Since the 1960s, the growing Latino community has aligned with the Democratic Party. Among the Spanish-speaking (and Portuguese-speaking) Americans there have been differences. Cubans have leaned to the GOP. Puerto Ricans have associated with Democrats to a greater degree. Mexican have mostly split.
In recent years, there has been a notable shift to the Republican Party. It is an important shift because Latinos comprise 18 percent of the population. They are the largest minority population in America. By way of comparison, blacks represent 13 percent of the population, Asians 6 percent — although the fastest growing with Latinos a close second.
A shift to the GOP would be an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats. It could literally put them out of business as a national party – relegating it to a bi-coastal regional party. Without strong support from the Latin community, Democrats cannot control either chamber of Congress – and their current control is razor slim. Democrats would be incapable of electing a President of the United States. And without a hold on those offices, they have zero chance of restoring a liberal Supreme Court.
Let’s look at the numbers.
President Trump won 32 percent of the Latino vote in 2020. That was the highest percentage for the GOP candidate since President George W. Bush. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows that among the Latino community, President Biden’s approval rating is an anemic 24 percent – even lower than his overall dismal approval rating of between 35 and 39 percent, depending on the poll. That is not a “shift” in sentiment. That is a “hemorrhaging.”
So, why the shift?
Part of the trend is based on the universal non-racial issues. Latinos – as much as most Americans – are concerned about inflation, gas prices, crime and employment. But that is only part of the motivation to switch to the GOP. Latinos are a major group within what the left calls “people-of-color.” And that is the problem.
If you follow the Democrat’s language when talking about people-of-color, they are predominantly talking about Black issues and Black opinions. Democrats treat their people-of-color as a homogeneous group as if there is no distinction in culture, issues, and opinion between Blacks and the other minority groups the left lumps into their arbitrary people-of-color demographic.
The first pushback comes from the fact that most Latinos have never thought of themselves as people-of-color in the traditional Black sense of the term. Other than those who descended from slaves, most Latinos consider themselves as … White.
While the Democrat left tries to package all non-Whites into their people-of-color mishmash, the groups are too distinct to coalesce on command. Latinos are not only different than Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans, they rightly feel that they are left out of the Democrats myopic focus on Black issues. Latinos have no reason to feel they fit in the overarching amalgam of people-of-color – and same with Asians and Native Americans. It is not a hostility, but a general lack of commonality.
The distinctions within the people-of-color designation are more than skin color. There are fundamental cultural differences. Latinos hold more conservative religious values. They ascribe to strong family values. They are more likely to oppose abortion and a lot of the lefts gender fluidity issues. They tend to be small business entrepreneurs.
Latinos are not in favor of open borders as Democrats seem to believe. Those living in the Democratic Party-controlled barrios understand that the drug cartellians and gangbangers who embed in the migrant caravans come to their neighborhoods to ply their criminal trades.
Latinos also live in large numbers along the border – and the overwhelmed border agents are mostly Latino. They see and feel the problem of mass border crossing.
If Democrats believe that the millions of migrants crossing our border will be a future solid block of Democrat voters – as many do seem to believe – they might be badly mistaken if you look at the actual voting trends in the Latino community. Many of the arriving migrants have stronger conservative values than their American counterparts.
There is worse news for Democrats. Even though their losses are worse among Latinos, they are losing ground in both the Black and Asian communities. Not sure what is happening with Native Americans. The pollsters tend to ignore them.
With the nation being so divided on partisan lines, it does not take a lot of shifting – one way or the other – to switch the balance of power. At this point virtually every major ethnic group in America is trending toward the GOP – some a little bit and some quite a bit. But it is another indicator that the Republicans will do very well indeed in the November midterm election – and beyond.
So, there ‘tis.