America: From a Fallen Child Star to the Head of the University of the West

Chapter 121 No right to speak without investigation

Four days later, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

As soon as Comrade Sean stepped off the plane, a wave of heat hit him.

In March, the temperature in Texas was already close to 30 degrees Celsius, and the sky was a dazzling blue, with not a single cloud in sight.

Rachel followed him out, sunglasses perched on her face, still looking down at her phone like a typical internet addict. Kelly brought up the rear, wearing a khaki jacket that seemed to be glued to his body.

“Mr. Kelly,” Rachel glanced back at him and couldn’t help but say, “Couldn’t you have worn something thinner? It looks so hot.”

Kelly answered seriously, "This is business attire. Business attire is all about looking presentable; it doesn't discriminate based on the season."

Rachel rolled her eyes after hearing this, too lazy to argue with him anymore.

Upon reaching the exit gate, they immediately spotted Benny Archer. He was holding up a handwritten sign with the word "Pan" written on it.

He's still the same as before, unchanged. Of course, that's not entirely true; his favorability rating has at least increased from [40] to [60].

When Benny saw Sean and his group, he immediately put down the cardboard sign and extended his hand: "Mr. Pan, welcome to Texas."

Sean grasped his hand and glanced at the sign: "Your airport pick-up sign is quite formal."

Benny smiled, a little embarrassed: "I was mainly worried you wouldn't be able to find me after you came out. The car is parked over there, all ready. Let's go over there."

The four men walked through the airport terminal toward the parking lot. Benny was driving a silver-gray Tesla, indicating that he was a modern Republican who respected new energy sources.

The air conditioning in the car was on full blast, and it was finally a bit cooler once I got in. Sean sat in the front passenger seat, while Rachel and Kelly got into the back.

The car drove out of the airport and quickly merged into the highway. The Austin skyline undulated in the distance, with cranes and construction sites visible everywhere.

"This city changes so fast," Kelly remarked from the back seat, looking out the window. "The last time I was here was ten years ago, and there weren't so many skyscrapers back then."

Benny glanced at him in the rearview mirror and continued, "Over the past five years, Austin's population has grown by 22 percent. A large number of tech companies have moved here, and young people have followed, so money has naturally flowed in. But at the same time, rents have increased by 40 percent, and the number of homeless people has doubled."

Rachel listened and asked, "Are you praising the city or criticizing it?"

“No, not at all,” Benny shook his head, his tone calm. “I’m just stating the facts. Although I studied and worked in California for a long time, I personally like Austin, but I never thought it was a perfect place.”

Sean looked at the scenery rushing past the window and didn't reply.

The car drove for about twenty minutes before stopping in front of an unassuming four-story office building. The building was grayish-white, with some parts of the exterior walls showing signs of wear and tear. The sign at the entrance read "Southwest Policy Research Group".

Benny led them into the building and up to the third floor. He pushed open a door, revealing an open-plan office space with a dozen or so desks scattered about and the walls covered with various data charts and maps of Texas.

Several young people were sitting in front of their computers. When they saw them come in, they looked up, nodded as a greeting, and then went back to their work.

"Is your team all here?" Sean asked, looking around.

"Yes, that's it. Twelve people: four data analysts, three policy researchers, two communications experts, two field investigators, plus one administrative staff member. We're all crammed into this place, paying five thousand dollars a month in rent ourselves."

Kelly also carefully looked around and asked a very practical question: "So, where does your funding come from? How do you sustain yourself?"

Benny turned to him and answered directly: "I've saved up some money over the years. We also take on some consulting work, like data analysis for nonprofits or voter modeling for local campaigns. It doesn't pay much, just enough to keep the team running and survive."

Anyway, everything is just getting started.

Rachel walked to a wall and looked at the densely packed charts on it. The charts were marked with various colors, and there were many arrows and numbers.

"What are these charts for?" she asked, pointing to the wall.

Benny walked over and stood beside her, explaining, "This is a chart showing voter shifts in several counties along Texas's southern border. Over the past decade, these counties have moved from supporting Democrats to Republicans, or are moving towards red, much faster than anyone anticipated."

Sean also came over: "Tell me more about it."

Benny picked up a laser pointer from the table next to him and pointed the beam at the largest picture on the wall.

"Look here, the Rio Grande Valley, which we usually call RGV. This is the southernmost region of Texas, separated from Mexico by just a river. Traditionally, more than 80 percent of voters here would vote for the Democratic Party. This is because there is a large Latino population, mostly working class, Catholic, and with union affiliations; three generations of a family might have voted blue. But since 2016, the situation has completely changed."

The laser pointer's red dot landed on a location marked "Starr County".

"In Starr County, the Democrats won by 77 percentage points in 2012. By 2016, they had won by only 66 points, a drop of 11 points. And by 2020, they had won by 51 points, another drop of 15 points. In twelve years, the Democrats' advantage here has dropped by a full 26 percentage points."

The laser point then moved.

"In Hidalgo County, the Democrats won by 63 points in 2012, but lost 24 points in 2020."

"Cameron County dropped from 55 to 34. Weber County dropped from 49 to 29."

Benny put down the laser pointer and looked at Sean: "Mr. Pan, do you know what this means?"

"What does it mean?"

"This means that if this trend continues, within ten years, the entire RGV region will become a Republican stronghold. Latinos, a group that has always been considered a Democratic stronghold, are undergoing a massive political shift, with many people no longer supporting them."

Rachel frowned. "What's the reason? Why did this turn of events occur?"

Benny walked to another chart: "The reasons are complex. But based on our three weeks of research, there are two core reasons: cultural and economic."

He pointed to several key data lines on the chart.

