By Maribel Hastings, America’s Voice | Editorial Credit: mikeledray / shutterstock.com 

Washington, DC: Republican Donald Trump’s win over the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, makes me question what can lead a country to choose a candidate with criminal convictions who promotes racism, division, a lack of respect towards others, especially women, who dehumanizes immigrants, and who promised mass deportation and prosecuting his opponents.

I don’t know when it was that a leader’s character became secondary, where his shameful conduct, attacks on democracy, and flirtation with dictators no longer mattered, or that he no longer hid the fact that his only motivation is what benefits him, and his thirst for revenge against those he considers to be his enemies.

Anything goes as long as you win, seems to be the reasoning. Or it’s that this selection reflects what this country and society are. That racism and misogyny were stronger; that fear, and resentment prevailed.

The fact is that the United States leaned toward the extreme right; it’s not just that Trump won the presidency, but that the Republicans will control the Senate and apparently the House of Representatives. Essentially, Trump will have a blank check to impose his extremist agenda at the legislative level.

But what happened? Now the picking apart of the results begins, to see what factors decided Trump’s victory—who even won the popular vote, something that he did not obtain in 2016 or 2020.

Trump seems to have improved his support percentage among diverse electoral sectors, including Latino voters, particularly Latino men. The gains were significant.

It also seems that the issue of abortion did not lead Harris to obtain overwhelming support among women. And the vote of young men, including African Americans, favored Trump.

The Democrats had losses among all groups.

The obligatory question is what could Democrats have done to stop the erosion among the voters that comprise their base, like Latinos. For decades, Democrats have been told they cannot assume they have absolute support among specific sectors. They have to invest and court that vote and not only go out looking for it during election season. The Democrats knew about the erosion of support among Latino men. Still, they didn’t have a sense of urgency, perhaps thinking they would win the Hispanic vote at any rate, even with a lower percentage.

And despite the low unemployment rates under the Biden administration, Latinos, like the rest of the country, cited the economy and the high cost of living in general as their principal concern. We also can’t rule out the racial factor and machismo among all the reasons Latinos favored Trump over Harris.

Joseph de Maistre said that every country has the government that it deserves. The problem is that the righteous also pay for the sinners, and as in Trump’s case, his extremist policies will also affect those who didn’t vote for him. The country remains divided.

But the majority chose; it was not imposed on them. We must roll up our sleeves and prepare for what is on the horizon, which won’t be easy, particularly on immigration issues.

Trump made immigration and the vicious attacks against immigrants the central issue of his campaign. He called them animals and criminals and promoted the lie that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. And just as Project 2025—the roadmap for the second administration— describes, Trump promised mass deportation.

Trump and his vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, have indicated that no one is exempt from deportation, even those immigrants who currently have work permits and are covered by programs like DACA and TPS, which Trump wants to eliminate.

The fear Trump instilled about immigration served as a sort of mobilization tool. However, an NBC exit poll found that immigration was an important issue for only 11% of voters. And other polls show that when they are given an alternative, voters favor a path to legalization for undocumented people over mass deportation.

Trump also promised to revoke policies protecting the environment and eliminate the Department of Education. He will likely have the opportunity to nominate other Supreme Court Justices like the three he nominated, who shifted the balance to eliminate the right to abortion. He has also referred to the Democrats and those who do not support him as an “enemy within,” against whom he could use military force. He wants to replace career federal employees with his loyal authorities.

Despite everything, people in the United States gave him a second term.

Buckle up because there is a lot of turbulence ahead.

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