By Greg Antoine MD
Nationwide — Donald Trump was able to pull off one of the craziest jobs in American political history. Let me begin by saying, in February of this year, I predicted that VP Harris would not win. Most of my conversations with potential black male voters revolved around her support of gender-bending and gay issues. I was also running against a Black female that the democratic party and governor had tossed their support to. We could not get her to debate. She had only one debate with the republican candidate and it was an unmitigated disaster. The message surrounding these issues was too much and quietly turned off a significant part of the male electorate. The televised ads during NFL games were effective in giving that extra push towards Trump. The lack of response from the Harris camp, to say the least, was another nail in the coffin.Most of us find it hard to accept men competing in female events, changing clothes in female locker rooms or in some cases showering while still maintaining male anatomical parts. Call me a male dinosaur. This still does not explain why so much of the electorate didn’t vote but, it does add to the explanation of the loss of some Black and Latino male support.
I have observed over the past 10-15 years that the issues that Black Americans have fought for in this country, civil rights, voting rights, equal protection, equal pay, were steadily becoming intertwined with issues of sexual preference and gender identity, schools wanting to discuss these issues with small children too young to fully comprehend what they are being taught. This activity in the school systems in multiple instances was being performed without the permission of children’s parents. This is not to dismiss bullying or bad behavior that has occurred, in my opinion, too often and too much around these issues. I believe strongly that discussions surrounding sexual preferences and behavior are subjects that parents are responsible for not schools or school systems. This is another area that has been exploited, to great advantage, by Trumpist. I believe they are correct on this point. This is parental responsibility. There is literature to support that discussing sexual behavior with high school students has reduced the unwanted pregnancy rates.
I hope that Trump is able to enact his deportation plan equitably. I hope he deports Mexicans, Central Americans, Africans, Arabs, Chinese, Cubans and Haitians. This is what the country voted for and I’m ready to watch it unfold. That being said, we will also be watching the unhappiness and despair that will begin to unfold as families are split apart, children that know nothing about the country they will suddenly wind up deported to once their parents are ushered across the border, will suffer PTSD and become psychologically distraught for years to come.
I will be watching what specific group of these illegals will be targeted. Will we be witnessing targeting or will there be an equal opportunity to be deported? He has already targeted Haitians based on what he did for Springfield OH and those Haitian immigrants, BTW most of them have legal status. So, you can look to that cadre of Black and Latino males and white people, that supported Trump, and thank them for making this all possible.
The other thing we will be watching is the re-collapse and withering of these small towns, across the flyover states, that these immigrants have revitalized. All those Trump voters will now begin to oppose him, for the sake of their community. Thank your Latin Bros and the white MAGA people that want to “own the Libs”, like the farmers who had to live off of government subsidies because Trump was going to make China feel the pain. Subsidy payments to farmers ballooned from just over $4 billion in 2017 to more than $20 billion in 2020 – driven largely by ad hoc programs meant to offset the effects of Trump’s trade war. Most of the acute labor shortages in the country are occurring in rural-dominated states, and rural economies should be expected to take the hit from Trump’s deportation planned events. Go for it Steven Miller.
The other thing the country voted for is the loss of healthcare insurance protection for anyone with a pre-existing condition. About half of American adults in the country say they have someone in their family or know someone with a pre-existing health condition. This will certainly impose an economic hardship on individuals and their families. 4 dollars a gallon at the gas pump won’t seem so bad when your mother or sister or child gets sick and doesn’t have access to healthcare. Our countrymen in the red wave areas will be the hardest hit because rural hospitals are closing from lack of funding or their state governments are giving tax breaks leading to a loss of revenue that was used to support your local hospital. Remember Trump and Musk are billionaires they can get whatever healthcare they want or need, Trump’s is free on the American people. 194 rural hospitals have closed since 2005 and more to come under Trump’s administration.
Truth be known, Harris-Walz did have a rural policy that was fashioned around the rural voters and their economic and social issues. They failed to focus on the programs or, at least deliver an effective message about these programs. We have yet to see what Trump’s programs will look like since he wants to take funding from rural initiatives and programs. I guess that’s what those who supported Trump want to happen. President Biden and VP Harris focused their economic expansion plans through a Place Based strategy. It’s not clear to me why these ideas of what was happening and what will happen were not LASER like focused on so the voters could understand what their economic future could look like?? But because of the price of eggs they will never know.