Will Polonia vote Republican or Democrat?
By Robert Strybel, Polish/Polonian Affairs Writer
As things now stand, the face-off between Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump looks to be an extremely close race. If its end result is also very close, the losing side (perhaps even both sides?) may demand a recount or even create a disruptive backlash to get their way. One thing seems certain – America has never been this polarized.
I have experienced that in my own family circle. With the exception of a Belgian-American gal who married my maternal cousin David Szymański, all the cousins on my mother’s side of the family are backing Trump. Not so on my dad’s side. Cousin David Strybel, a former Detroiter who lives in California, told me recently that most of the family will not vote for Trump and added: “I can’t imagine why anyone would support the Don. He’s delusional and doesn’t respect the Constitution.”
Holocaust author and world traveler Therese Pencak-Schwartz, told this reporter: “I am a registered Republican, but will NOT vote for Trump. He is too dogmatic and arrogant to listen to his advisors. Trump is a loose cannon. Unpredictable. So, I have no choice but to vote for Harris.” A transplanted PolAm Californian, Therese grew up in my former hometown of Hamtramck, MI, once Detroit’s predominantly Polish suburb.
When asked about her political preference, a freelance journalist from the Pacific Northwest said: “Definitely the Harris-Walz team…MAGA land has questioned continuing Ukraine arms support and Trump has declared he would let Russia do what it wants with those (NATO members) who don’t spend enough on defense.” PolAm activist Roman Zawadzki agrees.
“Trump is only interested in ‘Making America Great Again.’ He doesn’t care about NATO or Europe,” Zawadzki believes. “I know too little about Harris’ foreign policy, but almost anybody should be better than Trump (…) I would say about 70-80% of PolAm leaders here in Los Angeles are Republicans and intend to vote for Trump. I may disagree with her on some issues, but I don’t consider Harris to be an ‘evil.’ The ‘Woke/Neo-Marxist threat’ is over-blown. I’m afraid that under Trump the rich will get richer and the poor and middle class will get poorer.”
No less strident are Polonia’s Republicans. “Most of my friends are team Trump. Only one is definitely not The President of our Polish Heritage Society will vote Harris, but his wife is black so no surprise there,” remarked Christina Gutt of Rochester, NY, disagrees. A confirmed Trumper, she cited Harris’ allegedly Marxist parents as a turn-off and added: “Only corporations are afraid of the Woke blokes. Most everyone else thinks they’re jokes and people are getting fed up with their nonsense.”
Sister Mary Thomas, a cloistered Dominican nun of Polish/Slovak descent, said she was voting for Trump as the lesser of two evils. “Honestly, neither of the two contenders are worth a penny. Trump is not a good man ethically, but he’s not all for the woke genderism, abortion and euthanasia that Kamala Harris is,” she explained.
