https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/cuban-american-voters-florida-trump-desantis-suarez-2024-president-rcna94253
Edited and updated: 7/15/23
The influence of the non-Cuban/Venezuelan outside of Florida should be considered separately from other parts of the US. Trump's racist attacks on Hispanic migrants and the growing demographics of young Latinos elsewhere played a role in putting Arizona in the blue-purple column recently, as well as Trump's nasty attacks on the memory of Arizona's hero, the late Sen. John McCain. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-suburbanites-latinos-and-the-ghost-of-john-mccain-turned-arizona-into-a-presidential-battleground/ar-AA1jcHYS?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=0ebe0487102d4ec290e853e5d0eaf556&ei=7
The media sometimes just does not get it. They are confusing Cuban and Venezuelan voters with a larger body of many other Hispanics. They are constantly pointing to "the Hispanic vote" that one or the other candidate for a federal position-national election or the current officeholder is supported more or less in the polls of this monolith of an ethnic block. They give verbal lip service to repeating to themselves this block is not monolithic but treat it as a monolith in the next sentence or paragraph. They then express shock or breaking news when some Hispanics do not fit their pre-conceived notion of a monolith and leave it at that. It is time that pundits begin to look at segments of the Hispanic vote and report that to their audiences.
Miami turned red recently and Florida moved into the deep red column after being purple and led by a governor who tried to position himself to the right of MAGA, Every time polls showing a political shift happens, the story becomes: Democrats are losing the Hispanic vote while polls of the monolithic view show the shift has been localized and intensified. The polls of the body of Hispanics as a whole show little change but reveal some softening of support of Democrats, giving that party some angst. Poll: Hispanics aren’t flocking to the GOP, but Democrats still have problems (nbcnews.com)
Democrats rarely ever had more than 60% of the identified Hispanic vote as a monolith in any presidential election, but since 1984, with one exceptional year, the "monolith" has voted for Democrats 57% of the time, including now. The question posed for Democrats in the NBC article immediately above is how to stop any perceived hemorrhaging? The first step in reporting the real story is understanding why certain Hispanics zag one way and others in other parts of the country zag another and why. Man-on-the-street interviews, as this above story illustrates, are fine, but putting this in a context of why and what, and how to fix it takes a more meaningful journalistic approach.
Culture, heritage, and life experiences explain much. Why did Miami turn so deeply red recently? Here is my theory. Cuban and Venezuelans were already heavily GOP voters and those sitting on the fence got an added impetus to vote red from DeSantis' cultural wars against gays and a nearly total abortion ban. Religious and cultural beliefs were added to a long-standing affinity with GOP hard-line anti-Cuba policies and gratitude for their ability to seek refuge in the US after Communists took over both Cuba and later Venezuela. Their views are shaped by communist repressive governments which persecuted the middle and upper classes and forced them to flee to the US. Their life experiences and culture differ in many ways from Hispanic immigrants with roots in Mexico and Central America who were fleeing violent drug cartels and poverty. Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants, by and large, were once the wealthier elite of their countries and have more in common with Trump, who also considers himself the wealthy elite. Some even look down on those racially mixed and the poor, including the recent poorer and younger wave of Venezuelans at our borders.. Trump's disdain for "others" confirms that he shares some of those same values. Therefore it is a mistake to assume that even earlier arrivals should support the more recent ones just because they share religion and language.
It is more than just which presidential candidate takes the hardest line against Cuba. The affinity with MAGA runs deeper than that. How should politicians approach this voting block of Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants? Should they even try? Empathize first and briefly acknowledge how they get the differences. Be respectful, but at least make the effort to make a case for their different views..Changing deep-seated ideas will be a slow process, and until then, the rest of us should not be surprised\ that the Cuban and Venezuelan Floridians support Trump and the right-leaning Desantis Sadly, for now, it is what it is for the older generations, but the more assimilated younger generations may have open minds addresses issues affecting Florida Cubans and Venezuelans other than foreign policy toward Cuba or Venezuela. In other parts of the country, the issues and attitudes, and experiences will differ, so remember, all politics are local, but Hispanic views may be local, too.
There are other issues raised by the Cuban and Venezuelan immigrant communities besides hardline foreign policies toward Cuba and Venezuela and DeSantis' cultural wars. They have some views of the meaning of democracy, justice, freedom, and immigration that are similar to the MAGA supporters.
Democracy v Autocracy. The question that bugs me is how can those who fled dictatorships not be bothered by charges made that Trump is a wannabe dictator? Are they just trading one dictatorship for another? If so, can Democrats convince them to vote bluer?
