Farmers for Trump
Leyla Santiago joins me from her farmhouse kitchen in rural Virginia where she has chicken coops and bee hives. After leaving CNN where she was an award-winning correspondent, Leyla moved to the countryside, became a mom and teaches journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Leyla, a proud Latina with Puerto Rican roots, and I talked a lot on air when I had my show on CNN. Like with one of other regular on-air CNN guests, Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, I’ve always wanted to hear more about Leyla’s backstory and her thoughts on America.
She lives in Trump turf, as she calls it, now. “My neighbor has a big sign that says Farmers for Trump. There's a huge sign downtown that basically says F@#k Joe Biden right across from the church, by the way.”
For many Americans, the rural countryside is the 'real' America. Trump and his team have been hugely successful in crafting the image of rural life as something that is pure America; untainted and disrespected by outsiders, liberals and urbanites.
“I think there is very much this us versus them mentality,” she says. “It's two Americas."
For many rural voters, immigration and inflation will be key in their choice of President.
Trump has promised to be tough on immigration.
I asked Leyla why many Latino men have moved right and support Trump’s hardline threats on immigration even though he’s used racist tropes to describe them?
As a Latina woman with Puerto Rican background, Leyla says the Latino communities in the USA are a blend of different people in different places. “When he says they're coming over the border and they're not bringing their best, they're bringing the rapists and the criminals. Cubans don't consider themselves Mexicans, Puerto Ricans don't consider themselves Mexicans. And so it's a little bit like, yeah, he's talking about Latinos, but he's not talking about me.”
Crucially, she says the Republicans messaging on the economy and inflation really connects to many Latinos who have a historical and personal dislike of leftist dictatorships. “They really targeted those Cubans in Miami by putting out things like Biden is a socialist, right? You say socialism to a Venezuelan or a Cuban that has a voting registration card in the US and those are fighting words, right? Like that is fear.”
Many targeted Republican political advertisements on television or online are issuing dire warnings that America will be turned into a socialist state because of Democratic economic policies.
Donald Trump has been struggling to find an honorific by which to insult Kamala Harris. He defined Clinton as Crooked Hilary and now he’s testing the nickname Comrade Kamala - calling her it at rallies and on social media to see if it will stick.
Donald Trump has a sharp instinct for playing on voter’s fears and labeling Kamala Harris as so left-leaning that she’s a Marxist, Communist, Socialist (even though most people couldn’t tell the difference between all three) plays well to a certain type of voters; the type of voters that might just well make the difference between whether he spends the next four years living at the White House or Mar-a-lago.
Join me,
Robyn
