As the midterms approach, the Democrats are bracing for what should be a red wave, at least in the House if not the Senate as well.
The accuracy of polls can be fickle, but there is one trend the polls are most likely getting right — the shift in Hispanic voters moving more and more into the GOP camp. And it must be worrying the Democrats in their smoke-filled back rooms as they hash out their last push to election day.
A recent poll by Americano Media of likely Hispanic voters shows that, in a generic ballot, 40% will ‘definitely’ vote Democrat, 31% Republican. 10% will ‘probably’ vote Democrat while 6% ‘probably’ Republican, which amounts to a 50% to 37% lead for the Democrats. That leaves a full 13% of undecided Hispanic voters — and at least half of them are leaning for the GOP.
Why should Republicans feel confident about moving this 13% into their camp? Because the issues that matter most to undecided Hispanic voters are those on which many Republicans are running.
Of those surveyed, the most important problem was inflation (26%), then jobs/the economy (16%), then immigration (10%), then taxes/government debt (9%). Interestingly abortion is found way down the list at just three percent … this is below crime/law-and-order, healthcare and social security.
These numbers represent startling gains for the Republicans in a once-solid blue voting bloc.
As recently as 2012, Hispanics voted overwhelmingly Democrat: 71% to 28% for the GOP. This Democrat support has eroded some 20 points as of October this year. Democrats seem baffled by this political sea change in a once-reliable ethnic voting bloc. But they shouldn’t be. One interesting clue I find is this statistic: of those surveyed 45% said they ‘mostly’ or ‘only’ speak English in the home. By the third generation, that number is 65%.
As Hispanics assimilate more — learning and speaking the host country’s language is a sure sign of this process taking place, mimicking the trends of immigrants before them — they will vote not as an ethnic interest group, but as Americans. As such, a party that views everything from the prism of race tends to miss this Americanizing metamorphosis in action. It is truly one of the more remarkable aspects of this nation. And still very much alive in the legal immigrant community.
It’s becoming apparent that the Democrats have committed a grave miscalculation, born of a smugness that compels them to mislabel people whose last names just happen to be Garcia or Vega as identifying themselves solely by, and thus voting as dictated through, their ethnicity. But as Americans, Hispanics, like the Irish, like Italians, like we Deutsch Volk, care more about feeding our families, good schools, safe neighborhoods, drug-free environments, secure borders, and all the rest.
The polls may even indicate more trouble for the Democrats down the road in that for all Hispanics, regardless of party, inflation (26%) and jobs/the economy (12%) are the top concerns in 2022. Abortion is third at 10%, immigration at 9%.
So of the top four issues, three are those in which the GOP has the edge. Add to this the sense among 71% of all Hispanics that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and the Democrats may face a day of reckoning with yet another group that is outgrowing its ethno-centric nature and assimilating into the country as a whole … again, as is the trend with immigrants from any part of the globe.
The Democrats’ only hope seems to be to bring in ever more waves of impoverished illegals who appear to be uneducated and often speak dialects such as from Oaxaca that even native Spanish-speakers find difficult to understand. The more ignorant and desperate, the more easily enticed with taxpayer-sponsored government largess, which has been the progressive Democrats’ modus operandi for two generations.
The Biden Administration could seal the border tomorrow if they so choose. But they do not see the 2.4 million illegals flooding the southern border in fiscal 2022 as a crisis overwhelming towns and straining national resources while promoting instability, but rather as a political opportunity. The only rational explanation for why the party in power refuses to secure the border is they strive to bring as many illegals into the country as they can, while they can. Once across the border, they will entice them into the party with generous handouts and benefits to create reliable future voters. Then they will push for amnesty to legalize what they see as over 20 million permanent Democrats, forever shifting power in their favor. And they believe this makes them appear more “pro-immigrant,” thus currying favor with Hispanics already here.
But something happened while the Democrats steered the country down this unconscionably cynical road: Hispanics, it turns out, actually vote like the Americans they are. They are concerned more about the price of food, gas, and housing than whether one carries hot sauce in her purse ala the shamelessly pandering Hillary Clinton in 2016.
When it comes to making the hard choices necessary to steer the country back on the right path — a path many Hispanics agree we’re not on at the moment — Republicans are more bark than bite. But still, it is pretty clear that, when it comes to issues Hispanics care about most, the Democrats have been an unmitigated disaster.
Daniel Garza is the president of The LIBRE Initiative, a non-profit that advances economic freedom in the Hispanic community. As far back as March 2022 he expressed what amounted to a sense of betrayal felt among Hispanics, who’d been reliable voters for progressive candidates in the past:
“Instead of making our lives better, they passed bills that spent our hard-earned money on things like corporate welfare and new regulations from Washington bureaucrats. They wasted our tax money and rewarded interest groups. Instead of empowering people to build better lives, they’ve offered a government-centered agenda.
“The results are clear,” he goes on to say in a damning indictment of the Democrat Party. “Real wages haven’t grown. Education isn’t improving — in fact, most families continue to find themselves with very limited options. Health care is more expensive, and choices are limited. And when it comes to immigration, we’re still waiting for action — for measures to allow Dreamers and others to contribute more fully to the nation, modernize our agricultural workforce and enhance border security. Many now recognize that we have little to show for our efforts…”
“…No voter will accept being taken for granted,” Garza warns, while predicting that “No one should be surprised if that leads more Hispanic voters to support conservative candidates.”
There is an innate streak of condescension in the modern Democrat Party. They seem to think that minority voters are as obsessed by their own ethnicity and race as they are in the DNC. Pandering with hot sauce while flooding the border with illegals who, common language aside, are as much a concern to Hispanic-Americans as they are to anyone else, doesn’t lower the cost of living, make cities safe, improve schools, or get fentanyl off the streets.
The elderly, corrupt Democrat leadership is hopelessly out-of-touch. And as they scheme within the comfy confines of their Emerald City echo chamber, so pathologically obsessed with group identity, proves they have forgotten this. With Hispanic voters, this oversight could be their undoing next week.
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities trader, columnist, and author of the best-selling novel The Extraordinary, which deals with autism and PTSD and the critically acclaimed World War II novel, Of Another Time And Place.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.