If you’ve been paying attention to American politics at all, you’ve noticed that the American left demands 100% adherence to all of its sacraments and shibboleths. Any deviation from the approved “Truth” is met with attacks. When Ron DeSantis literally followed the science and squashed the fascistic “lockdowns” and “mask mandates” imposed by some Florida counties and municipalities, he was reviled as “Death Santis.” Joe Rogan’s saga was brought on by questioning the left’s approved narrative on COVID (Joe Rogan Became Target Number One After He Destroyed This CNN Contributor). Comedian Bill Maher has been denigrated as a turncoat because he opposes mainstreaming of Critical Race Theory and other nonsense (What Do Joe Rogan, Bill Maher, Russell Brand Have in Common? Liberals Who Are Sick Of…). Leftist journalist Glenn Greenwald is now described as “rightwing” in media because he defends civil liberties.
The same treatment applies to entire groups. For example, do you really think the nearly genocidal level of fentanyl deaths hitting working-class white communities in fly-over country would be ignored by the Democrats if they didn’t view them as a hostile voting bloc?
In the past year, a lot of angst has been expressed by Democrat activists over a significant drift of Hispanic voters from being a wholly-owned Democrat voting bloc.
Just 46 residents of Starr County, Texas, cast ballots in the state’s Republican primary two years ago. But last week, nearly 1,100 Republicans voted in the sparsely populated county that hugs the Mexican border.
A similar surge in Republican turnout unfolded across South Texas, a longtime Democratic stronghold dominated by Latino voters. In five U.S.-Mexico border counties, nearly 30,000 people voted in the GOP primary, an increase of more than 25% in participation from 2020.
The Texas primary, which ushered in the 2022 midterms, is emerging as an urgent warning for Democrats who are clinging to narrow majorities in Congress. The drift of Latino support toward Republicans that surfaced while former President Donald Trump was in office may prove to be a more enduring political trend that could force Democrats to reassess how they win elections.
Recent polls have indicated the shift may be significant and permanent (see Democrats Shrug and March Full Steam Ahead Toward an Electoral Iceberg and Black and Brown Americans Leaving Democratic Party in Droves…Will It Last?). According to the Wall Street Journal, Hispanic voters now favor Republican over Democrat candidates by nine points. In November, the parties were tied for Hispanic support.
Axios has even more detail.
What’s happening: Democrats saw evidence of this shift in 2020 in House races in south Florida, Texas and southern New Mexico.
- Key factors, operatives say, include skepticism among Hispanic voters about programs they view as handouts. And many Hispanics are social conservatives, with what L.A. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano has called a “rancho libertarianism streak.”
- The national party also needs to do better with messages that distinguish among Americans whose families hailed from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico or Central America, several Democrats tell me.
Our thought bubble: Latinos, especially Mexican Americans, still lean Democratic. But Democrats have been losing ground among these voters in recent elections because the party hasn’t been paying enough attention to them.
- Democrats talk about climate change, but dismiss the fact that many Latinos work in lucrative oilfield jobs in New Mexico and West Texas.
- Democrats talk about diversity. But by pleasing white progressives, they push out moderate Hispanic candidates.
- Democrats target Latinos by talking about immigration. But polls show immigration ranks 5th or 6th among the issues most important to these voters. The economy is usually the top concern.
New Mexico Democratic political consultant Sisto Abeyta said he’s been ringing the alarm bells for months that Democrats in his state were losing Hispanic men: “And everyone has been ignoring me.”
- Republican consultant Mike Madrid, based in Sacramento, told Axios: “As Democrats start to focus more on white, cultural, progressive cultural issues, they’re losing the fastest segment of the non-college-educated population, and that’s Latinos.”
All in all, not a very nice picture. So if you are a Democrat strategist, you have a couple of choices. You can punt on some of your more divisive policy items, like allowing pedophiles to groom elementary school kids during class time and torque the progressive left that constitutes your donor base…or you can demonize Hispanics. Well, you no longer have to hold your breath; the votes are in: The rise of white nationalist Hispanics.
What they’re saying: Experts tell Axios far-right extremism within the Latino community stems from three sources: Hispanic Americans who identify as white; the spread of online misinformation; and lingering anti-Black, antisemitic views among U.S. Latinos that are rarely openly discussed.
- Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University, said in an interview that the trend is “part of the mutation that takes place as the racist fringe tries to become more mainstream.”
- Racism is deeply rooted in Latin American and Caribbean nations, where slavery was common, Tanya K. Hernández, a Fordham University law professor and author of the upcoming book, “Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias,” told Axios. “In Latin America, white supremacy is alive and well.”
- Even families who have been in the U.S. for generations can often bring those biases with them.
Between the lines: The U.S. trend, fueled over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency and the pandemic, extends beyond movement leaders to a broader network of participants, some of whom have faced hate crimes charges.
- Last month, Jose Gomez III, 21, of Midland, Texas, pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of committing a hate crime for attacking an Asian American family, including two children, he believed to be responsible for the pandemic.
- In 2018, Alex Michael Ramos, a Puerto Rican resident of Georgia, was sentenced by a Virginia District Court to six years in prison for his role in a beating of a Black man in Charlottesville, Virginia, following the “Unite the Right” rally.
- Christopher Rey Monzon, a Cuban American man and member of the neo-Confederate group League of the South, was arrested in 2017 for attempting to assault anti-racist protesters in Hollywood, Fla. He later resigned from the group and said he regretted using slurs for Black and Jewish people.
Extremism is a rather universal phenomenon and not indicative of much by itself. What is interesting about this is that we are told the entire Hispanic community is a breeding ground for racism and anti-Semitism that is so pervasive that they aren’t even aware of it.
If racism and anti-Semitism are so endemic among Hispanics, why haven’t we heard of it before?
It is impossible not to link this nonsense to the very real threat that Hispanic voters defecting from the progressive agenda means to the Democrats. Unfortunately, rather than moderate their message or compete for Hispanic votes in an open market, a decision has been made to explain the change in Hispanic voting preference by labeling those voters racists and extremists.