Go Lean Commentary
“… When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [them]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” – Donald Trump Announcement of running for President June 16, 2015 – Source: WashingtonPost
From the beginning of his presidential political career, Donald Trump named, blamed and shamed Mexicans and by extension all Latinos (sometimes referred to as Hispanics or Chicanos). From this moment, Trump was strongly opposed by many Latinos for his entire presidential tenure. See here, from the previous blog-commentary on Celebrity Chef Jose Andrés:
Andrés planned to open a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, in 2016. After Donald Trump made disparaging comments about Mexicans in June 2015, Andrés withdrew from the contract with the Trump Organization, which then sued him.[13] Andrés counter-sued, and the parties reached a settlement in April 2017.[14] Andrés remains an outspoken critic of Trump.[15][16]
A Latinos for Trump rally in Miami on Sunday October 18, 2020. Mario Cruz/EPA, via Shutterstock
“Trump was strongly opposed by many Latinos“, except for some men …
While there has been a consistent disgust towards Donald Trump, due to his Latin bashing, why has there been an exception among these men?
Blame it on Latin Machismo – Toxic Masculinity! See the rationale in the related Appendix VIDEO below … and in this New York Times article here:
Title: The Latino gender gap
It’s not just the public polls. Recent private polls conducted by political campaigns are filled with bad news for President Trump. He is doing eight to 10 percentage points worse in many congressional districts than he did in 2016, Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report writes.His struggles have jeopardized the Republicans’ Senate majority and will probably lead to further Democratic gains in the House. “It would be a pleasant surprise if we only lost 10 House seats,” one Republican member of Congress told The Cook Political Report.
But there is one exception, and it will be familiar to regular readers of this newsletter: Trump and other Republicans don’t seem to be doing worse among Latino voters than in 2016. Nationwide, Republicans are still winning about one-third of the Latino vote, polls show.
As a result, Trump still has a good chance to win both Florida and Texas. Similarly, Senator John Cornyn of Texas continues to lead narrowly in his own re-election race, and House Republicans could hold onto districts in California, Florida and Texas.
Why is Trump holding steady with Latinos? There is no one answer, partly because Latinos are such a diverse group (many of whom also identify as white). But an important part of the explanation appears to involve gender.
Recent Times polls of battleground states show that the gender gap among Latino voters — 26 percentage points — is significantly larger than it is among Black, white or Asian voters:
Among Latina women, Biden leads Trump by a whopping 34 percentage points (59 percent to 25 percent). Among Latino men, Biden’s lead is only eight points (47 percent to 39 percent). These patterns are similar across both Latino college graduates and those without a degree.
Stephanie Valencia, the president of Equis Research, which focuses on Latino voters, told us that its polls suggest that Latino men may have even moved slightly toward Trump this year. If so, they are the only large demographic group to do so.
In effect, gender seems to be outweighing ethnicity for some Latino men.
Race may get more attention, but gender also plays a huge and growing role in politics: The gender gap, which was virtually zero in the 1960s and ’70s, could reach a record high this year. The trend — men moving to the right and women to the left — is occurring in other high-income democracies as well, for a complicated mix of reasons, as Eric Levitz explains in New York magazine.
My colleague Jennifer Medina recently wrote an eye-opening story called “The Macho Appeal of Donald Trump,” focused on Latino men. The whole story is worth reading, but here is a key passage:
… what has alienated so many older, female and suburban voters is a key part of Mr. Trump’s appeal to these men, interviews with dozens of Mexican-American men supporting Mr. Trump shows: To them, the macho allure of Mr. Trump is undeniable. He is forceful, wealthy and, most important, unapologetic. In a world where at any moment someone might be attacked for saying the wrong thing, he says the wrong thing all the time and does not bother with self-flagellation.
The story was set in Arizona — a state that could decide the election.
Source: New York Times – posted October 22, 2020; retrieved October 27, 2020 from: https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2
Did you get that?
… what has alienated so many older, female and suburban voters is a key part of Mr. Trump’s appeal to these men, interviews with dozens of Mexican-American men supporting Mr. Trump shows: To them, the macho allure of Mr. Trump is undeniable. He is forceful, wealthy and, most important, unapologetic.
It is not just Mexican-American men alone; the same attributes are common for all Latin males. This is not good! (We have this actuality with Hispanic men in Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico).
