Latinos are Soundly Rejecting the Democratic Party

In unprecedented numbers, Latinos across the country are rejecting the Democratic Party for going so woke that even our mamas must now be labeled “birthing people” and our mujeres, comadres, abuelas, hermanas can no longer be called women or even be defined unless it is biologist approved.  Our language has been appropriated and neutered to the point that the most woke in the Party no longer even call us by our names, inventing a new name with an x at the end that fits their conception (pardon the pun) of a reinvented people.  In 2020, Pew Research revealed that only 3 percent of Latinos use the term “Latinx” and only 14 percent of Latinos with a high school degree or less had even heard of it.

Totally loco.

We all know it:  a backlash is brewing that will continue to cast a shining light on the shifting of political loyalties that already began to show in the 2016 election when significant numbers of Latinos defied the Democratic Party label and chose to cast votes for Donald J. Trump. From Latinos’ 71 percent support for President Barack Obama in 2012 to 66 percent for Hillary Clinton and 59 percent for Joe Biden in 2020, Democrats are losing hold of Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate.

By this November, when congressional elections are held, an even greater shifting of Latinos across all groups (e.g., Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc.) will continue to demonstrate that Latinos are soundly rejecting Democratic political coyotes as our shepherds to political Nirvana in favor of greater independence from a party that had long claimed “the little brown ones” as their own.

That’s a lot to assert and predict, but the train has left the station.

Democrats have long taken Latino voters for granted — a decision that contributed to former President Donald Trump’s success in key battleground states like Florida, and an increased piece of the electoral pie across the country. The Democratic Party, reeling from these trends, has been quick to sound the alarm, rolling out a blueprint that calls for crafting political messages similar to those aimed at independent voters, boosting resources for Latino outreach and campaigning earlier within the Latino electorate.  Latino consultants (the coyotes) are lining up to get hefty financial contracts, promising the party elites their power to bring back to the Democratic plantation those bad sheep that have wandered off.

Too little, too late, and even if that weren’t the case, that’s not even the solution.  You see, the problem isn’t more messages and public relations and the hiring of more brown-skinned consultants to act like immigration coyotes to cross us back across a political border.  The problem is the party itself—and what it has come to represent.

Historically, the Democratic Party claimed to be the party of the working-class—the little guy—and pocketbook issues were essential.  John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama in his first presidential run were aspirational—they embraced the American Dream.  Not anymore.  Have you walked into a grocery store lately?  Have you tried to buy gas?  Have you shown up at a school board meeting just trying to protect your child from s-e-x being taught rather than the A-B-C’s?  What has been the response from Democrats?  “It’s temporary,” or “it’s Putin’s fault,” or “buy a Tesla,” or “you’re the brown face of white supremacy,” or you’re “right-wing.”  Tolerance has evaporated from the so-called mission and vision of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party has lost it’s moral compass with working class voters in America, starting with Latino and African-American voters who aren’t about to go out and purchase a $50,000 vehicle when we are pinching pennies to buy gas for our clunkers.

Yes, it is the economy, but Latinos understand that education is the key to the American Dream. Despite the stereotypes about parents, we fight for the educational access and needs of our children. Yet, across the country, Latinos have been forcibly masked in chronically underperforming schools. Decade after decade, these schools have served the interests of the adults in the system, turning schools into a public works system, rather than a true public education system that focuses on kids. In knee-jerk fashion, Democrats line up with outstretched hands to the teachers’ unions to collect campaign contributions while looking the other way and avoiding doing anything to break their monopoly.

School in Berryessa School District

As it has every year, California measured the percentage of California public school students who met or exceeded state-adopted learning standards, noting that for the first time in five years, the percentage dropped. And make no doubt about it: they were low to begin with, particularly for poor and minority children who face levels of some 70% not meeting state-identified standards of proficiency in math and reading.

Math scores of California’s average eighth graders on standardized tests in 2021 were equivalent to those of the knowledge and skills of fifth graders, leading Rick Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, to observe that if left unaddressed, the reduction in learning will permanently harm students. He estimates that students in school will lose 6% to 9% of their lifetime earnings, and the nation’s gross domestic product will be 3% to 4% lower.

Year after year, decade after decade, we see the chronic underperformance of schools serving Latino students and the unwillingness for Democrats to support school choice. Even charter schools—which Latinos strongly support—are not supported by Democratic elected officials because, you guessed it, the teachers’ unions don’t support them (mostly due to the fact that they are not automatically unionized, depriving the teachers’ unions of monthly membership dues).

