The human desire to be part of a group is real. Small tribes whose members have a lot in common may be prone to vote as one. But the larger groups get, the more diverse their priorities become. This reality hit home for Democrats and journalists on Tuesday among what they like to call the “Latino” vote.
Democrats seem to believe they own Hispanic voters because people with Spanish heritage are victimized by gringos and free markets and prefer socialism over capitalism. If that were ever true, it isn’t anymore. Some 45% of those who self-identify as Hispanics voted for Mr. Trump. I suspect it might have been higher if he were a more likable fellow.
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The stereotype of the Hispanic as the Mexican berry picker is outdated. Those agricultural workers are important to the U.S. economy and some Hispanics belong to organized labor, making them a natural fit for the Democratic Party. But union membership outside government is now about 6% of the nongovernment workforce. Many are doctors, lawyers, accountants and entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs who care deeply about economic freedom. An educated middle-class, from places like Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil, has also fled to the U.S. They’re running away from the collectivism of the left.
Perhaps the most valued asset of many Latin Americans who have landed in the U.S. is their belief in their own agency as individuals. That’s what brought them to America and that’s how they vote.
Arnold Kling’s true wisdom is again on display in this post-mortem on last-week’s U.S. election. A slice:
I think that Team Woke is too numerous and too passionate to allow the Democrats to just throw them under the bus. The Republicans have been able to throw libertarians under the bus, but that is because the libertarian faction is insignificant. “You could throw them under a minivan,” as one of my friends joked.
A lot of people would like to regard the election as a significant defeat for Team Woke. I wish that were true. But I think that the significance of this election is being over-rated. And I am wary of the emotional appeal of social justice activism. Meanwhile, 2028 is a long way away, and there will undoubtedly be events that occur between now and then that take us off of what prognosticators regard as a deterministic path today.
Just to be clear, I am not a Democrat. I am not rooting for the Democrats. I just think that it is unrealistic to count them out on the basis of this one election.
Jesse Walker explores how “the GOP became a (more) multicultural party.”
Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby reflects on former “Never Trumpers.” A slice:
As Trump conquered the Republican Party, the party gradually remade itself in his image — and high-ranking Republican officials found it in their interest to do likewise. As conservatism came to be increasingly identified with Trump’s MAGA dogma, celebrated conservative intellectuals, pundits, and organizations adjusted their beliefs accordingly. Much of this was purely cynical — think of the Republican members of Congress who were ready to wash their hands of Trump immediately after the Capitol riot, only to rally around him when it was clear that his popularity among the Republican rank and file had not suffered.
Allysia Finley tells Donald Trump what he can learn from Steve Jobs. A slice:
• Simple is best. Jobs aimed to design simple, user-friendly products. This should be the goal of Mr. Trump’s tax and regulatory policies. Tax breaks for special groups are complex and inefficient. So are tariffs, which invariably result in exemptions for certain businesses and products. A better way to increase U.S. manufacturing is to cut government bureaucracy. Jobs said that one reason Apple manufactures products in China is that America imposes costly and cumbersome regulation.
Here’s the conclusion of a new paper by Chirantan Chatterjee, Ying Fan, and Debi Prasad Mohapatra: (HT Ian Fillmore)
This paper studies indirect network effects between two complementary markets and quantifies a new channel through which international competition can benefit consumers. In this channel, the presence of international firms in one market promotes the development of a complementary market, which in turn encourages product entry by domestic firms in the first market. Consumers benefit from rapid development in the complementary market and from greater product variety in the first market. We empirically identify four features of the Indian mobile phone industry that support this channel. First, 4G phones and 4G networks are complementary. Second, international cell phone firms enjoy higher markups when selling 4G phones. Third, the marginal costs of cell phones decline over time. Fourth, Indian cell phone firms have a cost advantage in producing low-quality phones. These features give rise to within-market spillovers from international cell phone firms to domestic firms and cross-market spillovers to the wireless service market, resulting in positive welfare effects for consumers. We use counterfactual simulations to quantify these effects, examine a proposed ban on low-cost phones by Chinese cell phone firms, and study the effects of protectionism in subsidy designs.
I’m glad to learn about John Rankin. Two slices:
Rankin, born in 1793, was a minister who became one of the most impactful figures in the abolitionist movement. Rankin moved from the South to Ripley, Ohio to advance his role in combating slavery more effectively and used his location near the Ohio-Kentucky border to take an active role in freeing hundreds of slaves from their Southern captors. Thousands of miles away from centers of power like Washington or New York, Rankin’s effect on the abolitionist movement at large is a worthy subject of examination for not only historians, but modern readers of a tactical mind, looking to understand how America’s movers and shakers created tremendous ideological momentum despite hailing from unlikely places and possessing unlikely backgrounds.
Rankin’s story appears courtesy of Caleb Franz in his masterfully written new biography The Conductor, which traces the pastor and anti-slavery advocate’s journey from his humble beginnings in Jefferson County, Tennessee, to his work at the heart of America’s abolitionist movement. For those seeking a deeper understanding of our country’s philosophical and political struggle to remain unified, The Conductor is a must-read.
Franz offers a gripping, compelling narrative of Rankin’s difficult, oftentimes discouraging work to end the institution of slavery, from his work as a Presbyterian minister combating slaveholder theology from the pulpit (often fraught with controversy, particularly in Rankin’s early years ministering to slaveholding congregants in Kentucky) to his work as a political commentator and public intellectual, making the practical case for liberty from Tennessee to Ohio. The Conductor is, fittingly, a profoundly humanizing look at the life of a man who dedicated much of his energy to ensuring the respected humanity of others, through the galvanizing power of both words and action.
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Rankin’s times, and the times of his many fellow abolitionists, were not our own in many meaningful ways. Yet his story is a critical reminder to all Americans concerned for the unity of our nation. Progress, whether in the building of coalitions or bridges across our many divides, can only be achieved by those courageous enough to admit the possibility of things getting worse before they get better. In an age where disturbingly many believe, as John Brown did, that our most bitter divisions can only be healed through the shedding of American blood, we once again stand in need of figures like John Rankin, willing to ensure we exhaust every other alternative first.