"Culturally speaking, many of these Latinos are Catholics, have relatively conservative views, and place great importance on family. In recent years, the Democratic Party has become increasingly progressive on cultural issues and has gone further and further to the left, which makes many conservative Latinos feel uncomfortable."

"Economically speaking, they are mostly working class, doing blue-collar manual labor. They don't care about those complex, interdisciplinary theories; they care about whether they have a job, how much they earn, and what their health insurance is like. And these Republicans..."

In recent years, they have become increasingly adept at using economic populism rhetoric, which precisely resonates with the sentiments of many blue-collar workers.

Kelly interjected, "Like what happened in Florida?"

Benny nodded.

"Yes, Florida is a perfect example. DeSantis won two gubernatorial elections there, and each time by a larger margin. How did he do it? He invested heavily in winning over Latino voters."

"For example, people of Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan descent, because they fled from left-wing regimes, naturally have a strong aversion to the left."

"Then it seems they must dislike me too," Kelly muttered.

"—But DeSantis garnered more than just that; he also successfully won over many Mexican and Puerto Rican communities. How did he do it? Primarily through economic policies. He implemented the nation's most powerful school choice policy, distributing education vouchers to working-class families!"

"These policies send a very clear message to voters: We Republicans care about how ordinary people like you live."

Kelly stared at the charts on the wall, silently thinking for several seconds.

Then he looked up and asked a crucial question: "How much of the trend and reasoning you just analyzed was discovered by your team themselves?"

Benny turned around and answered confidently, "All of them. We used detailed voting data from the past three presidential elections, combined with census data..."

Three months of regression analysis was conducted using local economic data and religious belief survey data. The conclusion is very clear: the political shift among Latino voters is not an isolated phenomenon in one or two counties, nor is it a random event, but rather a structural and systemic trend. Moreover, this trend is more pronounced in districts with lower levels of education, lower family income, and closer proximity to the US-Mexico border.

"When you were doing your analysis, did you differentiate between different Latino groups? For example, Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican, whose historical backgrounds and voting preferences are actually quite different," Kelly continued to press.

Benny said, "Of course, for example, Cuban Americans tend to lean Republican, while Puerto Rican Americans tend to lean Democratic."

"It sounds like you've done a lot of research," Rachel thought, but then she saw Benny give a wry smile. "What's the point of doing all that research? Nobody listens!"

To put it bluntly, they really were just a bunch of people on the roadside.

Especially after he left the Republican Party!

His gaze then turned to Sean, and his tone became serious once again.

"That's why I tried so hard to contact you, because we're both different."

Sean leaned against the table and didn't speak for a long time, seemingly processing the information.

"You just said that the Republican Party seems to have an advantage in winning over Latino voters," he finally spoke, this time getting straight to the point, "So where are their coalition's weaknesses? Is there any way to break through?"

Benny's eyes visibly lit up, clearly indicating that he was prepared for this question.

"The weakness lies in the deep-seated conflict between Catholics and evangelicals," Benny said, quickening his pace. "The Republican base is evangelicals. While both evangelicals and Catholics are broadly considered Christians, they have historically been at odds, with differing theological and political focuses. Evangelicals oppose abortion, primarily based on the Bible."

The teachings of Catholics, who oppose abortion, are more based on the principles of natural law. While their positions appear aligned, their underlying logic is entirely different.

He strode over to another chart and pointed at it with a laser pointer.

"We conducted over 600 in-depth interviews in Southern Texas. When we asked Latino voters who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party why they changed their voting preferences, the number one answer was the economy. The number two answer was values. When we pressed them further on what values, they said 'family,' 'faith,' and 'community.' When we asked if they felt the current Republican Party represented these values, 60% said yes. But when we pressed them further on whether they felt the evangelical faction within the Republican Party represented these values, 47% explicitly said 'no.'"

He stared intently at Sean.

"There's a gap, a crack, here. The Republican Party can temporarily sway Latino voters with its promises of economic populism, but their cultural packaging and discourse are highly evangelical, not the context familiar to Catholic culture. In the long run, this cultural packaging will make many generations of Catholic Latino families uncomfortable."

It is difficult to truly integrate into a social and political network dominated by evangelical churches.

After listening to Benny's long-winded explanation, Sean asked, "Benny, after telling us so much, what exactly do you want me to do?"

But Benny met his gaze, his eyes very serious.

"I want you to help me tell this true story to more voters," Benny said earnestly. "I don't have enough funding, and I don't have political influence. No matter how solid or in-depth my research is, if no one knows about it, it will just rot in this little office. But you are different. You have the ability to stand up and turn these cold data into a story that touches people's hearts."

He sounds like some kind of novelist—

Benny then took a small step forward, his tone becoming more urgent.

"Latinos are now the fastest-growing voter group in the United States. Whoever wins them over the next twenty years will largely dominate the American political landscape."

"Thomas Wilder is doing this, but he's just going with the flow, he doesn't care about this trend, and he doesn't care about the future of the country," he said. "I believe: you and I, we can change the world."

At this point, Kelly put on his glasses and asked, "Kid, the path you're describing sounds very appealing. But there's one thing you must understand: Sean Penn is neither a Democrat nor a Republican. He won't endorse either party, nor will he be bound by either party. What you..."

What specific nature of the "cooperation" you're referring to is this?

Benny turned to Kelly and answered clearly: "Sir, it's about strategic mutual endorsement and support."

Kelly nodded after listening, then left the decision to Sean without saying anything more.

Rachel also looked at Sean, waiting for his decision.

Sean was still weighing various factors.

Benny gave him the feeling that: If the Republicans won't follow me, I'll go find Sean Penn!

After thinking for a moment, he said, "How about this, let's go and see for ourselves first, to see the real people and lives behind those data you mentioned. Take us to these places, let us see and hear for ourselves."