48% of Latino Men Chose Trump in 2024, Sacramento Insiders are Panicking
The gender gap isn't what activists think. Sacramento needs to listen.
Sacramento politicos have spent decades trying to decode the Latino vote. For a long time the script was simple. Educators and politicians painted Latino men as struggling students or the mythical sleeping giant that would save the country if they just showed up to the polls. The narrative was predictable. It ignored the reality that for many of us the American experience has been defined by a series of unfair stereotypes. We have been painted as criminals a few drinks away from a bar fight or lechers who cannot control our desires. These are not new insults. They have echoed through the history books since the fall of the Alamo.
The political class tried to push a specific agenda expecting obedience. They believed that as we assimilated into American society we would adopt progressive politics. They thought the radical energy of the Chicano movement would carry over into our voting booths. They were wrong. The 2024 election proved they were wrong. A stunning 48 percent of Latino voters of all genders chose Donald Trump. This was the highest percentage ever captured by a Republican presidential candidate. It was a number that shook the establishment both in Washington D.C. and in Sacramento. Progressives immediately jumped to blame the loss on the men. They held up Latinas as the brave heroines who stood firm against tyranny.
This blame game continues to dominate the headlines. A study released this month by UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute offers a stark warning. The paper essentially paints Latino men as little better than MAGA minions. It highlights a gender gap regarding standing up to the administration’s deportation deluge and defending democracy. The media and internet commentators were quick to accept this conclusion. It did not matter that two-thirds of Latino men had responded that each of those three issues was very important or somewhat important to them. In their eyes if you were not anti-Trump enough you were alien to the president’s critics. The UCLA paper’s cover page even features a red man and a blue woman conversing in what look like Aztec speaking glyphs. It implies the sexes cannot understand each other and that the gap is unbridgeable.
The institute offers hypotheses straight out of a 1990s relationship guide. They suggest women work more in caretaker jobs like teaching and healthcare. This supposedly softens their views toward the least of us. They suggest men are in blue-collar sectors with a Darwinian outlook. But it does not take a fancy academic paper to see through this. All one needs to do is talk to the men. The study ignores the cultural bedrock that runs through California. It ignores the reality of the individualistic politics exemplified by the Mexican men who raised me. This is what I call rancho libertarianism. It is a neologism for a specific worldview.
Rancho libertarians are forever skeptical of government. They respect insurgents who want to take on the establishment. They love their people and subscribe to a bootstraps approach to life. Not as praiseworthy is a tendency to dislike being told what to do. In proving a point many of us will not only cut off our nose to spite the face but we will also lop off our heads. This explains why so many Latino men went for Trump. To quote another Mexican saying por eso estamos como estamos. That is why we are the way we are. Look at what this loyalty has earned us. MAGA has been a miasma on this land especially for the blue-collar Latinos whom Trump increasingly courted with each election cycle.
Immigration agents have arrested U.S.-born Trump supporters and thrown their friends and family members into squalid detention centers to await certain deportation. Diesel and gas prices are outrageously high after Trump started a war with Iran that seems to have no end. Nothing has degraded more for Latino men however than the simple pleasures of life. When my dad and my brother had a pool party for some cousins and their children last month at our Anaheim home no more than 15 people were present the cost of carne asada chicken chorizo and tortillas from a local carnicería was more than $200. That side of the family never supported Trump while not exactly being wokosos either. As Spotify blasted Antonio Aguilar and Banda El Recodo they complained about the economy and the Republicans who have rubber-stamped the Trump agenda. They should have been talking about the Dodgers or vacations back to our ancestral Mexico state of Zacatecas.
If my Arellano cousins are ready to stick it to Trump on election day so should the Latino men who supported him two years ago. In 2024 Latinos were the pivotal vote that delivered swing states to Trump. In this year’s midterms Latino men are the swing vote within that constituency. This dynamic is visible from congressional races once considered safely red in Texas and Florida to local elections across the country. It has gotten so dire for Republicans that Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar put out a television ad warning Trump that the same Hispanics who brought you to the White House feel betrayed today. Honor remains big among rancho libertarians. No politician has insulted the Latino way of life more than Trump. Helping to flip the House and Senate to the Democrats would not end his influence but it sure would help. Plus it would be a perfect rebuke to a pendejo who fooled too many good Latino men. American society whether the left or the right wing will never fully accept us. We will always be thought of as too conservative too dumb too reactionary too violent by too many. Well if we are going to be loathed we might as well stand on the right side of history. It is time for Latino men to stand up and hit Trump with another Mexican saying Ya güey. Enough already man.
First reported by LA Times: California.
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