Last night I watched a bit of an MSNBC show about Latino communities turning Republican and there was a segment where a reporter interviewed Florida MAGA Latinos which I found so upsetting I turned it off. Basically the gist of the report was how the once solidly Democratic Latino community has shifted its allegiance towards the GOP. One Florida candidate for the US House was interviewed and she expressed he unwavering belief in The Big Lie.
The reasons for this shift were explained in a CNN article published in February.
Being caught up a river without a paddle rarely leads to a catastrophe, but then again it depends on the river. It may have dangerous rapids or waterfalls. Then again you may end up helpless in a metaphorical wilderness where you might be at the mercy of ruthless MAGAs.
Real life MAGA Republicans aren’t anything remotely like the denizens of the fictitious Cahulawassee River, though it may sometimes feel like some of them are. After all this is what came to mind when I thought of the saying “up the river without a paddle.” It brought to mind what is probably the one of the most brutal and controversial scenes in all of filmdom.
Still, we have speakers at CPAC like Ted Cruz coming about as close as possible to calling for an armed insurrection, a shooting civil war, against the Democrats. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people who are already armed and itching to engage in actual combat against people like us.
Our dilemma as I see it is to separate those people, those who would literally attack us, from those who are among the ordinary people who have been misled to believe the lies spun by Republican politicians. With the exception of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 the only “crime” committed by the later group is being gullible and poorly educated.
A friend of mine who worked for 20 years as a top aide to a Democratic senator wrote me “If dems were smart, they would remind Spanish speaking groups how the nationalist movement quickly turned in to fascism (Castro, Franco) leading many of their ancestors to find a new home here.”
I wrote her back in full-snark mode that ”the folks I saw interviewed probably would think Franco was an actor, if they even had any idea at all who he was.” On reflection I realize that while I wasn’t demonizing Latino Republicans I was suggesting that they weren’t smart enough to be educated even though many or most of them know little if anything about the Spanish Civil War and El Caudillo.
This is the problem with lots of progressives like me. We have a dominant sarcastic streak in our personalities, and sometimes find ourselves reveling in our superior knowledge. We must avoid even hinting that we are better in any way, shape, or form than others, including the average GOP voter, even the ones that have fallen for all the MAGA lies and QAnon conspiracies.
We must remember when Hillary Clinton made this remark at New York fundraiser with liberal donors and Barbra Streisand:
"Half" of Trump supporters fit into a "basket of deplorables," while the other half are people who feel the government has let them down and need understanding and empathy.
Talk about one sentence that could be reasonably argued lost someone a national election. Read an analysis of this here.
Thanks goodness I’m a nobody and this diary won’t be used as ammunition against Democrats. I do think there are lessons here to be discussed in private (leave cell phones outside the room) among Democrats as they plan strategy for upcoming elections.
Democrats have to reach MAGA voters on an emotional level without alienating them by implying that they fell for Republican propaganda because they didn’t have the intellect to see through the lies, distortions, and misinformation.