'Presumptuous and condescending': Latino journalist warns Dems against scolding Hispanics

12 November 2024

Data from the 2024 election shows that President-elect Donald Trump made gains among all demographic groups, but significantly larger gains from Latino voters. One Latino journalist is now warning Democrats to not scapegoat Hispanic voters for their drubbing in the polls last week.

In a Tuesday essay for the San Antonio Express-News, columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. argued that if Democrats hope to win back Latino voters, their current strategy of scolding and scapegoating Hispanics for defecting to the Republican side won't help. He noted that "a precarious alliance of Black Democrats and white liberals" is already alienating Latino voters by laying blame at their feet for Trump's second term.

"Latinos are now public enemy No. 1 with that group because of the outsized role we played in Trump’s reelection. According to exit polls, Trump won support of 46% of Latinos and 55% of Latino men," Navarrette Jr. wrote. "In [pundits'] minds, Latinos — especially the men — are sexist and racist. Simple as that."

One example of this scolding included an MSNBC segment feturing former Florida Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, who is white, and host Joy-Ann Reid, who is Black. Navarrette Jr. quoted Scarborough, who said that "a lot of Hispanic voters have problems with Black candidates." He also opined that Reid was "intoxicated by her superiority complex" as she "tore into Latino men for not voting how she wanted them to vote."

“Latino men, who, despite the utter disrespect shown by Trump and his promise to deport some of your mixed-status families, most of them voted in a 55% majority to make the deportations happen,” Reid said. “You all voted with Stephen Miller and David Duke... So, you own everything that happens to your mixed-status families and to your wives, sisters and abuelas from here on in."

Navarrette Jr. clapped back, writing that Reid would do well to "keep my abuela’s name out of your mouth." He admonished liberals for their harshness toward Latino voters, reminding them that 25% of Black men voted for Trump, yet there haven't been cable news segments dedicated to lecturing them.

"Arrogant, presumptuous and condescending is not a good look — especially not for someone who is part of a marginalized group," he wrote. "How do Black folks like it when white people scold them? They don’t."

The columnist clarified that while he didn't personally vote for Trump, he also didn't vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that she ran a "terrible campaign" and "only approached Latinos in the most insulting and superficial ways." He added that "those who ran her campaign and the bigwigs who control the Democratic Party" should be shouldered with the blame for Trump's victory rather than any specific bloc of voters, saying party bosses "made plenty of mistakes and lost support with all kinds of Americans across the board."

"One of the biggest mistakes was falling totally out of step with Latinos. Those on the left don’t have the faintest idea who we are, what we care about or how to speak to us," he continued. "Worse, they’re too arrogant to admit what they don’t know. Their recent spate of attacks is just another example. Insults won’t make the situation better. They will only make it worse."

Click here to read Navarrette Jr.'s column in its entirety.

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