by Mario T. García
The election is over. The presidential election, that is.
Donald Trump's criticism of the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan — a Gold Star family — has sealed his fate. He has lost the election. This is the defining moment in this election.
Many Americans now see and understand why Trump cannot be President. He is a hateful person who lashes out at anyone and anything that he considers to be un-American. Because of his anti-Muslim feeling, fears, and hatred, he could not restrain himself in taking shots against the Khan's.
Would he have done this if the family were white? What's worse he encourages these hatreds among his followers. But he crossed the line against the Khan's and that line had electoral implications.
There is no way now that Trump can win the election. He had a hard path anyway to being elected especially, as I have previously noted, with Latino voters who will again, as in 2012, be the decisive margin of victory for the Democrats and for Hillary Clinton. But his insensitive and un-American criticism of a Gold Star family has sealed his fate. The fact is that he also insulted, indirectly, many other minority Gold Star families who are not going to forget this. There are many Latino Gold Star families, for example. Latinos have been in all of America's wars and have fought like Capt.
Khan with bravery and courage and many have sacrificed their lives for this country — not Mexico but the United States. Mexican Americans and other Latinos participated in combat on both sides of the Civil War, in the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
In World War II alone perhaps as many as half a million Latinos served in the U.S. military. In these wars many never returned and their families, as in the case of World War II, proudly displayed the gold star on their doors to indicate that they had lost a son in the war. Latinos have a proud history in serving this country in battle and they also feel insulted by Trump's remarks against the Khan's. It is like he insulted and dishonored them. They, like the Khan's, will not take this easily.
Latinos will vote in unprecedented number this fall, and I will predict that Clinton will receive 90 percent of the Latino vote (President Obama received more than 70 percent in 2012) including in key battleground states such as Florida where Latinos constitute 15 percent of registered voters. They will be voting not only because they believe in Hillary Clinton and that she shares their aspirations for a better future for them and their children, but also voting against a demagogue who only sees Latinos and other minorities as criminals, rapists, and terrorists.
The election is over.