Identity politics don't explain politics

LET US bash again the conventional wisdom which includes the journalists, pundits, and experts - including yours truly - who had predicted this and that, and have been proven wrong. Again!

As you may recall, on the eve of the 2020 presidential election, the conventional wisdom was confident about one thing: President Donald Trump was going to be punished by Hispanic voters. A huge majority of them would vote for his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, and give the former vice-president an opportunity to carry states with large Hispanic voters such as Florida, Arizona and perhaps even the very red state of Texas.

Bottom line was: Winning the Hispanic vote, as well as the votes of Black Americans, Asian Americans and other non-white Americans would be critical in terms of helping Mr Biden win the presidential race this year, the conventional wisdom said. That rainbow coalition would solidify the Democrats' growing electoral power. After all, President Trump has been portrayed by the mainstream media as a nativist and a racist. Popular among the white nationalist crowd, he has targeted undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America before and after the 2016 presidential election. He called them "criminals" and "rapists", and pledged to build a "beautiful wall" across the southern border to prevent them from entering the country.