Latinos Don't Need Lectures From the Left, Just Better Choices

on Nov 8, 2024

SAN DIEGO -- Latinos are the pinata of the 2024 presidential election. So what else is new?

I didn't know who was going to win the 2024 presidential election, which seemed too close to call. But I knew two things for sure: Win or lose, Donald Trump was going get at least 40% of the Latino vote. And Latinos were going to get pummeled, pilloried and punished for their temerity in running off the liberal hacienda.

As a Latino journalist, I don't claim to speak for my people. In 35 years on the job, I never have. Which is one reason I've stuck around.

But nor will I hesitate to defend Latinos against unfair attacks fueled by ignorance, prejudice and meanness.

Over the last few decades, most of the attacks that I've fended off have come from white conservatives. Many of these folks foolishly believe -- as President-elect Donald Trump does -- that the United States is being invaded by Latino immigrants who are "poisoning" the country as well as bringing crime, usurping benefits and taking jobs.

Now the script has flipped. And I get to put my skill set to work fending off attacks from a new group that can be just as ignorant, just as prejudiced and just as mean when they don't get their way: a precarious alliance of Black Democrats and white liberals.

Latinos are now public enemy No. 1 with that group because of the outsized role we played in Trump's reelection. According to exit polls, Trump won support of 46% of Latinos and 55% of Latino men.

To be clear, I say "we" because I'm Latino and proud to be. Not because I voted for Trump. I most certainly did not. But nor did I vote for Kamala Harris, a flawed candidate who ran a terrible campaign and only approached Latinos in the most insulting and superficial ways.

Meanwhile, some pundits are calling what happened with Latino voters in this election a major political realignment.

But judging from the vitriolic jabs on television and social media, the Black-and-white alliance has another word for it: betrayal. And it gets worse. Given that the Democratic candidate this time around was a Black woman, those on the left have a bunch of uglier terms that they're not embarrassed to use -- although they should be.

In their minds, Latinos -- especially the men -- are sexist and racist. Simple as that.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who has never had much to say about Latinos, is now an expert on the demographic group.

"A lot of Hispanic voters have problems with Black candidates," Scarborough said on his show.

His fellow MSNBC host Joy Reid, who is Black, got even more personal as she tore into Latino men for not voting how she wanted them to vote.

"Latino men, who, despite the utter disrespect shown by Trump and his promise to deport some of your mixed-status families, most of them voted in a 55% majority to make the deportations happen," she noted. "You all voted with Stephen Miller and David Duke," she said, referring to Trump's nativist immigration adviser and the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Intoxicated by her superiority complex, Reid wasn't done with her lecture of Latino men. "So, you own everything that happens to your mixed-status families and to your wives, sisters, and abuelas from here on in."

Hey, Joy, how about you keep my abuela's name out of your mouth. You don't talk about my grandma, and I won't talk about yours.

Arrogant, presumptuous and condescending is not a good luck -- especially not for someone who is part of a marginalized group.

How do Black folks like it when white people scold them? They don't.

Trump also got the support of 25% of Black men. But they're not getting many lectures.

If this coalition of Blacks-and-whites-for-Kamala want to be angry with someone, they ought to direct their fire and fury at Harris, those who ran her campaign and the bigwigs who control the Democratic Party. All those folks made plenty of mistakes and lost support with all kinds of Americans across the board.

One of the biggest mistakes was falling totally out of step with Latinos. Those on the left don't have the faintest idea who we are, what we care about or how to speak to us.

Worse, they're too arrogant to admit what they don't know. Their recent spate of attacks is just another example. Insults won't make the situation better. They will only make it worse.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.