Courting Hispanics

Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order through which he seeks to expand the White House’s “Hispanic Prosperity Initiative,” in order to help members of this community achieve the so-called American Dream.

The idea of the Republican administration is, according to the text, to create pathways for the Hispanic community that lead to economic growth. As part of the initiative, the White House has created a special group to enforce the project’s guidelines, as well as an advisory commission to the president on the prosperity of Hispanics.

“Hispanic Americans not only live the American Dream, but their incredible efforts are unlocking the American Dream for citizens across the country,” the president said.

Interestingly, when re-launching the initiative, Trump said that in 2018, the level of poverty among our community had reached its lowest level in history. In addition, the president added that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate among Latinos was 3.9 percent. It had remained below 5 percent for 23 months, a level similar to that recorded under the management of Trump’s predecessor.

The White House added that, in addition to having expanded educational opportunities through charter schools (subsidized with public resources and managed as private institutions), new job opportunities have been created with the opening of 9,000 Opportunity Zones, where some 9 million Hispanics reside.

In addition, Trump affirms that the measures implemented by his government have lifted 611,000 Hispanics from poverty and that his tax reform has led to the increase of the average income of Latino families above $50,000 for the very first time.

Two years ago, the government added, 362,000 Latinos became homeowners, the highest number since 2005.

While all this is excellent news, the reality is that much remains to be done. The income of us Hispanics is far from that of people from other ethnic groups such as Whites and Asians. Health problems, health insurance coverage, low income, overcrowding and poor academic performance are some of the main problems that afflict our people and which the federal, state or municipal governments have been unable or unwilling to solve. The status quo in this regard is unsustainable for many of the families in our community.

Plus, we have to remember Trump’s attacks against our people, when he launched his first presidential campaign he called us rapists and traffickers, words that the president now wants us to forget.

But let’s not kid ourselves: The reality is that Trump’s re-election campaign requires the support from at least a small part of our voters to achieve its goal.

Although polls point to Democrat Joe Biden winning the November election in most swing states like Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and others (and even take traditionally Republican states like Texas), the president only requires a few votes to reverse the trend in a handful of states. According to Real Clear Politics projections, Biden only needs to win the Great Lakes states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio) to unseat Trump, but those same states turned red four years ago.

Presidential candidates in recent decades have been successful thanks to a minimal proportion of the Hispanic vote. Let’s see if this president manages to convince this tiny group to let him stay another four years at the Pennsylvania Avenue residence. I doubt it. I accept bets.