Both Parties Are Begging Latinos For Votes. Do They Deserve Them?

The time has come for Latinos to hold both parties accountable.

Despite a strong campaign launch last month by Kamala Harris, polls continue to show dwindling support for the Democrat Party among Latino voters, Black voters, and working-class voters.

This was evident last week after Kamala Harris drew only 2,000 attendees and raised $70,000 during her “Latino Men For Kamala” Zoom Call. By comparison, Kamala Harris drew 150,000 attendees and raised $4 million from the “White Dudes For Kamala” Zoom call.                           

The contrast in support is hard to ignore. However, it is unsurprising. After all, the perception is the Democrat Party only pops up in Latino communities during election years. Worse, it has spent the past half decade largely catering to out-of-touch elitists, mocking people of faith, and peddling obscure issues like “gender-neutral toy aisles” while flouting voter concerns over housing, crime, and the economy.   

Inauthentic “woke” terminology like “Latinx” and “BIPOC” hasn’t helped. And while this doesn’t necessarily mean those Latinos are becoming Republicans, it does mean the Republican Party has the potential to land the largest share of the Latino vote since W. Bush this November.

In both 2000 and 2004, W. Bush garnered more than 40 percent of the Latino vote with his unique brand of “compassionate conservatism.” Yet as out-of-touch as the Democrat Party has become, the modern Republican Party is hardly the party of the early 2000s. On the contrary, the Republican Party has gained ground despite themselves, not because they have engaged in meaningful outreach.

So what do voters want?

It isn’t complicated. The average voter wants pragmatism. A stable economy, a safe neighborhood, a K-12 school system that prioritizes useful skills to succeed in real life, a reasonable social safety net, equal treatment under the law for everyone regardless of race (not manufactured "equitable" outcomes), and a government that puts its own country before others (less wars, more domestic production, improved infrastructure, etc.).

At least some of these issues are why Trump has been so successful at courting working class voters. In fact, last month Trump appeared to be all but unbeatable before Biden dropped out. Fast forward to this month, and polls now show a statistical toss-up between Trump and Kamala.

That makes Latinos potential tiebreakers in pivotal swing states like Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan. But it also raises the question: Does a broken Democrat Party justify a vote for Trump?

Many Latinos remain on the fence and rightfully so.

Trump, after all, built much of his presidency on racial and cultural division. He launched his presidency on the lie that former President Obama was born in Kenya. And he ultimately discontinued his presidency on the lie that the presidential election was rigged.

A lie, ironically, exposed by Trump’s own failure to introduce substantive evidence into the court of law, ultimately resulting in more than 50 state court losses, and two Supreme Court losses.

Yet while Trump’s more ardent supporters insist his presidency was a success, the truth is it was rife with policy failures, public relations disasters, and national embarrassments—all that are worth remembering, if only to never repeat them.

He increased the size of the federal government by 2 million employees. He spent a record $4 trillion dollars—prior to the coronavirus. He appointed dozens of lobbyists, despite claiming to “drain the swamp.”   

He imposed protectionist policies that resulted in a lumber shortage. He broke up countless families at the border. He pushed for eminent domain along the border, in which the federal government attempted to seize the private property of Americans, so he could attempt to build a medieval wall.

He oversaw a slow federal response to the West Coast fires. He oversaw an abysmal federal response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico. He oversaw a botched and painfully inadequate federal response to the coronavirus, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

He treated Christianity like a cheap backdrop in a strip mall photo booth. He schmoozed with dictators. He operated a private bank account in China, in which he paid $188,000 to the Communist Party of China, while dodging taxes in the United States.

He feuded with allies. He lambasted sports players. He whined about Joy Behar.

Indeed, nothing was below the presidency of Trump. Nothing was too small to blow out of proportion. And no hour was too late to threaten nuclear war on social media with 140 characters.

Yet as nauseating and horrific as Trump’s presidency was, it is also reason to be optimistic.

Despite his repeated attempts to twist the U.S. Constitution to his impulsive whims, the judicial branch reigned him in and did what it was designed to do, which is to provide checks and balances.

If anything, Trump’s rancorous, combative, and directionless presidency is proof of America’s strength and stamina, despite whatever imperfections it may still have. Or, if it isn’t proof of that, it is at least proof that Americans have an uncanny ability to hold their noses through anything.  

With this in mind, the idea that any of that is going to change with the re-election of Trump is political fearmongering. That being said, there are still plenty of reasons to reject Trump, all of which I just listed. But there are also plenty of reasons to reject the Democrat Party.

The question this November will come down to whether Latinos have the courage to hold either or both parties accountable.