Six years ago, I coined the term “Rancho Libertarian” in this newspaper to describe the political ideology I observed among many of the Latino men I knew.

Their family is proud of their rural immigrant roots, but they truly love this country. Working class at heart, middle class in income. Skeptical of big government and woke politics, but committed to bettering our communities. They believed in the American dream they had seen their parents achieve, but they feared it was fading away.

The Rancho Libertarians I knew were mostly Mexican-American, but there were also Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, and Colombians. They weren’t fans of Donald Trump. In 2016, Donald Trump received only 28% of the Latino vote over Hillary Clinton. According to Pew Research Center — but I saw how easily Latino men could open up to him. The orange-tinged tyrants did not see Trump as much of a threat because they seemed relatively harmless compared to the tyrants of their ancestral lands.

These guys were used to being yelled at as bosses. They respected people who said what they wanted and didn’t care about the consequences. What’s more, Rancho Libertarians didn’t like to make a fuss, so they ignored the loud opposition to Trump by activists on the streets and Democrats on Capitol Hill as nothing more than left-wing hysteria, while making their own. I continued with my life.

After Joe Biden won in 2020 with fewer Latino voters than Clinton, I warned liberals that the Democratic Party was losing blue-collar Latino men. Very few people listened to my concerns. Rancho Libertarians were considered outdated. bendidos — Traitors — These are the people who will drown in the progressive blue wave that swept California with Republican xenophobia and is now sweeping across the country.

So, who is treading water now?

After Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris, Democrats – to use a political cliché – are once again soul-searching in the political wilderness. While pundits are slicing up polling data like Thanksgiving ham, the hardest thing for Democrats to swallow is Latino men.

NBC News exit poll A study of the percentage of voters in 10 states with large Latino populations, including Arizona, Florida and Texas, found that Trump won 55% of the Latino male vote. This is the first time that the general public has sided with the Republican Party in a presidential election.

According to an exit poll conducted by Edison ResearchSupport for Trump among Latino men jumped from 36% in 2020 to 54% this year. meanwhile, CNN tracks 42% variation The shift for Republican candidates from 2016 to 2024 was by far the most dramatic of any group.

More analysis will be published in the coming weeks and months, but the idea that Trump won by recruiting Latino men into a coalition of brutalists is already a hot topic among the chatty ranks. are. This comes despite President Trump’s surrogates making anti-Latino jokes at rallies and the president’s promise to not only deport illegal immigrants but strip them of their birthright citizenship. Ta. This privilege was better enjoyed than by a few Rancho Libertarians.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Wednesday night described all of this as an “unprecedented shift in American politics.” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware told the New York Times about Harris’ loss: ”

Screenshots of the polls I mentioned fill my social media feeds with angry messages that say, “Trump won and it’s because of Latino men.”

The explanation for this new shift to the right comes as fast and furious as the Santa Ana winds. It’s “machismo.” Misogyny. Prevents darkening. Self-loathing. Straight up stupidity. The coveted whiteness.

We should criticize the choices of Latino men who love Trump. But placing Trump’s return so heavily on them excuses officials who committed other crimes.

There’s been a lot of attention this year about the gender gap among Latina women, with 60% supporting Harris; According to CNN exit poll — and just 38% of Latino men supported the Democratic candidate. This means that while women fought the good fight to save democracy, Pendejo Humanity essentially guaranteed its demise.

But this ignores the overall shift in support for Trump among Latinos. Edison exit polls showed 46% of Latinos supported Trump. Highest number ever tracked For Republican presidential candidates. According to CNN exit polls, support for Democratic candidates among Latinos has increased from 44 points for Clinton in 2016 to a 22 point advantage for Harris, and remains significant. However, it has decreased significantly.

In other words, it’s not just the arrogant bastards who have fallen under Trump’s spell of improving the economy and ending wokeness, but solipsistic senoritas as well.

Another big reason why Latino men supported Trump was because of the Democratic Party. Democrats have taken Latino men for granted for decades and repeatedly marginalized them in the Trump era.

Now that their families are settled in this country, Democrats are pushing for immigration reform and racial unity, even as surveys show that Latinos are more focused on economic issues and increasingly hawkish on the border. was promoted as a major pillar of Latino policy. It also didn’t help that Democrats ignored their traditional working-class base in favor of college-educated, white-collar workers.

Then there was “Latino,” a genderless term pushed by progressives and used in the past by Harris and Biden. I have no problem with that, but almost every non-progressive Latina straight man I know despises “Latinas.”

This term is very election-friendly kryptonite. Recently published studies by researchers Harvard University and Georgetown University found that politicians who used the term “Latino” were alienating Latino voters rather than attracting them. And it’s not just crazy people who say that. Three years ago, Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona banned “Latino” from public communications. In a social media post, he claimed that Latino politicians are using the word “to appease white rich progressives who think that’s the word we use.” It’s a vicious cycle of confirmation bias. ”

Progressives accused Gallego of insensitivity. She currently leads the Copper State to become the next U.S. senator, even though Trump is ahead of Harris in states won by Joe Biden in 2020.

Jorge Rivas, a Salvadoran immigrant who runs a restaurant in Arizona (2020 file photo)

(Cindy Carcamo/Los Angeles Times)

I’m not defending Latino male Trump supporters. I think they end up trusting people who only care about themselves too much. But they are our elders, relatives and friends. They voted that way because they felt abandoned by the Democrats, and the Trump campaign pushed them hard and succeeded. These Rancho Libertarians did what liberals said Latinos would do and what conservatives had long argued was impossible. In other words, they were assimilated.

Demonizing them only hardens their views. Besides, where is the contempt for white women among Harris supporters? Or is it because of Arab Americans who shunned Harris because of the Biden administration’s stance on Israel and Gaza? Or all the first-time voters, moderates, and other groups who should have voted for Harris but didn’t?

No, it’s easier to hate Latino men. It has been a favorite sport of Americans for centuries. We are clowns, criminals, rapists, and now traitors to them.

The final insult once came from a white supremacist. Now liberals are throwing it around. That’s progress, right?