In the wake of the presidential election, which is still being contested, leftists remain frustrated at their performance with minority voters. After the exit polls showed that President Donald Trump significantly increased his support among black and Latino voters, progressives decided to concoct ludicrous theories to explain away this occurrence instead of engaging in any kind of self-reflection. 

Enter Fox News host Juan Williams, who penned an op-ed for The Hill on Monday, putting forth his explanation for Trump’s success among minorities. In the piece, Williams argues that minorities — men in particular — were “conned” by Trump into supporting his candidacy. 

He writes:

“So it stuns me to see that President Trump set a record last week by attracting the highest percentage of the non-white vote of any Republican presidential candidate in the last 60 years.

How did 12 percent of Black men, according to the Fox News voter analysis, vote for Trump?

And why would 39 percent of Latino men vote for a man who called Mexican men rapists and enforced harsh anti-immigrant policies?”

Williams notes that the president did not just perform with Cuban-Americans, but he also made gains with other groups of Latino voters as well. “He won 35 percent of all Latino voters, including 32 percent of Puerto Ricans, according to the Fox data. In Arizona, which borders Mexico, he won 40 percent of the Latino vote. And everywhere, his biggest support among Latinos came from men,” he complained. 

The host then went into his reasons explaining why these wayward minority males dared to pull the lever for President Trump. “Latin machismo and Black gangsta rap lyrics have long had a fascination with big money, grabbing women, including porn stars, and Trump’s ‘La Vida Loca’ lifestyle. Williams quotes columnist Ruben Navarrette, who claimed that Latinos “like a strongman even when he’s the wrong man.” 

Then, he turned to black men, especially rappers who came out in support of Trump. “Just before the election, rapper 50 Cent said Trump’s racial antagonism was a secondary issue: ‘I don’t care [if] Trump doesn’t like Black people.’ The bigger issue, he said, is not wanting to pay higher taxes under Joe Biden,” he wrote. 

He also pointed to BET founder Bob Johnson, the nation’s first black billionaire, who stated that black folks see that voting for Democrats has led to “minimal return” when it comes to “closing the wealth gap, the job creation, and job opportunities.” 

Williams then referenced musician and noted political scholar John Legend, who explained minority men who voted for Trump by saying: “Some people see the meanness, the bullying, the selfishness of Donald Trump and they mistake it for strength, a kind of twisted masculinity. Some see his greed and they mistake it for being good at business.”

Fox exit polls revealed that Trump won 25% of the non-white vote, “enabled Republicans to insist he could not be racist if such a sizable number of Blacks and Latinos voted for him,” according to Williams. 

The Fox host went on to pretend that Trump was somehow responsible for the nationwide civil unrest occurring in American cities and the growth of white supremacist groups under his watch. He even threw in the Charlottesville “fine people” hoax for good measure. He concluded his article by suggesting that “a lot of Black and Latino voters, especially the men, got distracted by Trump’s boasts and bling.” 

Here’s the thing: People like Juan Williams know that what they are saying is the equivalent of Bill Clinton claiming that he did not “have sexual relations with that woman.” They are actively lying to their audience to cover up the fact that the Democrats have enjoyed overwhelming minority support without affecting tangible changes in non-white communities for decades. 

Williams’ ilk knows that progressive politicians have nothing to offer blacks and Latinos, and even if they did, they wouldn’t lift a finger to help minorities living in substandard conditions. The reality is that they want minorities to deal with poverty and crime because it helps them further their political agenda. If they’re going to position themselves as the party that champions the poor, they have to make sure they have an underclass of poverty-stricken minorities to exploit. 

His arguments are also telling. The notion that minority men who support Trump were “conned” into voting for him is reminiscent of those on the right who falsely claim black people who vote Democrat are mentally enslaved. Both deny that minorities are unable to rationally think through their reasons for supporting a particular candidate. In each case, minorities are being infantilized, treated as if they are too stupid to make up their own minds by individuals who seem to believe themselves superior. 

This paternalism could drive more minorities to the conservative camp — as long as the right adopts a better approach to these communities. Williams and his colleagues are literally demeaning 25% of non-white voters for rejecting the Democrats — and they actually believe this to be a good idea. 

If the conservative movement plays its cards right, it can exploit these mistakes and ensure that they backfire on the left. As I’ve stated previously, the former Party of Lincoln has an opportunity to start making inroads with minorities — it’s up to them to take it. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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