I’m Muslim American, and yet I now find myself rooting for Donald Trump to be the GOP presidential nominee. Here’s a little secret: Many other Muslim and Latino activists also are cheering for Trump to defeat Ted Cruz for the Republican nod — even if they won’t admit it publicly.
Why? Trump could inspire a record number of Latinos and Muslim Americans to get involved in the 2016 election. But just as Marc Antony didn’t come to praise Caesar but to bury him, they won’t be doing so to support Trump but to defeat him.
We have already seen Latinos who have been long-time permanent legal residents of the United States finally apply for citizenship this year for the sole purpose of voting against Trump.
Latino and Muslim college students are now teaming up to protest at Trump rallies, as we saw recently in Chicago. And as someone who has been speaking before Muslim American groups frequently over the past few months, I can tell you that defeating Trump and his dangerously divisive ideology is the No. 1 priority.
A recent New York Times article cited an estimate by Ghazala Salam, head of the American Muslim Democratic Caucus of Florida,that voter registration in that state among Muslim Americans spiked by nearly 20 percent.
The reality is that Trump’s campaign of fear-mongering about Latinos and Muslims is a double-edged sword. On one hand, Trump has effectively ginned up fear of both communities to animate a big chunk of white GOP voters to support him.
But what Trump didn’t count on (or simply didn’t care about) is that this sword could also motivate Latinos and Muslims to get more involved in politics. This is not the 1960s when Alabama Gov. George Wallace could openly demonize blacks to attract white voters with little fear of political repercussions. At that time blacks, thanks to racist laws designed to prevent them from voting, had little political clout.
The America of 2016, thankfully, is vastly different. There will be approximately 27 million Latinos eligible to vote in 2016. That’s 12% of the electorate, up from 10% in 2012.
And while the Muslim population is far smaller at about three to five million, they are concentrated in some key states that could impact the general election such as Virginia, Michigan and Florida.
Yet despite both communities growing in number, neither is fully engaged in American politics.
For example, a poll released just last week by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that only 60% of American Muslims are registered to vote. (In contrast, almost 74% of whites of any religious faith are registered to vote.) And many Muslim Americans, especially immigrants, have all but ignored U.S. politics. They prefer to focus on intracommunity Muslim community activities.
The Latino community is more active politically, as can be seen by the numerous Latino elected officials but still falls behind other groups in terms of voting. In 2012, 48% of eligible Latino voters cast a ballot. In comparison, white voter turnout in 2012 was 64% and black turnout was 66%.
But that will change big time if Trump is the GOP nominee. The specter of Trump in the White House will inspire and animate both communities to make sure it doesn’t happen by engaging in U.S. politics.
Won’t Cruz cause the same reaction? No. (Or at least not yet.) Cruz simply doesn’t evoke the same passion and fear as Trump.
True, Cruz is as bad if not worse than Trump when it comes to policies affecting both communities. Cruz has vowed to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants as well as build a wall on our southern border.
Regarding Muslims, even before Trump’s proposed Muslim ban in December, Cruz had called for barring Muslim Syrian refugees and only allowing Christian ones into our country.
And recently Cruz announced he wants the police to patrol Muslim neighborhoods and alarmingly he named as part of his national security team Frank Gaffney, a man described by the Southern Poverty Law center “as one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.”
The difference is that Cruz has used a dog whistle to send messages about Latinos and Muslims while Trump has used a bullhorn. And we have heard Trump’s words loud and clear.
Trump as the GOP nominee is truly frightening. Yet his legacy may be that he has helped both the Latino and Muslim communities not only to increase their engagement in American politics but also to have the clout to ensure that we never see another presidential nominee who spews the hate of Donald J. Trump.