It's hard not to be a conservative and revel in the chaos that the dominance of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is causing in the Democrat Party presidential primaries, as their establishment works to reject their party's populist choice similar to what the Republicans tried to do to Donald Trump in 2016.
Like with the Republicans in 2016, it will be difficult for the Democrat elites to reject the people's choice. Sanders' lead is demonstrable, perhaps even insurmountable, with all of the momentum accumulated behind him, as his competitors dilute the vote of waning moderate and conservative voters among Democrats. Every poll released shows him with a bigger lead than the last, and he is a victory in South Carolina from running away with the nomination. The best bet for the Democrat establishment may be to rip delegates from Sanders during a convention coup, which may mean blood in the Milwaukee streets.
Conservatives can scoff at the news that Democrats believe that Sanders is the candidate most likely to unseat President Trump in November, but after closely examining Sanders' coalition, it's not far-fetched at all. While Sanders' supporters are often stereotyped as lily white leftists densely packed around college campuses in places like Portland, Seattle or Berkeley, that is far from the truth, as Sanders' base is stronger and much more diverse than his opponents are willing to admit.
To the largely-Hispanic immigrants who now occupy the country in record numbers, Sanders far-left beliefs do not sound crazy. They sound moderate in comparison to the politics in the nations from which they have escaped. Although they left those countries, their cultural values did not change as soon as they placed their feet on the magical dirt in the land of the free. They may see America as the land of milk and honey, but that milk and honey is to be extracted from the former majority to the rising soon-to-be majority through the political process.
While many conservatives laughed at the "Squad" for endorsing an old, white career politician for the presidency, they were certainly politically adept to do so from their perspectives. Sanders paved the way for the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to gain prominence. He was her ideological predecessor, and his beliefs are representative of the ideals held by her people. Sanders won by a much greater margin in Nevada than he did in Iowa or New Hampshire because of his Hispanic support, with an amazing 53 percent of Latinos supporting him. Sanders' revolution is a vanguard that will be unstoppable, if not during this election cycle, then in the near future, should demographic trends continue unimpeded.
Recent results from a Pew Research study show that an overwhelming majority of Hispanics support a drastic increase of government control. Researchers found that "most Hispanic voters (71%) say the government should do more to solve problems, while 27% say government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals." This pertains to health care, gun control, minimum wage policies, and virtually every other issue. These findings bust the myth that Hispanics are natural conservatives due to their belief in Christianity and strong familial bonds.
Even Hispanics within the Republican Party support more government, with results indicating that Latinos drive the GOP away from conservatism with their presence in the Party. Sixty-two percent of Hispanic registered voters who are Republican or lean Republican favor increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Forty-seven percent of the same demographic supports government-run health care, with only 4 percent more Hispanics supporting free market care. A plurality of Hispanic Republican voters support more gun control at 44 percent. Growing the Republican Party in the new America necessarily entails the death of the conservative movement.
There are four million new Hispanic voters who will be able to participate in the 2020 election. Sanders is the candidate with the ideology for which they are predisposed. Couple this with a candidate who they have been propagandized to believe is literally committing a genocide against their people, they could easily show up in record numbers. They certainly have every incentive to do so. Meanwhile, millions of Trump supporters - those who remember what America used to be and how far it has strayed from greatness - have unfortunately passed away since 2016. This could create the perfect storm that puts a Marxist ideologue into office in November.
The Republican establishment solution will be to become more conciliatory to the Hispanic community by endorsing amnesty, paying lip service to the benefits of diversity, cutting taxes for corporations that hire illegal aliens, etc. There will certainly be operatives in President Trump's ear telling him to go in that direction, but he would be wise to reject that counsel. As every piece of data gathered shows, the political differences are cultural and that gap cannot be bridged regardless of the occasional outlier.
What Trump needs to do is double-down on the formula that initially put him into the Oval Office. He needs to make the point, as he has brilliantly done throughout his presidency, that he is the last thing standing in the way of the total annihilation of America. Immigration needs to be at the center of that argument. As liberals will readily admit while many conservatives remain in denial, demographics are in fact destiny. Nothing short of the deportation of so-called DREAMers and a long-term moratorium on legal immigration will solve the problems facing America. Trump needs his base as white hot as the Hispanic base will be under Sanders in order to assure victory. This will only be achieved through strength, not capitulation.