Democrats are concerned – and justifiably so. After decades of being taken for granted by the Democratic Party, Hispanic voters are rallying to the America First movement in droves, promising to radically reorient the balance of power in American politics.
A recent New York Times-Siena College poll found that Democrats and Republicans are statistically tied among Hispanic voters on the generic congressional ballot for this year’s midterm elections. As Axios points out in an article referring to this phenomenon as the “Great Realignment,” Democrats held a 47-point advantage among Hispanic voters as recently as the 2018 midterms.
Democrats have only themselves to blame. They have routinely insulted, demeaned, and belittled Hispanic voters with both their policies and their rhetoric, so they should not be surprised that Hispanic voters are increasingly wary of casting their ballots for people who disregard and disparage Hispanic values. To Democrats, Hispanics have never been anything more than a rich source of votes in areas of the country that are otherwise solidly Republican. But the tide turns, dramatically.
Democrats have spent so long treating Hispanics as an afterthought that they can’t even find a way to pander to us anymore without accidentally insulting the very voters with whom they are trying to curry favor.
Everyone is familiar with the infamous label “Latinx.” Democrats invented it because they’re deeply uncomfortable with the use of gender identifiers in the Spanish language – not surprising from a party that has embraced identity politics so tightly that they no longer know what a “woman” is.
So, according to their twisted logic, invent a brand-new, gender-neutral term that nobody requested. Plus, they probably got tired of saying “Latinos and Latinas,” and figured we wouldn’t mind.
But we do mind. Polling consistently shows that only around 3 percent or 4 percent of Hispanics actually use the term “Latinx.” Presumably, most of them either teach Chicano Studies at universities or work for the DNC. Moreover, many Hispanics –40 percent in one poll – find the term “Latinx” downright offensive. I’m one of them.
In recent years, Democrats have been trying to do damage control. It hasn’t gone well.
In 2020, Joe Biden tried to show that he understands the diversity of the Hispanic community, which Democrats have been criticized for treating as a monolithic bloc.
He even managed to do it without employing the noxious term “Latinx.” Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t manage it without insulting another core Democratic constituency and making it abundantly obvious that doesn’t understand Hispanics at all.
“Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly diverse attitudes about different things,” Biden said. Joe also decided that effective Hispanic outreach involved playing the song “Despacito” on his mobile phone into a microphone.
Of course, those antics were nothing compared to what Joe’s wife, First Lady Jill Biden, said about us during a recent appearance in San Antonio, Texas. In a typically obtuse effort to connect with Latino voters, Mrs. Biden actually compared us to “breakfast tacos.” That’s right – Jill Biden said Hispanics are like breakfast tacos, and that was her earnest attempt to win us back to the Democratic fold.
Is it any wonder that Hispanic voters are reconsidering their political affiliations? There was a time when Democrats genuinely seemed to try harder to understand and address Hispanic interests and concerns. Now, they call us “Latinxs” and “breakfast tacos.”
The way they’re going, Democrats will be lucky to split the Hispanic vote with Republicans. If they don’t stop insulting us and taking us for granted, Democrats will soon find that they’ve driven millions of Latinos into the arms of the opposing party.