Big Lesson from my Guatemalan Trump-friendly Uber driver
A fascinating chat — my wake up call on why many Latinos support trump.
I was in an Uber car heading to pick up my car from the repair shop. The driver was a friendly, intelligent man in his mid thirties. He sounded Latino and I asked him where he is from (racist right? well I don’t care. I’m Kenyan-born Irish, grew up in 5 countries before I came to America, so sue me. I’m interested in where a person came from). He said he was from Guatemala.
“Oh!” I said. “I apologize for our awful president”. He said oh no, actually he likes president Trump. He didn’t wait for me to yelp in snowflake horror and attack his point of view. He quickly moved into explaining his position. It was fascinating.
He came from a terrible place. Gang violence, extortion, rampant corruption, poverty, misery. He knows that some of this gangster mess operates cross-border, with prisons acting as relay agencies for violent deeds and messaging to jailed kingpins. He’s safe here, but not completely safe. He wants the bad guys to be stopped at the border. He wants official immigration only. No migrants, no open borders, no softly softly. Slam the door shut on the bad hombres, so he and his family can enjoy life in their new paradise.
He feels rich. He drives Uber and he’s working to become a general contractor, and will receive his license soon. He doesn’t have a lot of business yet so he drives Uber gigs until he can build up his construction empire. His kids are in school. Bilingual and fully literate in both. His wife has a maid business. They plan to buy a home, and until then they’re fine in their 3 bedroom apartment in San Rafael, CA.
He dislikes democrats. He feels like they want him to be poor so they can put him on government handouts and keep him there. He dislikes gay people and doesn’t like democrats telling kids it’s normal to be gay. I remained quiet, as I was learning a lot about a demographic I didn’t know existed.
My driver goes to church and donates money, specially at Christmas when they feed people in need and put a lot of effort into clothing and toy drives. He does not believe in abortion. He thinks the family is the most important structure in the world.
About Trump. My driver explained that America needs a nasty guy who says it like it is. He thinks it’s true that Latino immigrants are not all good people. He doesn’t mind a bit of racism if the statements are true. He thinks rich people should be respected, and poor people should be coached to work harder and stop complaining.
Most of all, he feels he has landed in paradise and he wants to make sure the horrible stuff he escaped in Guatemala doesn’t follow him across the border and wreck his community here.
Our drive was only about 15 minutes, but it was enough to shock me into realizing some new facts.
This guy is on a tear. He’s probably already finished with Uber and has lots of small home remodels in his work schedule, and yes, he charges less than Joe Whitey contractor for the same remodel. He will do well, and he’s way too proud to ask the government for help even if he needs it.
The democrats have been missing this guy all along. They assumed this guy was a sure fire blue voter. They assumed he would love to get some free money and some housing, and maybe some food stamps too. They thought while he’s got his hand out for these goodies, he wouldn’t dare question the democrats’ core values around LGBT, women’s rights, equality and equal opportunity. But here he is. A missed blue voter, waving a MAGA sign.
My opinion: Latinos for Trump should not be a thing, but it is. It’s a thing, because democrats have gradually lost touch with small business owners, and this is what many immigrants are, business owners. Tiny business owners who are not at all rich. They own the rusty truck with a lawn mower and two leaf blowers in it. They own the maid service with a Honda Odyssey with four women aboard, headed to clean Mrs Whitey’s house. We democrats lost the part of our message that addresses their needs and wants and dreams. The progressive talk is all about the misery of the downtrodden, and the villains who created the alleged misery. Villains and victims, all day long. Where is the message for an immigrant family who want to work hard, be safe, make money and go to church on Sunday? White middle class progressives are so absorbed with calling out racism, they have lost their minds. Nothing else matters. They can’t see that in their quest to reverse America’s racist past, they have completely tuned out large swaths of business owners, immigrants, union workers and working class people. To add insult to injury, they then attack these defectors when they vote for Trump, calling them racists. We need these people in our blue tent. We need our message to be inclusive of Latinos and other immigrants and first generation American immigrant families. They don’t want handouts. They want to work and to be safe. They want healthcare that works and doesn’t cost half of what they make. They want a non-corrupt society, that’s why they left their own country.
This is why I am excited about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They have united the Democratic Party to embrace all people, not just the down and out. If this offends some progressives who feel they aren’t getting the candidate and the agenda they wanted, I’m OK with that.
