Breathe
By Laura Manzo
There are women who claim that Trump is not misogynistic. Indeed, there are. The triumph of misinformation, comment some analysts, such as the director of the newspaper El País, Pepa Bueno. In 2024, 7% more Hispanic women voted for the Republican to return to the White House than four years ago. This data is devastating for feminism.
The more insults Trump has hurled at Latinos, the more Latinos have voted for him. Exit polls from last Tuesday's voting in the United States indicate that 13% more Latinos voted for the Republican than for the 2020 election. On this occasion, those of Cuban origin represent the highest subgroup, with 58%, and Mexicans the lowest, with 33%.
The Hispanic community has shown the greatest change with respect to other groups, such as white voters, who decreased their support for Trump by 3%, or African-Americans, who showed no change compared to 2020. Latino men, on the other hand, increased their preference for Trump by 18%.
Since 2000, when white women voted equally for Al Gore and George W. Bush, their votes have been shifting to the Republican side, going from 52% in 2016 to 55% in 2020. However, this 2024, they have declined again to 52%. This share is higher among low-educated white women living in the suburbs. For their part, Hispanic women voted 25% for Trump in 2016, 30% in 2020 and 37% this time around. Nothing like a macho, "hit me, but don't leave me" conquest?
All the xenophobia and misogyny of the man accused by at least 18 women of sexual harassment and assault is blurred in front of women with the surnames Martínez, García, López, González, Sánchez... All the xenophobia of Trump emerges in them. All the misogyny too. What do women without resources who cannot have an abortion matter? Many points less for sorority. "Trump leaves that decision to the states," they argue. And all the misogyny rubs off on men bewildered or angered by the feminist movement, too.
It's the economy, stupid. Economics kills sisterhood. Fuck sisterhood. Inflation is more powerful than the values and loyalty you may have to your origins, to women under patriarchy. Nor is it that the millions of migrants already settled in the U.S. and with a job want millions more to arrive, perhaps to take away the opportunities they have worked hard to take, even risking their lives. Moreover, if, as in some polls, these Hispanics do not feel that Trump's xenophobic insults are directed at them, perhaps the demarcation from the complex has also taken place. As when we Mexicans see ourselves in the mirror as less brown than we are, and as when we behave racist with those who are browner than us, lest they will put us as equals. We despise those who "come behind" instead of helping them. We despise ourselves, despite the advances in female consciousness. Or is this the example of the lack of progress?
Anything, except going back to the poverty they surely experienced in their country of origin years ago. Back to the ways of the economic impossibility of fulfilling their children's dreams. No one wants a "communist" like Harris.
Working class men and women claim the Democrats are to blame for high prices and tight budgets. We will wake up to the economy that Trump will inherit, inflation more controlled by the actions the current administration is executing. Ironically, the hero for many voters will once again be Trump.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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