Opinion: White voters elected Trump

Contrary to what the mainstream media reporters and others say, Brown men didn’t elect the convicted felon Donald J. Trump and his sidekick J.D. Vance to the White House in 2024.

It was white men.

Moreover, Black men didn’t elect the immoral Trump and complicit Vance to the White House in 2024.

It was white women.

According to U.S. News & World Report (Nov. 6, 2024), representing 55% of the popular vote, “Trump commanded the lion's share of votes from white voters, middle-aged Americans and rural dwellers.” 

While many political pundits, reporters and pollsters were wrong in 2024, where I was also confident that VP Kamala Harris would prevail in a tight race, I’m in a state of shock with the regressive and racist outcome. In fact, it wasn’t as close as it was predicted. Like Yogi Berra once said, “It's deja vu all over again.” As I’m aware that the popular vote doesn’t determine the next President, where the archaic electoral vote on a state-by-state basis rules, the fact that a vulgar, convicted felon would return to the White House is nauseating to me and, I’m sure, millions of others like-minded individuals. 

For millions of hard-working Latina/o immigrants, like in 2016, it looks like the American Dream has become the American Nightmare for many years to come. 

Trump (and his lackey Vance, who sold out his own people from Appalachia) won based on a xenophobic (or anti-immigrant) agenda. From spreading lies about vulnerable Mexicans, Haitians and Venezuelans in el norte, Trump and Vance successfully created a Brown scapegoat to instill fear in his millions of White supporters and self-hating Brown/Black people. Anti-Mexicanism is not new in America, however. Included as a chapter article in my 2019 book, “La Realidad: The Realities of Anti-Mexicanism (A Paradigm),”Dr. Juan Gómez-Quiñones brilliantly articulates the nature of anti-Mexicanism in this country: “Anti-Mexicanism in the United States is a race-premised set of historical and contemporary ascriptions, convictions and discriminatory practices inflicted on persons of Mexican descent. It has been long standing and pervasive.”

To better understand the anti-immigrant rhetoric by Trump and his complicit enablers, we must study the historical nature of the eugenics movement dating back to the late 1800s in Europe. In basic terms, eugenics is based on a pseudo-science (or “fake science” in Trumpian terms) based on the falsehood (or lie) that White Europeans are genetically superior to racialized groups. According to the Anti-Eugenics Project, this racist movement has crossed borders from Europe to the U.S.: “Eugenics has roots in longstanding European racialized classification systems, Jim Crow-era segregation policies, and Chinese immigration exclusion. Eugenics emerged at the end of the 19th century — known as the Gilded Age — as the solution for elite patriarchs across the political spectrum to determine and manage all those deemed ‘normal’ and ‘fit,’ and to devise policies to keep all ‘others’ institutionalized and excluded from civic life.”

Xenophobia mostly explains why Trump beat Harris even though Harris had more money and key celebrities (e.g., Beyonce, Taylor Swift) on her side. This includes a better ground game in battle grounds states. Trump effectively tapped into the DNA of American society: systemic racism. While many people celebrated former President Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 (to the White House) as a signal of a post-racial society, Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor critically reminds America that systemic racism is alive and well in our society.  

Moreover, in the movie "Gladiator" (2000), co-starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson, etc., there’s a key scene between two senators that best describes Trump’s primal instincts: “I think he [Phoenix’s character, Emperor Commodus] knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar.” This is not to imply that Trump is a genius (or “stable genius”), which is another illusion. By knowing the mentality of the mob (or White mob), over the years, Trump has spent a lot of time at college football games, NFL games, boxing matches, UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) events, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) events, etc. This includes being on popular podcasts, like The Joe Rogan Experience, with millions of followers/subscribers. While Rogan is knowledgeable about the UFC, when it comes to politics, just like COVID-19 vaccines, he’s an idiot. Despite Trump’s rambling—he calls it “the weave”—and going off topic on these podcasts and other low-value outlets, Trump’s able to reach millions of voters (and potential voters). 

As I also watch many of these sporting events for entertainment purposes, so, for future elections (especially consequential ones!), I strongly urge Democrats to learn from the “stable genius” in this regard: target voters (and potential voters) where they reside, pray and play, etc. In the case of Latinas/os, go to the barrios, churches, parks, schools, Dodger games (or Yankees, etc.), soccer games, taco trucks (not a stereotype) and, yes, cantinas. More specifically, in the case of people of Mexican origin (my clan), Democrats must recruit and elevate people who know about tele-novels and listen to the music of Juan Gabriel, Chalino, Chente and Selena (the late Texan), etc. 

On a related point, communicate to them in English or Spanish (or Spanglish) about real issues relating to good paying jobs, affordable housing and the cost of food, instead of focusing on issues relating to democracy and the Constitution. This is not to imply that the latter two are not important, yet we, as Latinas/os, don’t live or breathe based on what’s discussed on MSNBC or CNN! For many of us, it’s about our familias and their wellbeing in el norte y el sur. 

At the end of the day, my message to Trump and his complicit followers is very simple: aquí estamos y no nos vamos.