Vaya Con Donald

AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Ah, the folks of Spanish ancestry in our fair country, or what we normally call 'Hispanics.'

Those of the progressive Democratic woke persuasion have tried to make that time-honored ethnic label cooler and more current, coining happening phrases from LatinX to 'breakfast tacos'...

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...and everything in between in hopes of wooing and keeping more Hispanic voters under their blue donkey umbrella.

These efforts have met with mixed success and a fair amount of ridicule, as nothing is more off-putting than culturally appropriated pandering.

Spare them.


Kamala Harris, unpopular as she might be with our crowd, has always had issues with the Latino side of the Democratic base, being nowhere near as beloved as icons like Obama and Clinton or even her own boss. She just can't pull the crowds, but was expected to be at least able to hold onto what Biden had.

Democrats were convinced of that much loyalty out of the Latin Quarter, particularly running against a fellow who was promising mass deportations and snapping that porous border shut on damn near day one.

A funny thing happened on the way to demonizing Trump and Kamala's Univision appearance - the percentage of Hispanic vote kept dropping, incrementally, yes, but Trump had made such astonishing inroads against Biden, there wasn't much wiggle room for any defections at all.

By the beginning of October, analysts pulling for Harris were sounding the alarms as she slipped below the Biden threshold.

Vice President Kamala Harris' lead among Hispanic voters is lower than that achieved by Joe Biden in 2020, according to analysis by Newsweek.

Newsweek looked at the national polls since September 16 that provide a breakdown of voting intention based on race and found that on average, Harris is polling at 56 percent among Hispanic voters, down from Biden's 59 percent four years ago.

Meanwhile, Trump is polling at 38 points, the same level of support that he received in 2020.

Democrats have been warning about signs of Latino voters turning toward the GOP for years. In 2020, Biden won among Hispanics by a smaller margin than in 2016 when Hillary Clinton beat Trump among Hispanics by 38 points, with 66 percent to his 28 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

And polling shows that margins are continuing to decline among Hispanic voters, with Harris on average 18 points ahead of Trump, according to Newsweek analysis, down from 21 points in 2020 and 38 points in 2016, with individual polls indicating that Trump's support among Hispanic voters is growing.

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What to do, what to do

A week later, the New York Times came out, basically trying to tell the Harris campaign, "Hey, chica! What you're doing ain't working." Harris and advisors were separating Hispanic immigrants living, working, and voting in the US from the illegals. Arrogantly, Democrats had lumped them all in one big, Spanish-speaking box of polvorones.

When nothing could be further from the truth. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’s support among Hispanic voters is in dangerously low territory for Democrats, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, while her rival, former President Donald J. Trump, has maintained his strength with the fast-growing group poised to play a key role in deciding control of the White House.

...Mr. Trump, who shocked Democrats four years ago with his appeal to Latinos, particularly men, has only tightened his grip — even as he closes his campaign with a sharply anti-immigrant message.

The poll found that those escalating attacks on immigrants had not driven Latino voters to Ms. Harris. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they believed Mr. Trump was not referring to people like them when he spoke about immigrants. (Half of foreign-born Hispanic voters said the same.)

'What to do, what to do' turned to 'Oh, THANK GOD'  when Tony Hinchcliffe let loose with his Puerto Rico/garbage island riff.

This was going to be their deliverance - what Harris couldn't do herself, Trump, by proxy, had just handed to them, and man - they were going to stick it to him, but good.

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But they stuck themselves instead.

Puerto Ricans, for the most part, seemed pretty unfazed, unless they were interviewed by CBS. Many also said they got 'the inside joke.'

It seems there really is a 'garbage' problem many of the rest of us were unaware of.

Then came the real 'garbage' problem for the Harris campaign, and it was thanks to their favorite old joker, not some roast comic running his mouth...

...and the whole world saw what happened next.

...They turned it into the LEAD STORY in the country. They insisted it was important, was moving votes, was emblematic of their already-hot ‘Nazi/Fascist’ narrative. 

Then the sitting President of the United States called the supporters his party’s opposition “garbage” — clear as day, on video — and the EXACT SAME ‘news’ ‘professionals’ immediately heel-turned into doctoring the quote, offering up excuses, explaining why it didn’t matter, or ignoring it entirely....

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Where are Hispanic voters after all this?

In Florida, turns out Puerto Ricans and Cubans don't seem to be too upset.

According to a new poll conducted by Cygnal, former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris statewide by five points, and even leads among Puerto Rican voters.

The poll found Trump’s overall support at 48% to Harris’ 43%, with 5% still undecided.

Among all Hispanics, Trump leads by 10 points.

But among Puerto Ricans – a group that nationally leans heavily Democratic – Trump leads by two points.

The lead comes even after backlash from a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden, New York who joked about Puerto Rico being an island of “garbage.”

He's got the Cubans by 28 points.

In Reading, Pennsylvania, a 68.9% Hispanic city that Politico profiled (with a little touch of panic on the side)... 

Trump’s Gains With Pennsylvania Latinos Are Real. Maybe Enough to Withstand ‘Island of Garbage.’

...the Democrat mayor, who was also the first Hispanic elected to the post in a majority Hispanic town, had his old campaign office taken over by the Trump folks. He said they have been working their butts off while, for all intents and purposes, Dems have been missing in action.

...Right now, Democrats are hopeful that they’ve gotten a last minute boost with Latinos — courtesy of Trump himself. At an irreverent rally in Madison Square Garden in New York this weekend, a comedian pumping up the crowd for Trump called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage.” The blowback was instant: there are over 500,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, and the Harris campaign and its allies sent out blasts with videos of the joke around the state. The Trump campaign, clearly taking the fallout seriously, went in damage control mode, distancing themselves from the quote. With polls essentially tied in Pennsylvania, it’s not impossible that pissed off Boricuas — who needed this last push to head to the polls — could decide the election. However, it might be too little, too late for Harris — for months now, Trump’s ground game in Pennsylvania has consistently outflanked the Democrats. 

In Reading, Morán listed off recent Republican visits: A week before we talked, Trump had held a rally at the downtown Santander Arena, which had attendees lining up around the block. J.D. Vance had come through town just a few days earlier. And, in late September, Tucker Carlson had taped a segment here with Alex Jones & Jack Posobiec. Harris, meanwhile, hasn’t come to Reading since 2023, before she was at the top of the Democratic ticket. 

“That’s something that concerns me with the Democratic Party — I’m worried we’re not here as much,” Morán said. He did, however, compliment Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for visiting in early October — in a smaller, invite-only event with local Latino leaders. 

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The Rio Grande is going red, maybe? Places like Eagle Pass and El Paso were blue last election.

Once again, the party couldn't be bothered to do the legwork and took yet another formerly loyal constituency (hello, blacks) for granted. Democrats assumed they had a lock forever on a block of voters because I guess they all sound the same to elites. The same ruling party hierarchy who confuses regional breakfast favorites and unashamedly mangles the language in cringe-inducing pandering attempts.

 All of which - disbanding ICE, pathways to citizenship, medical care for illegals, etc - only speak to a criminal element (by virtue of border jumping at the very least) Dems themselves have introduced, impacting everyone's lives.

This has had the opposite effect on the Hispanic vote in many instances. 

They want relief, not more of the same - which sounds awfully familiar.

Tomorrow, I believe and God willing, we're going to see many of them going with Donald Trump.

We've all worked too hard for our American dreams.





  

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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