Trump is at it again. While performing in front of a live crowd, endangering their health for his own ego gratification and personal/political gain, he referred to the crowd consisting of working-class Hispanics in Nevada as “Juans and Joses.” We can only predict what he would say at a rally of black, Asian, or Jewish people. While these stereotyped comments about ethnic groups may seem innocent to many of his white followers, it is not. Trump promotes policies and rhetoric that reveals he thinks of all people other than white Christian, with a certain bias and monolithic perspective. His appeal to the Hispanic community, in his view, is that they like “tough people” like him. That can be interpreted as meaning if you act tough, you can win this group over with bluster because they aren’t smart enough to comprehend the issues. During his speech, he screamed his sympathies for the Hispanic community’s economic struggles and blamed the Democrats. Instead of talking about our economy’s devastation caused by the coronavirus, he vilified and blamed Democrats and made false claims that he kept campaign promises to the Hispanic community.
An article in the War Room on August 4th, 2020, stated one of the most impactful failures Trump has made to the Latino community is his incompetent response to the coronavirus, which has impacted their community disproportionately. He promised more opportunities for them to succeed and prosper and yet lied about the pandemic and, to this day, has implemented no federal plan to help get it under control. He gaslights people into believing that if he yells, waves his arms, bullies, curses, that means he is strong. Strong leaders take the initiative and find solutions to complex problems that face their country. The War Room article also points out:
- Black and Latino small businesses suffered greater from COVID than other communities due to Trump’s botched efforts to get assistance to those communities.
- The Latino and Black unemployment rate is at 14.5%
- Trump has a pattern of “stoking racial and cultural divisions to demonize Latinos, such as calling Mexicans rapists and Hispanic asylum seekers “caravans of terrorists.” He uses words like “invading” and “infesting” when referring to immigrants and has separated over 1,100 migrant families at the border with no plan to reunite them.
- He illegally rescinded the DACA program and blocked every Congressional deal that would protect the Dreamers.
- He has blocked new applications for the DACA program.
- Job creation for Hispanics has slowed under Trump.
- Latinos were disproportionately left out on the benefits of Trump’s tax law.
- He attempted to slash funds from the SNAP program, which lifted 2.5 million Latino families out of poverty.
- He is proposing massive cuts to Medi-caid, which provides health coverage for about 32% of non-elderly Hispanics
When touting his accomplishments for Hispanics, Trump offers general statements without evidence. This is why he loves rallies. He performs, uninterrupted, telling lies and crudely attacking people. He presents no detailed, substantive policy, as he assumes his adoring audience is too unintelligent and blindly loyal to care.
An article published in Opinion in 2019 by Ruben Navarrette Jr, referred to Trump as the most anti-Latino President in U.S. history. Yet, he claims that 1 out of every 4 Latinos will vote to re-elect Trump. The question Navarrette sought to find the answer to when he interviewed Latino’s was, “How can you support Trump in light of his racist rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies towards people from Hispanic countries? He found that most of the people he spoke with did not believe Trump was talking about them. They see themselves as “post-Latino,” meaning they identify more with being American than Latino. He says, “they are ambivalent about their relatives, families, and ancestors. They don’t take offense when Trump insults Mexican immigrants because they see the people he is talking about as another species.”
Whether this denial of heritage is about shame or the desperation to live a more successful life, the Hispanic community should consider backing a candidate like Joe Biden. He has a proven record of caring about the Hispanic community by supporting legislation to help preserve DACA, providing affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans no matter their income level, creating blue-collar and white-collar jobs giving people of color equal access to those jobs and protecting the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medi-care and Medi-caid. If you like dictator, cult-like rallies full of lies and promises to excite you like a drug, then Trump is your man. However, his denial of responsibility for the devastation on our public health and economy due to COVID has caused 200,000 Americans to die and millions of others to lose their jobs. His lack of empathy for and legislative policy for the racial inequality problem in policing is causing the violence he predicts will happen under a Biden presidency.
We are a divided nation under Trump, and we cannot achieve our goals of having a strong economy, managing climate change, creating racial equality, and providing affordable healthcare for everyone with a president who lies, admires murderous dictators, and hides information about himself that may be endangering our national security. Americans should not vote as admiring fans but rather as informed, mature citizens. Democracy is on the line, and that matters to every community in America.
On Amazon books. Baby Boomer Resistance Part 2. Posts from Impeachment to COVID
