Why are Asian Americans Democrats?

[Torie]

The Pub profile of social conservatism and clamping down on immigration (or so it is perceived) does not sell well with the majority of Asians. But I expect in due course, that Asians (other than perhaps the Muslim ones), will probably over time trend to the GOP as social issues wane (and they have to wane in time (other than perhaps abortion)) as they get sorted out and "resolved" ala SSM. Indeed, I see more potential with Asians than I do with Hispanics, give their higher SES profile in general.

[Linus Van Pelt]

My impression is that many immigrants see the category "immigrants" as an important group with which they identify, which then gets supplanted in their American-born children by a race-based way of thinking about their minority status. This is anecdotal rather than systematic, but: as a white Anglophone Canadian, I can essentially "pass" totally as a white American, and no American-raised minority person would think of me as anything other than white. But more than once, I have had the experience of chatting with a person who came to this country from Asia as an adult who doesn't know me well, and when I mention that I'm from Canada, they react with a sympathetic "oh, you're an immigrant (or non-American etc.) too", and then become quite willing to share their experiences as an immigrant, including being open about mixed feelings about their and their children's loss of national identity that I suspect they wouldn't be so quick to share with Americans.

If this is right, it may explain in part why Asians have left the Republican party recently, as opposed to a generation ago. I don't think the Republican party's rhetoric about race is any worse now than it was in the days of welfare queens and Willie Horton. But their rhetoric about immigrants has become worse.

(Edit: just to be clear, this is not intended as a complete answer to the question; I don't deny that the points various others have made here are important).

[Indy Texas]

I'd point out that Asian-Americans (and Asians) do not have the contempt for civil service and the public sector that White Americans tend to. They're viewed in Asia as a necessary and valued part of society and to pursue a career as a "bureaucrat" is seen as honorable, or at least not something to be viewed with derision.

White people view post office employees and federal workers as lazy moochers who contribute nothing to society. Asians view them as providing a necessary, not always visible, service to society.

White people view "the private sector" as a vaunted, glorious expression of capitalism and freedom and innovation - starting a business and being an entrepreneur is seen as a wonderful thing. In a lot of Asian societies, being a business owner is considered somewhat mediocre. They associate it with the sort of person who runs a corner grocery shop because he wasn't smart enough to get into a good university and be accepted into the civil service or become a doctor or an engineer. Being a "professional" is the ultimate goal in Asian culture. Being a "businessman" is an almost crass thing.

And the Democratic Party is far more welcoming to the professional and civil servant classes than the Republican Party is.

[pbrower2a]

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.

[Mordecai]

I'd point out that Asian-Americans (and Asians) do not have the contempt for civil service and the public sector that White Americans tend to. They're viewed in Asia as a necessary and valued part of society and to pursue a career as a "bureaucrat" is seen as honorable, or at least not something to be viewed with derision.

White people view post office employees and federal workers as lazy moochers who contribute nothing to society. Asians view them as providing a necessary, not always visible, service to society.

White people view "the private sector" as a vaunted, glorious expression of capitalism and freedom and innovation - starting a business and being an entrepreneur is seen as a wonderful thing. In a lot of Asian societies, being a business owner is considered somewhat mediocre. They associate it with the sort of person who runs a corner grocery shop because he wasn't smart enough to get into a good university and be accepted into the civil service or become a doctor or an engineer. Being a "professional" is the ultimate goal in Asian culture. Being a "businessman" is an almost crass thing.

And the Democratic Party is far more welcoming to the professional and civil servant classes than the Republican Party is.

This is another good explanation, they don't have the same pathological knee-jerk frothing at the mouth reaction to gubmint that Republican WASPs do. They just see it as providing a service and carry on with their lives.

Someone else also mentioned collectivism, the Democratic Party is about consensus-building (especially Obama in 2008 and 2012) and bringing broad groups of people together into a coalition while the Republican Party prefers a mostly stagnant, increasingly small lump of one group of people. So Asians are going to be more receptive to people who are accepting of differences and working together than people who seek to divide and conquer based on those differences.

[Хahar 🤔]

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%.

[pbrower2a]

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). 

[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.

[hopper]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

[IceSpear]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

The MSM does not tilt left, it tilts whatever direction will get more views/page clicks. Look at Politico for a perfect example of this.

