The New York Times seems determined to demonstrate to America just how disconnected their newsroom is from the lives of regular citizens, especially those of the working classes. To this point, the “newspaper of record” just published a culturally and politically-aloof column titled A Vexing Question for Democrats: What Drives Latino Men to Republicans?
Predictably, pseudo-reporter Jennifer Medina provided several illogical bromides to explain the affinity of Hispanic men for the America First agenda.
Here’s the reality: unlike the neutered males of the credentialed ruling class, Hispanic men still largely embrace traditional roles as providers and guardians. Therefore, Hispanic men increasingly rally to the America First movement broadly, and Trump particularly, because of prosperity, protection, and pomp.
Prosperity.
Hispanics embraced the incredible new economic vitality of the Trump boom, especially the blue-collar expansion that dominated the first three years of Trump’s presidency before the CCP Virus crashed the global economy. In the history of Labor Department records, there have been 28 total months with a Latino jobless rate under 5 percent, and a stunning 27 of those 28 months were under the leadership of President Trump. The lone exception was in 2006 under President George W. Bush during the Housing Boom. Plus, the pay for these jobs soared as well. In 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, Hispanic wages vaulted a stunning 7.1 percent higher for the year, also an all-time record. This new prosperity lifted 1 million Hispanic children out of poverty in America.
Given these tangible, kitchen-table results, no wonder so many Hispanics, and especially Hispanic men, coalesced around the Trump agenda. According to CBS News exit polling, 87 percent of Hispanics who named the economy as their top issue voted to re-elect President Trump. Such confidence flowed not just from the pre-pandemic economic successes for Hispanics, but also from the amazing V-shaped Trump recovery after the lockdown lows of last spring. For example, sales of pickup trucks hit a fresh all-time high in January of 2021 as Trump completed his term, at a rate of 12.92 million trucks annualized. Surging pickup trucks reflect renewed prospects for Hispanic men, who are over-represented in the trades that often utilize such vehicles.
Protection.
Hispanic men overwhelmingly clamor to law-and-order principles, both within America and at our border. Contrary to the fantasies espoused by the NY Times, far too many Hispanics citizens know the reality of the summer 2020 violence perpetrated by leftist agitators including Antifa and extreme elements of the BLM movement. Accordingly, fully 83 percent of Hispanics reported to Gallup last August that police presence in their neighborhoods should either sustain or increase. In addition, during the height of the national 2020 unrest, gun sales to Hispanic men soared 49 percent over 2019 levels, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
This insistence on protection extends to America’s border as well. In contrast to persistent media myth, Hispanics are not, at all, soft on issues of border security. In fact, in 2018 at the height of the caravan crisis, Economist/YouGov polling detailed that only 20 percent of Hispanics support the policy of “catch and release” of illegal migrant families into the United States, the previous policy of the Obama-Biden administration and current misbegotten approach of the Biden-Harris White House. More recently, President Trump earned massive shifts in support all along the US/Mexico border region in the November 3rd vote, in areas of America that are overwhelmingly Hispanic and blue-collar. For example, Starr County, Texas is the most Hispanic county in America at 96 percent Latino.
In 2016, Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 60 percent, but gained an astounding 55 percent into 2020, only losing the county by 5 percent. In next-door Zapata County, which is 86 percent Hispanic, Trump rallied 38 percent in four years to win the county by 5 percent. Hispanics on the border – the frontline Americans who deal most acutely with the consequences of a porous border – surged in their support for President Trump and the America First vision of sovereignty.
Pomp.
Donald Trump successfully channeled the best traits of strong Latin politicians, evoking aspects of the “caudillo” leaders on horseback. As Pedro Gonzalez observed in American Greatness, Trump resembles a Latin American leader who “blends nationalism, economic populism, and social conservatism.”
Hispanic men gravitate to Trump as a forceful man of strong actions and macho rhetoric, whether facing off against Beijing in trade or exposing the biased corporate media in White House pressers. Hispanic men also appreciate the authentic, unvarnished verbiage that separates Trump from all other national-level politicians in America. For example, we Hispanics instinctively knew what Trump telegraphed when he warned of “bad hombres” crossing the border, even though the effete elites of politics and media recoiled at such bluntness.
In addition, Trump clearly appeals to the aspirational motivations of Hispanic men. He speaks as an outsider and business owner to the highly entrepreneurial Hispanic population. In fact, Hispanics are, by a wide measure, the most entrepreneurial demographic in America. Per a recent Stanford University study, Latino start-ups grew at a 34 percent pace over the last decade vs. only a 1 percent growth rate overall. Trump spoke unashamedly of his success and earned the respect of millions of ambitious Latino men. These young strivers with names like Cortes and Romero admire Trump as a “man in full,” with magnificent wealth, endless drive, and a gorgeous wife.
As long as we think and act boldly, in the mold of Trump, the future of the GOP is bright as the party transforms into a multi-ethnic, cross-racial workers’ movement. Hispanic men will form a new stalwart constituency of the America First movement of muscular nationalism that will dominate politics for decades ahead.
