Why are Asian Americans Democrats?

[Brittain33]

Generalizations about Asian voters, in particular those that ascribe voting behavior to a cultural value, are hard to support across multiple nationalities. There's little that South Asian and, say, Chinese immigrants have in common. What the American-born generation largely shares with their parents is an appreciation for diversity and belonging to the U.S. When the Republicans talk about Real America and how great things were before modern immigration, even if you were born and raised in the U.S. and identify fully as American, it's going to alienate you.

[Brittain33]

Race is an artificial construct.  Asia is real.  Culture is also real, and I still think that collectivism in cultures is a major factor. 

I guess I don't understand a definition of collectivism that could apply to both Chinese and Indian culture in a meaningful way, and which also accounts for high rates of entrepreneurship among South Asians in the U.S. Please tell me more.

[Brittain33]

Let's not forget the Muslim American vote has a role in this too.


While I'm not sure how many Asians are Muslims, and IIRC most Muslim Americans are actually black Americans, the fact that they went from voting something like 90% for George W. Bush in 2000 to some 85% for John Kerry in 2004 sure hasn't helped the GOP.

Turks, Kurds,  Iranians, and Arabs are generally considered white.

What this means is that the only major group of Muslims who check "Asian" on the census form are those of South Asian descent. I would be shocked if the proportion of Asian-Americans who are Muslim exceeded 5%.

Indonesians? Malays? Hui Chinese?

(Of course ethnic non-Muslim Chinese are large minorities of the population of Malaysia and Indonesia). 

Very small presence in the U.S. in comparison with Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Muslim Indians.

[Brittain33]

I recall that the Vietnamese vote was unusually warm toward McCain because of his biography, exaggerating the swing back.

[Brittain33]

One other point -- there are presently 11 Asians in Congress and all of them are Democrats.  The GOP does not currently have even one token Asian on their side, as they did in some past years.  While simply putting an Asian face on the same policy isn't going to solve the problem, we shouldn't overlook the power of visual representation.  These Congresscritters are a natural bridge to Asian voters.

If we managed to find Tim Scott & Allan West, there ought to be a Korean businessman somewhere that we could run.

Remember Jay Kim?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Kim