The Patriot Post® · Is Democrat Extremism Alienating Minorities?
It’s said that politics makes strange bedfellows, and nowhere would they be more strange than in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Hamtramck — pronounced HAM-TRAM-ick — is a city within a city, a densely populated two-square-mile entity surrounded on all sides by the 139-square-mile sprawl of Detroit. In the previous century, it was home to a vibrant Polish community that came to the area during the automobile boom, but its demographics have shifted in recent decades as Poles have migrated to the suburbs and Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Nepali immigrants have taken their place.
Consequently, Hamtramck now has the distinction of having the first all-Muslim city council in the United States. And the cultural conservatism of its residents was borne out recently when the council passed a resolution banning the display of LGBTQ flags and all other political flags on city property. As the Detroit Free Press recently reported:
The six-member Hamtramck City Council voted unanimously … to approve the resolution that prohibits the flying on government property flags symbolizing sexual orientation, race, religion and politics. The move was criticized by a range of elected officials in Michigan, including state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, whose district includes Hamtramck, U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, whose district includes Hamtramck, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Oakland County Executive David Coulter and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, among others.
Notice anything about all those elected officials who took exception to Hamtramck’s show of sovereignty? They’re all Democrats, and they’re thus beholden to the radicalism of the Rainbow Mafia. But not the six members of the Hamtramck City Council.
“For those politicians who don’t understand the situation in Hamtramck but they released statements to criticize us,” said the city’s mayor, Amer Ghalib, “you do not know our city more than we do, and you will not know the consequences of opening the door for every group to fly their flag on city properties. Our residents are all equally important to us, and we will continue to serve them equally without discrimination, favoritism or preferential treatment to any group. The city government will stay NEUTRAL and IMPARTIAL toward its residents.”
Take that, Democrats.
Former Biden press secretary and current MSNBC talkinghead Jen Psaki, for one, isn’t happy. On her Sunday show recently, Psaki was up in arms about how the Republicans are now “trying to recruit Muslim-Americans, a community that makes up less than 2% of the U.S. population, against another tiny, marginalized group of Americans — transgender people.”
She called it “another cynical ploy to tear at the fabric of our society and damage the idea that out of many, we are one — all because they want so desperately to regain the White House.”
We’re noticing the reemergence of an old ploy straight from the GOP playbook, only this time the party has a new target…@jrpsaki breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/wZ55u20476
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) July 2, 2023
Wait, which party’s radical politics are tearing at the fabric of our nation? Wethinks the lady doth protest too much.
Whether the Hamtramck incident will help spark a reconsideration and realignment by this traditionally Democrat-voting minority is yet to be seen, but radical transgenderism has clearly turned off its citizenry, and the normalcy of the Republican Party might not be such a strange bedfellow after all. Here, it’s worth noting that the nearby Detroit suburb of Dearborn, population 109,976, is the seventh-largest city in Michigan and is home to the largest per-capita Muslim population in the U.S. In a swing state than went narrowly for Donald Trump in 2016 and narrowly for Joe Biden in 2020, the behavior of this voting bloc bears watching.
Elsewhere in electoral politics, Asian Americans might be ready to give the Republican Party another look. There are a couple of issues at play here. One of them is the noticeable growth of violent crimes against Asians in the U.S., which seemed to take root during the spread of COVID-19 and which data shows is being perpetrated largely by blacks. The other recent issue is, of course, the growth of anti-Asian bigotry in the admissions policies of our colleges and universities — policies that were recently and rightly deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The Court’s decision didn’t go over well with left-elite talkingheads, though, and one of them, a rather talentless race-baiter named Jemele Hill, took to Twitter to lash out at Asian Americans in response.
What apparently set Hill off was an innocent-sounding tweet from an Asian woman, a mother, who shared this: “I told my daughter that today is a big day. They’ve ended affirmative action. ‘Isn’t it what you’re been fighting for?’ she asked. I said yes.”
In response, Hill shot back bitterly and viciously: “Can’t wait until she reads that you gladly carried the water for white supremacy and stabbed the folks in the back whose people fought diligently for Asian American rights in America.”
When Democrats start calling Asian Americans white supremacist water carriers, it’s clear that they’re coming unhinged. Again, it’ll be interesting to see whether this traditionally Democrat voting bloc takes notice and ultimately takes action in the voting booth.
Strange bedfellows? Perhaps not so strange after all.
POSTSCRIPT: It’s not just American Muslims and Asians who are being nudged rightward. Hispanics have been realigning, too. As Ruy Teixeira writes in The Washington Post: “The Democrats’ overall margin among [Latinos] dropped by 18 points [in 2020] relative to 2016. Cubans had the largest shift of 26 points, but Puerto Ricans moved by 18 points to Trump, Dominicans by 16 points and Mexicans by 12 points. An overall weak spot for Democrats was among Latino men who gave Trump a shocking 44 percent of their two-party vote in 2020.” These are serious shifts, and the days of Democrats dominating among socially conservative minorities may be over.