Here at Hispanic Fanatic world headquarters, we are always interested in what our fellow Latinos are thinking and doing.
This is true even when our fellow Latinos have completely lost their fucking minds.
I’m talking, of course, about those Hispanics who support a certain reality-TV host who has roiled the presidential race.
Recent polls show that 80 percent of Latinos have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP frontrunner, with 70 percent having a “very unfavorable impression of him, which is more than double the percentage of any other major candidate.”
Yikes, that’s pretty overwhelming.
Still, it’s not 100 percent, which means there are indeed some Hispanics who are walking around in “Make America Great Again” caps and thinking overt misogyny is a presidential quality.
A few articles have profiled these outliers. My favorite is the Harvard-educated Latina who states, “If you’re an intelligent person, you would be supporting Trump because it would mean you actually understand the nuances of foreign policy.” Yes, that comment isn’t snide and condescending at all. And it’s completely based in reality because if there is one thing Trump knows, it’s the nuances of foreign policy.
This triple threat of theoretical anti-Trump mania — female, Hispanic, and well-educated — then gets all angry white male on us with her statement that “there’s just too many damn people here, many of whom are illegal.”
OK, so she’s interesting.
But what about other Latino supporters of Trump?
Well, they include people who say things like “I don’t speak Spanish, and the Mexican culture doesn’t resonate with me.”
Clearly.
In addition, there are those who believe Trump is “like un viejo malcriado, like an uncle who misbehaves. He says really stupid things sometimes, but he meant them at that moment.”
So apparently it’s ok to spew racism, childish insults, and bald-faced lies… as long as you meant them at that moment.
Moving on, we see that many of Trump’s Hispanic supporters like him “because he is a strong man who says what he means,” and possesses an authoritarian demeanor.
Hopefully, some psychology student out there will study how Latin America’s history of dictators and brutal strongmen has affected the Hispanic mind. Because here is fresh proof that Trujillo, Somoza, etcetera have caused many Hispanics to yearn for a tough guy to tell them what to do. And that’s not unhealthy at all — nope.
Finally, there is the strangest aspect of Trump’s Latino support. Many of his fans say they admire his honesty and sincerity. Then they immediately add the following:
“I don’t see how the country as a whole is going to stomach mass deportation and a wall being built.”
“No one is going to make 12 million illegal immigrants leave our country.”
“I really don’t think he’s going to build a wall.”
“I don’t think he’s going to deport everyone.”
It doesn’t take a political scientist to see the inherent contradiction in their thinking. They are basically saying, “I love his honesty, even though he won’t actually do anything that he says.”
Yes, it’s all very illuminating.