The academic underperformance is blamed on various things, most recently due to COVID.  The big mirror of self-reflection of how the system itself has undermined and denied Latinos and poor kids good quality educational opportunities is rarely used because that would be too much honesty for the Party to bear.

And school academic performance—the A-B-C’s—is just the start of it.  If we add in “critical race theory” or the increased sexualization of the curriculum, Latinos are packing up our bags in even greater numbers to flee the Democratic Planation.  Rather than labeling Latinos as “homophobes” or “right wing” or “Christian nutcakes,” it would behoove Party elites to actually talk with Latino parents to understand that in the name of “inclusion” the Party has lost its mind in understanding what “a big tent” used to symbolize.  That tent has collapsed and I don’t think it’s going to be resurrected in time for a turnaround by November elections, when Democrats across the country can expect to be booted out of office by a seething rage that is reaching boiling points at local, state, and national levels.

Latinos largely embrace the American Dream. We know how to hustle, to work hard, to believe that “si se puede.” Latinos want to achieve the American Dream and ensure prosperity for their children. We are aspirational, and despite hard conditions, are not afraid to dream. The socialism identified with the Democratic Party of today is largely rejected by Latinos—and not just by Cuban-Americans in Florida. Quite frankly, Latinos are amongst the first to buy lottery tickets and play Vegas with the hope that we get lucky and win the lotto. In our world, there is nothing wrong with being rich.

Latinos are a patriotic community, and if you look at the names of the dead after any war, you will note the high numbers of Latinos who served and gave blood for this country. We support policing, even while we fight to reform abuses and ensure that we are respected by the officers—increasing numbers of whom are Latinos and Latinas—in those ranks.  Democratic Party-led efforts to defund the police fell flat in our neighborhoods. We often disproportionately are the victims of crime, and unlike some members of Congress, we can’t afford to hire private security teams to protect us. And, yes, we are worth it too—so suck it up (are you listening self-serving Congresswoman Cori Bush?)

Today’s Democratic Party is on a losing streak on all these issues. If I were in Vegas, I wouldn’t wager money for Democrats to prevail this year, and the odds are getting even slimmer for 2024 where the specter of Trumpism is strong and Latinos have grown weary.

This November, four of the most competitive congressional elections will have Latino populations (not necessarily voters) of at least 38 percent and are in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Latinos will be critical in Senate and other statewide contests, particularly in Arizona and Nevada. As the Democratic Party falls over the cliff even further from any semblance of sanity for Latinos, Republicans are well positioned to pick up these politically untethered voters and with them the reins of power (which reminds me that unlike Democratic leaders, we understand that reins are not whips and would never have accused border patrol agents—many of whom are Latino and Latina—of racism and abuse!).

Democrats had hoped this might be a phenomenon specific to the Trump era. But new polling shows it accelerating, worrying Democratic Party strategists about the top of the ticket in 2024.  If Trump runs, make no doubt about it:  Latinos will be a key part of his base. Even further, Latinos understand that “the Republican Party today has become Donald Trump’s Party,” with Latino voters agreeing on this by 56 percent to 17 percent according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. 

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal poll found that by 9 points, Latino voters said they’d back a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democrat, something we have already witnessed since 2020 in House races in south Florida, Texas and New Mexico. 

And while 48 percent of Latinos nationally identify as Democrats contrasted with 23 percent as Republican, by a double-digit margin, more Latino Democrats are considering leaving their party compared to Latino Republicans. Most likely, they will become independents or third-party voters and more likely to line up with Republicans on major issues.

Overall, Latino voters are more likely to state that the country is moving in the wrong direction, by a margin of 5 percentage points. Also, by a margin of 5 percentage points, a majority agreed that “The Democratic Party has been kidnapped by progressives.”

I am on the brink of leaving the Democratic Party once and for all. During last year’s recall election, I broke party ranks and endorsed Larry Elder on the issue of school choice. As the former California Senate Majority Leader representing East Los Angeles, I have seen firsthand from the bowels of Sacramento the unwillingness spineless elected officials have to stand up to party interests to just do the right thing for Latinos in California.  And since I left Sacramento as Public Enemy #1 by the California Teachers Association and its education affiliates that command every Democratic Governor and Legislature (ironically, since I paid union dues to them for the bulk of my adult life as a professor in the state education system), I have only seen it worsen.

And I am not alone.  And when we finally say “ya basta,” please, after you utter your ugly diatribes and name-calling that are typically spewed, take some time to understand this movement of the people. Like so many others, Latinos are waking up to wokism and understand that the political coyotes in the form of Democratic Party elites have merely run us over the cliff in an abandonment of what the Democratic Party once proudly stood for.