#LatinosForTrump
Gen Z completely dominating this election turnout is much to celebrate and it is to no surprise that the blue party won much of POC youth support. Yet the turnout rate for Trump supporters is staggering… especially in the Hispanic turnout. Despite the many atrocious, xenophobic and degrading comments driven from Trump and his campaign, he still remains with much support from our Latino brothers and sisters. Why? Did the push for an active and expensive border prove not hateful enough? The implementation of removing genitalia from hispanic women in ICE concentration camps and the separation between children and their families? Or the 1,500 + missing immigrant children?
Let’s begin with one of the most primary issues in communities of color: class. Wealthier families in the Latino community tend to lean towards the republican party because of its policies on tax, although most prepotent policies advocated by the republican party will never even reach the majority of America’s upper-class. Wealthy Latinos fear socialism because the Republican party propagandized socialism as a system that derails the hard work of Americans.
The issue of classism is deep-rooted in Latino-American generations as a division earned between those who came here the “right” way and those who are “illegal”. It is not uncommon for Latinos to waver the fact that they endured the wait to be accepted by a system that didn’t want them in the first place. Yet, the classism and the hyper-nationalistic pride in Latino families who came here the “right” way is still bred by conservative propaganda that has been ongoing for decades since the 1942 bracero and labor program. When republicans and the American society verbally and repeatedly distinguish Latinos from being “legal” and “illegal” it bleeds into new immigrant families and activates a general idea that their value as an American citizen is solely defined by the way in which they crossed the border. So yeah, it makes sense that Latinos are so oblivious to their behavioral subjects classism and racism, when western culture pre-hyped the idea that devalues their origins and replaced it with the misconception of the “illegal Mexican”.
The other aspect of #LatinosforTrump is the relationship between conservatism and Catholicism. The Catholic church holds a lot of influence in the Latino community and its power is primarily over issues that are encompassed by the democrat party… such as concerns for reproductive rights or LGBTQIA rights. So Latino voters associate the republican party with the conservation of catholicism even though it was western christian churches that disregarded Latinos from church participation only fifty years ago.
Internalized racism and Xenophobia is prevalent in every aspect of Latinos who disassociate with immigrants who crossed the border illegally. Conservative LatinX folks benefit from white privilege in both the states and Latin-American countries. The history of anti-blackness and anti-indigenous is prevalent throughout much of Latin-American history. It makes sense the the internalization of colorism allows for the push of Latinos for Trump, but it isn’t necessarily true that Latinos are inherently racist, but that colonial influence in the community is prevalent and large. This can be explained for why most of Gen Z Latinos are heavily democrat or liberal, because of their disregard for post-colonial influence and traditionalism.
Nonetheless if you are Latino (or really anyone at all) and you voted for Trump, it is not the opinion of a liberal, snowflake, incel or GenZ student, but the opinion of a decent human being who recognizes that as the US Constitution says “all people are created equal”, that your vote was a vote for a man who condones the maltreatment and degradation of women, men, non-binaries and children in our community.
Thats fucked up.