. I expect there will soon be a #blacklivesmatter protest in her honor.

M Spahn
M Spahn
3 years ago

Democrats increasingly miss the obvious due to their commitment to wokeness

The racial dimension of wokeness is simple. The Dem elite have convinced themselves that a small group of culturally elite Wokehadi Blacks speaks on behalf of everyone who isn’t white. This could not be further from the truth. It is not even close to true just in the Black community. But the Wokehadi bubble is small and airtight, getting more so every day, and the delusions just get deeper and deeper.

The recent neologism BIPOC illustrates this well. Simple POC was suddenly found inadequate. Even though it obviously included Bs already, the Bs needed everyone to know they were driving that bus. (The Is are there as a token gesture, they are all off in North Dakota so lip service for them is cheap.) The only ones left in the POC banner, unworthy of special mention, are Latinos and Asians. They are already under ideological notice by the Wokehadis.

Roger Inkpen
Roger Inkpen
3 years ago

Hilarious. I’ve not come across this term Latinx before. I’ve just googled and seems it was made necessary because – as with most European languages – if you refer to the group as Latino it can refer to men and/or men and women, but for just women it’s Latina.

Is their a politically correct way to pronounce Latinx? I’m aware there is a gender neutral term for men or women – or those who identify as gender neutral, or those who identify as neither, etc, etc – Mx. I think this is pronounced M-X. So maybe Latin-X is similar?

Andrew D
Andrew D
3 years ago

Sorry to labour this point, made slightly differently on another thread today, but many Latinos are Catholic, and don’t like the Democrats’ support for late-term abortion

theocracy4all
theocracy4all
3 years ago

Social conservatives would stump for Trump.

leigh.sue
leigh.sue
3 years ago

Well you got that completely wrong. Latinos in Florida are more conservative and didn’t vote for Biden but it was the Latinos in other states who voted in massive numbers and got him over the line. Plus Afric Americans but white Americans and disappointingly women went for Trump