Most folks would agree that Democrats play the race card a lot. They create a stark difference between themselves and the Republicans – basically creating a straw man argument. To make themselves look good, Democrats must distract from the issues — and then dishonestly demean and malign Republicans.
Democrats have arbitrarily created a homogenous class of “people-of-color” as the victims of Republican racism. Of course, there is no such demographic group as “people-of-color”. Search as hard as I may, I cannot find a “people-of-color” restaurant. I do not know their religious affiliation … the customs … their culture.
And calling them victims may be a stretch. Indian people-of-color is the highest income group in America – topping Whites. Other Asians – Chinese, Japanese, etc. – also do quite well.
And that is the Democrats’ first mistake. For purely political purposes, they are lumping together folks with very different backgrounds, traits, customs, and cultures. And food. (🡨That is always important to me.)
It is no small irony that the Party that proffers the importance of “identity” is the same Party that obliterates it. In the progressive world of Democrat philosophy, you cannot be Puerto Rican or Mexican. You must be Hispanic or Latino – or in their case the ridiculous people-of-color. You cannot be Chinese, Japanese, or Vietnamese. You are Asian – and just another subgroup of people-of-color. You cannot be Egyptian, Ethiopian, Ghanian, Jamaican (like my daughter), or Haitian. You are a person-of-color. Ironically, you cannot even be German, Italian, or Polish. And you cannot be people-of-color. Folks like me are simply “White.”
And the last thing the left will allow you to be is … American. The left does not believe in assimilation. Assimilation makes it harder – virtually impossible – to pit groups against one another for political advantage. Through assimilation, we retain – to some degree – our historic antecedents as we evolve into the common culture. That is the last thing the left wants to see happen – a common culture.
The far-left Democrats (pardon the repetition) and their media cronies see the political world as a conflict between Whites and people-of-color – except for the Whites who control the Democratic Party, the social media platforms (minus one, thanks to Elon Musk) and the major news industry. According to Democrat orthodoxy, the only Whites who are not racist as those who rule over people-of-color like plantation overlords.
So, Democrats give us a world in which White progressives are the caretakers of people-of-color against White Republicans who are oppressors of people-of-color. But there is a flaw in their strategy.
Not all people-of-color are Democrats – or liberals. In fact, not all those Democrats designate people-of-color are people-of-color. Many are White. Most Hispanics think of themselves as White. AND … there are a lot of Black Republicans, Hispanic Republicans, Asian Republicans and Native American Republicans. During the Trump years, the GOP enjoyed a seven percent gain among Asians. Despite the best efforts of the Democrats and the leftwing media to paint all Republicans as outrageous racists, more and more people-of-color are switching to the GOP.
We see the evidence of that in recent elections. President Trump – who the left sees as the poster child of racism – actually garnered more Black and Hispanic votes than did such establishment Republicans as George Romney. There are more Republican minority officeholders and candidates than ever. Recent polls are picking up on a significant shift to the Republican Party among Hispanics – and they are the second largest ethnic group in America.
So, why are Democrats losing minority voters?
The most obvious answer is that all those Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans are not monolithic even within their demographic designation – and too diverse to be lumped into the left’s people-of-color blandness. In short, the various minority groups are not believing the Democrats’ propaganda. Many do not like being stripped of their ethnic identities and cultures only to be homogenized into an artificial, meaningless and featureless people of people category.
It is also the issues. Democrats assume that all their people-of-color agree with the leftwing agenda. The left assume that Hispanics want open borders because most illegal border-crossers are Hispanic. The fact that the gangbangers and drug cartellians are setting up shop in Hispanic neighborhoods – and committing their crimes against fellow Hispanics– does not compute with Democrats.
Democrats push for defunding the police – a policy of White liberals and black elitists. The folks in the ‘hood are asking for more police protection. Minorites are among the strongest supporters of Second Amendment gun rights as a means of self-protection. The want better schools and school choice.
In addition, the minority population is realizing that Democrats have been all talk with few deliverables. The segregation of Black and Hispanic minorities continues – as do the oppressive conditions in those Democrat-created and maintained ghettos.
Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans have come to realized that for all practical purposes, the left’s people-of-color grouping focuses largely on Blacks even though Hispanics are almost twice the population of Blacks. Inclusion of the other groups is merely an attempt to pad the anti-conservative, anti-Republican narrative. It is a smoke-and-mirrors strategy.
Democrats are likely to keep losing the minorities because they do not understand the dynamic. The Democrat White establishment – in partnership with an elitist Black class that profits from race baiting – are losing credibility on a wide range of public policy issues –and especially the claims of serving the interests of average Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.
The cause of greater minority support for Republicans can be fairly debated. But the fact that the shift is to the GOP at this moment seems indisputable. We will have to see how this plays out in the 2022 midterm elections.
So, there ‘tis.