This is the complaint that has emerged from Latin America and the Caribbean by so many women. The Toxic Masculinity is so thick, it can be cut with a knife. We addressed this actuality just recently; notice this excerpt:
Toxic Environment ==> Toxic Masculinity – October 2, 2020
We find that in certain societies, the “man code” has penetrated all aspects of society, not just prisons; think “locker room talk”, “Blue Codes” for conduct among law enforcement officials or bonding among soldiers in foxholes or trench-warfare ; there is even a “code of silence” among gang members or organized crime figures.
Toxic Masculinity is just one more way that Toxic Environments have affected the “community quest” to live, work and play in the Caribbean. Needless to say, community stewards cannot allow Toxic Masculinity to dominate society; think bullying, domestic violence, sexual harassment in the workplace. It is unfortunate but true, “bad actors” will always seek to exploit any weakness for their own selfish gain. So we must be prepared to curb the toxicity and promote a positive community ethos instead.
This is sad that our Dirty Laundry in the Latin America and Caribbean region is being exposed to the world. It is our Bad Community Ethos that should be named, blamed and shamed.
So many of our Latin men love the personage of Donald Trump, even though it is obvious that he does not love “them/us” back!
That is pathetic; we must do better.
This is the continuation of the monthly Teaching Series from the movement behind the 2013 book Go Lean…Caribbean. These Teaching Series address issues germane to Caribbean life and culture; this is entry 3-of-5, continuing the thesis that many people from Caribbean member-states have a voice in the American General Election for November 3; but our voice may not be all that positive, as many of our people – who subscribe to the Latin male machismo ethos – are doubling-down on our negative community ethos. It is hard for us to vent about the disgust towards the words and actions (or inactions) of the Trump Administration these last 4 years when we are taking comfort in the same negative vibes.
Our Caribbean Diaspora is relevant in America’s Decision 2020 due to the fact that our numbers are strong – upwards of 22 million people, 7 percent of the US population; this is enough to have relevance in a political race. But we need to think, feel, say and act properly.
American citizens of Caribbean heritage should be pursuing the Greater Good right now; people are watching and listening; they are noticing the disregard for the threats affecting our regional homeland and they expect us to demand change, not validate the Status Quo. Consider here, how this thesis is cataloged in the Teaching Series this month:
- Decision 2020: Puerto Rico claps back at Trump
- Decision 2020: Haiti’s Agenda 2016 ==> 2020 – Trump never cared
- Decision 2020: Latino Gender Gap – More Toxic Masculinity
- Decision 2020: More Immigration or Less
- Decision 2020: What’s Next for Cuba & Venezuela
Yes, Decision 2020 allows us to analyze the motivations and sensibilities of not just the American eco-system, but also the Caribbean’s heart.
The problems of Toxic Masculinity and/or Latin Machismo has been addressed and detailed in many previous commentaries; see this chronological sample here:
Bahamas Study: 58% Of Boys Agree to Female ‘Discipline’ – October 21, 2014
Many times people flee the region to mitigate abusive situations; even more troubling, as victims they may have encountered an attitude of complacency and indifference among public safety authorities. The following article [Study] posits that this attitude is deeply entrenched in society, even among the next (younger) generation:
FIFTY-eight per cent of high school boys and 37 per cent of high school girls participating in a recent academic survey believe men should discipline their female partners, according to a new College of the Bahamas study. …
Change has now come to the Caribbean. As the foregoing article [Study] depicts the problem of domestic violence is tied to a community ethos. This ‘negative’ ethos must be uprooted and replaced with a new, progressive spirit, starting at the adolescent level, when attitudes are pliable and sensitive to strategic messaging.
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Helping Black Caribbean Men & Boys – Hurt People Hurt People – March 3, 2018
Black men and boys” …
… this is a special group in the population of the New World, the Americas. This group has been victims and villains. To the point that academicians and clinicians alike can conclude that “hurt people hurt people”.
Societal defects within this group are higher than normal, compared to other populations groups. This includes violence, delinquencies, incarceration, repression and hopelessness. …
The New World experience for people of African descent is one of struggle; but our people have made a lot of progress over the last 2 centuries especially; that means we have “ruffled a lot of feathers” along the way. Caribbean music icon Bob Marley worded it perfectly in a song that was released posthumously: “Buffalo Soldier”. The lyrics say:
Fighting on arrival; fighting for survival.
That fight though, was not always successful.
The experience of the Black men and boys in the New World is that these ones have often been hurt. Consider just the US experience with Lynchings … where “a total of 4,733 persons had died by lynching since 1882”; (Black men and boys were almost always the victims, with a few sprinkling of women here and there).
