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With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, the “Latino voter” is back in the national spotlight. But both Democrats and Republicans still don’t seem to understand this crucial and heterogeneous group of voters.
But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
The giant is not sleeping
In the weeks leading up to a big election, Latino voter headlines pile up like wild mushrooms after an October rain. A sample from this week: “We’re Not All Democrats” (New York Times), “The Dangers of Ignoring the Latino Vote This November” (nation), “Republicans looking for gains with Latinos have a lot of work to do on TV” (political), “Democrats and Republicans aren’t cutting it for Latinos, poll finds” (Axios). So fixed is the timing of these pre-election stories that a person can set their calendar to cadence.
The dominant themes in the discourse have also become known. Experts report on who spent what to attract the coveted group; others wrinkle their noses at the latest “Hispandering” of candidates along the way. Others remind us that there is no such thing as a monolithic Hispanic-American voting bloc, let alone a regular “Latino vote.” Then the election rolls around and discussion stops until the next federal campaign cycle, when some updated polling numbers are exchanged.
I’ve been following this pattern closely not because I’m a reporter or political pundit, but because I’m a Latino voter — one of the estimated 34.5 million eligible to vote in this US election. Insofar as there is a “typical” member of this group, in many ways, I am it. Like most eligible Hispanic American voters, I am a natural born US citizen. I belong squarely in the largest age group of eligible Latino voters (30 to 49, go for it!), and I live—and vote—in the state with the ninth largest share of Latino voters in the union. I’m also bilingual, bicultural, and—in the sense that I’m frustrated with both sides—bipartisan.
Demographic affinities aside, what I suspect I have most in common with other Latino voters boils down to the bottom line: a vague pulsation of exasperation. We make up the nation’s fastest-growing group of voters, the “sleeping giant” of the American electoral equation. Every 30 seconds, a Latino in the US is eligible to vote. And yet, Latino voters are apparently considered — then discarved – as a curiosity, a strategic nut to crack during election contests.
Why? One, because the idea that this giant is sleeping is wrong: We are already the second largest bloc of voters in the country, helping to decide elections. Two, although we are labeled as giants, we are persistently, and incorrectly, treated as a demographic country.
This is reflected, for example, in displays of mistrust over Latino voters’ views on immigration — an issue of significantly lower priority than, say, the economy and health care. It’s also evident in rhetoric across the political spectrum, from First Lady Jill Biden’s declaration this summer that U.S. Latinos are as “unique as … breakfast tacos” to right-wing fear-mongering about “ The Great Replacement”.
It is more accurate to understand Latinos as a microcosm of American identity. We embody the range of values and beliefs that define the political landscape of this nation, ideals planted in the colonial histories of our ancestral Latin American homelands.
As Northwestern University history professor Geraldo Cadava wrote in the March issue of The Atlantic:
When [Latinos] vote, we’re not just voting on health care or education policy. We are expressing political identities that have evolved over the centuries – for and against expanding empires and nation-states; for and against more radical forms of egalitarianism – in ways that don’t always fit neatly into the rhetoric of the left-right divide.
Almost one in five people in this country is Hispanic-American. We are a sociopolitical giant, yes. But we’re not aliens, and we weren’t born into any political party—we’re Americans, just as complex as anyone else. Candidates and elected officials would do well to accept this truth—for the sake of their political prospects, but more importantly, for the country itself.
Connected:
Today’s news
- Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $6,500 fine for refusing to testify before a congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack.
- A federal judge in Missouri has rejected efforts by six states to block President Joe Biden’s student debt relief programs. Amy Coney Barrett dismissed a separate lawsuit by a taxpayer association that sought to do the same.
- The European Union pledged to adopt measures to address Europe’s energy crisis, but was unable to reach a consensus on how to cap natural gas prices.
shipments
Evening Read
Taylor Swift’s beautiful banality midnight
By Spencer Kornhaber
These days on the Internet, the term theory refers to something between a rumor and a prayer: a wish expressed so often that it begins to seem true. And one very special wish fueled all the theories surrounding Taylor Swift’s original tenth studio album, midnight. Fans who speculated that she would come out as pansexual, or make one rumor– level masterpiece of soft rock, or finally manage to calm Kanye West for good, everyone wanted the same thing: a breakthrough. Maybe Taylor Swift would be different from what she seemed for a long time. Maybe this smart, cute 32-year-old woman from Pennsylvania who likes cats and cozy sweaters can do something radical yet. Maybe – please, please, please – she can free us from our banality.
Read the full article.
More From The Atlantic
Cultural Vacation
Read on. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, the groundbreaking 1897 volume of African-American sociological scholarship by WEB Du Bois.
Or check out one of our critic’s other selections of books that recreate moments from the past.
Look. Blondethe Netflix film that has remained in the public consciousness weeks after its release and subsequent criticism for one simple reason: Marilyn Monroe’s enduring star power.
Listen. midnight, the “aggressively normal, aggravatingly normal and, in its own way, extremely normal” new album from Taylor Swift.
Play our daily crossword.
SP
While it’s true that Latino identity cannot be summed up in a simple, all-encompassing archetype, most of us feel at least somewhat connected to a broader Hispanic American community. This sense of pan-Latino affinity is something I talked about with Xochitl Gonzalez, the novelist and writer of The Atlantic newsletter Brooklyn, Everywhere. Many of Xochitl’s posts—especially her recent string of Latino-centric newsletters published during Hispanic Heritage Month, between September and October 15—provide a lively entry point into this cultural dynamic (and, in the interest of disclosure, not I’m just saying that as its editor). Read, subscribe, enjoy.
– Kelly