Connected to this is the concept of justice which is similar to MAGA views.. Indictments of Donald Trump only endear Trump to Florida Cubans and Venezuelan immigrants because the dictatorial and autocratic rules of Castro, Chavez, and Maduro abused the rule of law and the justice system to force the upper and middle class to flee. The irony is that Donald Trump has often expressed admiration for dictatorial, non-democratic leaders, from Putin to the heads of N Korea and Hungary, yet the refugees from autocratic countries such as Cuba and Venezuela fail to understand or see that Trump has the same instincts as such autocrats, dictators, and tyrants from whom they fled. Post-President Trump expressed a desire to take revenge/retribution and to use fear of enlisting the government to persecute his enemies if he got a second term. An explanation for this blind spot and unconcern that Trump is a wannabe autocrat is a mindset that autocrats are OK with these Cuban and Venezuelan refugees if they are "their" autocrats who support their elite class or interests, or lifestyle. It is an attitude similar to that held by the core Trump American-born followers, as well.
"New Deal and War on Poverty expansionism is communism and therefore Democrats are communists" is a concept frequently expressed by the Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants. The MAGA views are similar to the anti-social programs held by non-MAGAs, too, but not expressed in such extreme terms as communist. Life experience could explain why Cubans and Venezuelans in Miami claim everyone left of center is a communist when they advocate social security, health care, and poverty programs because that is how the governments they fled rose to power by advocating and promising social programs for the poor. There are no shades of gray in their concept. Government social programs are communist. Expansion of them will lead to communism. Period. In time, they may realize that there is a difference between the New Deal social programs and War on Poverty initiatives based on the need for the least of these and the kind of class warfare/ persecution by authoritarian/dictatorial governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
Those who immigrated to Florida from Cuba also have a view of "freedom" that is shared by the Trumpist crowd. Freedom for them appears to mean the freedom to live their past lifestyles, but it did not mean fighting for the same freedom for others. It was a very self-centered view:. It was freedom for them to do their thing, but by implication and inference or even lack of realization, it did not mean they ought to support or advocate the same freedom for those of different socio, racial, sexual orientation,or country of origin backgrounds. This may explain why Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants are not bothered by the anti-immigrant rhetoric and harsh border policies of the Trump administration. Remember those Cubans who set foot on our beaches fleeing Castro were immediately granted refugee status and citizenship.
Trump's unprecedented campaign pitch: Elect me to be your revenge on the government - ABC News
Most Latinos Say Democrats Care About Them and Work Hard for Their Vote, Far Fewer Say So of GOP | Pew Research Center
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Personal notes: So why am I sensitive to this failure to take into account the reasons for the angst or incomplete coverage of the Hispanic vote story?
Full disclosure: I had a great-grandmother from Tuero, Spain, who married a first-generation immigrant from France and settled in the eastern Colorado plains in the 1880s. My father grew up in a bilingual Spanish-speaking middle-class family of business owners in Hillrose, Colorado. My admiration for Hispanic culture runs deep, and I was proud to serve nearly 8 years in the Federico Peña administration when he was the Mayor of Denver before he served as US Secretary of Energy and Transportation. Peña is a native of Laredo, Texas. After that, I was a consultant to a local Hispanic businessman, Mike Shaw, also with Texas roots, helping with his philanthropic projects in the Hispanic and minority communities. His efforts were recognized nationally. mike shaw first minority dealer to be named Time auto dealer of year - Search (bing.com)
My views, too, are shaped by unusual life experiences. Members of our family and I have spent time in Florida and Miami, some living there for several years, others frequent visitors. The contrast between the Floridian Hispanics and those Hispanics in my own community was stark. It seemed even the only things they had in common were the Spanish language and the Catholic religion. We lived for over forty years in a heavily Hispanic Denver reflecting the first Hispanic arrivals from the poverty-struck San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado with inhabitants who can trace their ancestors to the Conquistadors. In more recent times, Denver is dominated by those immigrating from south of the border. There have been cultural clashes as the south of the border groups became dominant. Both groups share more in common with themselves than with the first waves of Cubans in Florida or the more recent Venezuelan arrivals in Miami.
I was married most of my adult life to a refugee from the communism of Eastern Europe, so the plight of refugees is more than just a political or abstract interest. I know firsthand of the differences between communism and the New Deal/War on Poverty programs. One did not lead to another. In any case, the concept of freedom and human and civil rights are colored by their experiences that motivated emigration. My late husband, for example, was very relieved to be able to say and speak out what he wanted without fear of a knock on the door by police in the middle of the night. However, he was puzzled when not everyone appreciated his opinion (He was a Democratic national committeeman for three terms). I had to explain to him that freedom of speech did not mean everyone had to agree with him but that he did have a right to express it, even if it was not wise politics.
What both my husband and I and other family members did observe over the years as those who immigrated to Florida from Cuba had an entirely different view of freedom. Freedom for them meant the freedom to live their past lifestyles, but it did not mean fighting for the same freedom for others. It was a very self-centered view:. It was freedom for them to do their thing, but by implication and inference or even lack of realization, it did not mean they ought to support or advocate the same freedom for those of different socio, racial, or country of origin backgrounds. This, I think, may explain why the GOP and Trump have such appeal to those who advocate freedom for their followers but not the same freedom or equity for everyone. The corollary to that is to approve or tolerate discrimination against those perceived as potential or actual enemies.