There is no excusing, rationalizing or minimizing this injustice. This “hurt” was state-action, state-sponsored and extra-judicial via mob-violence. (Other countries in the Americas also had lynchings, not just the Southern States of the US).
With this above introduction, is there any wonder that the crime rate is higher for Black men and boys than any other sub-group in the population? This is the accepted premise that “hurt people hurt people”.
This fact causes breach in society. How do “we” repair this breach in societal dynamics? …
The Go Lean book presents 370 pages of instructions for how to reform and transform the Caribbean member-states. It stresses the key community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to shepherd a better society.
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Bad Ethos on Home Violence – December 23, 2018
People do tend to be a product of their environment and their early molding.
Most times the discipline and attitudes learned at home forms the adult character that people become.
This is good … and bad! …
This concept refers to the “ethos” (a Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals); we see that it is not just a personal attribute but also refer to a community characteristic. Thus the word community ethos. …
“Charity begins at home”.
Everyone knows that and assumes that. The good actions you exert towards others – strangers – is an exercise that starts at home, towards family. This is also true in the reverse: the bad actions you exert towards strangers, tend to stem from the practice to malevolent behavior towards family. Thusly, domestic violence do connect to violent crimes, think rape.
This is not just some academic thesis; this is real life and real bad, in Jamaica right now. See these two supporting news stories:
- Domestic Abuse – 15 percent of women experience violence – see Appendix A below.
- Tourist Rapes – A Black-eye for hospitality towards foreigners – see Appendix B below.
… The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. Domestic violence and rape tend to victimize women. So the Go Lean book specifically – on Page 226 – presented an advocacy to help women; featuring this title: 10 Ways to Empower Women.
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Unequal Justice: Bullying Magnified to Disrupt Commerce – September 28, 2019
Analogies abound … as to why it is important to “nip bullying in the bud”. If we do nothing – or not enough – then conditions of Unequal Justice go from “bad to worse”. The bad actor can emerge from terrorizing a family, to a neighborhood, to a community, to a nation, to a region, to a hemisphere, to the whole world. Think: Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Soviet Russia, British Empire, Napoleonic France, Spanish Inquisition, and more …
Unchecked, bad actors in the community become tyrants – they can even affect the local economic engine.
…
In this series commentary, reference is made to the fact that Tourism, as the Number 1 economic driver in the region, is vulnerable to Bad Actors disrupting peaceful hospitality trade – we must protect our societal engines from tyrants, bullies and terrorists. So there is always the need to ensure justice institutions are optimized in the region; visitors will refuse to come and enjoy our hospitality if there are active threats or perceived instabilities. (At the same time, residents flee to foreign shores in search of refuge). So the need for justice in the Caribbean tourism deliveries transcends borders, politics, class and race.
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump presented himself as a tyrant, bully, yet he won in 2016 thanks to many Hispanic men. They doubled-downed on Toxic Masculinity!
This is not “putting our best foot forward”. We can/must do better than Trump, better than Toxic Masculinity.
In the aforementioned previous blog-commentary, we asked:
How can we remediate and mitigate Toxic Masculinity? For one thing, we must start early. Then we must not settle for the bad orthodoxy of “boys will be boys”. It has been proven again and again that bad instincts can be corrected and weeded out of society. Yes, the solution is: reform and transform.
We must strive to do better in our homeland, otherwise our people will continue to flee in search of refuge. Toxic Masculinity exist in our society, we must work to dislodge it, message against it, coach it out of our young people and foster positive values and ethos in its place.
We definitely do not want to export our Toxic Masculinity to foreign lands, nor assimilate other people’s toxicity. We must recognize bad and filter it out of society.
Yes, we can …
Now, let’s abandon the toxic and work to make the Caribbean – our part of the world – a better place to live, work and play. 🙂
About the Book
The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all member-states. This CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:
- Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
- Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
- Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.
The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society.
Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!
Who We Are
The movement behind the Go Lean book – a non-partisan, apolitical, religiously-neutral Community Development Foundation chartered for the purpose of empowering and re-booting economic engines – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):
xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.
xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.
xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.
Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.
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Appendix VIDEO – Trump’s “Macho Man” Image Working? – https://youtu.be/kOfnbd5Er7w
The View
Posted October 15, 2020 – A ‘New York Times’ report pointed out that despite a majority of Latino voters favoring Democrats, Hispanic men remain a stable part of Pres. Trump’s base due to his “macho allure” – Ana Navarro weighs in.
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Related: VIDEO – President Trump’s dance moves [to the song “YMCA” by the Village People] go viral – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9X3nUmDJuY