1994 and Newt Gingrich was the start of right wing whackoism destroying the GOP, and it gradually got worse and worse until 2008-2009, when it came to a head with the rise of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

[hopper]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

The MSM does not tilt left, it tilts whatever direction will get more views/page clicks. Look at Politico for a perfect example of this.

1994 and Newt Gingrich was the start of right wing whackoism destroying the GOP, and it gradually got worse and worse until 2008-2009, when it came to a head with the rise of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

Yeah I agree with you about 2008 and 2008 with Palin and The Tea Party. You see say the start of extreme right wing but at least the GOP governed properly then in the mid to late 90's unlike now where the party seems in turmoil and can't govern properly.

[Mordecai]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

The MSM does not tilt left, it tilts whatever direction will get more views/page clicks. Look at Politico for a perfect example of this.

1994 and Newt Gingrich was the start of right wing whackoism destroying the GOP, and it gradually got worse and worse until 2008-2009, when it came to a head with the rise of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

Yeah I agree with you about 2008 and 2008 with Palin and The Tea Party. You see say the start of extreme right wing but at least the GOP governed properly then in the mid to late 90's unlike now where the party seems in turmoil and can't govern properly.

You're freaking kidding right? They shut down the government twice in two years and impeached Clinton.

[Sbane]

One thing a lot of people have not mentioned is that Asians value moderation and the current GOP is anything but moderate. That was certainly not the case a few decades ago. Even looking at Reagan, he said conservative things in a moderate way. On the other hand the Democrats are a moderate party. Of course Asian Americans will vote for that party.

Other things matter too, such as the anti-intellectualism of Bush which was followed up by the immigration debate which made the GOP look like the white party. And Palin talking about the real America....all the talk show hosts and Fox news heads blabbering about how bad white people have it these days. Oreilly talking about the end of the white establishment in 2012...I could just go on forever. It can be argued that in the 1980s blacks may have felt targeted by the GOP but Asians certainly did not. Now with the moaning about white America amongst conservatives, they most certainly are.

[pbrower2a]

One thing a lot of people have not mentioned is that Asians value moderation and the current GOP is anything but moderate. That was certainly not the case a few decades ago. Even looking at Reagan, he said conservative things in a moderate way. On the other hand the Democrats are a moderate party. Of course Asian Americans will vote for that party.

Other things matter too, such as the anti-intellectualism of Bush which was followed up by the immigration debate which made the GOP look like the white party. And Palin talking about the real America....all the talk show hosts and Fox news heads blabbering about how bad white people have it these days. Oreilly talking about the end of the white establishment in 2012...I could just go on forever. It can be argued that in the 1980s blacks may have felt targeted by the GOP but Asians certainly did not. Now with the moaning about white America amongst conservatives, they most certainly are.

Something else -- Sarah Palin became one of the exemplars of the Republican Party. (1) Her mangled English might appeal to the semi-literate who use language something like she does. (2)Add to that, she made speeches in which she praised the "real" America of small-town and rural America that hasn't been the majority of America for almost a century. (3)Asian-Americans are very bourgeois.

(1) After the 2008 election many thought that she would be a likely candidate for President. I was following the polls on how she projected to do against Barack Obama, and I noticed something remarkable: that although she did no worse than other candidates in states with comparatively few people of foreign origin, she did catastrophically badly in states with large numbers of foreign-born people -- which I use as a proxy for people whose first language is not English.   (To be sure, there are people in the US who are native to the US and whose first language is not English, and there are people in the US who immigrated from elsewhere whose first language is English). Others similarly right-wing (such as Mike Huckabee) had no such problem. One may disagree with him, but one fully understands his impeccable English.

If there is a basic rule in talking with anyone whose first language is not English, it is to stay close to the formal register taught in phrase books and basic English texts -- whether the first language is German -- or Korean. How proficient the person is in English matters little; the non-native speaker must process what an English speaker says into thought patterns structured in a different grammar and vocabulary. With slang and mangled diction one must make two translations -- one to formal English and then to the early linguistic heritage of the speaker, which is far more difficult.  Sarah Palin is not someone whose diction and word choice I would want to introduce as English speech. 

I notice that she went to college in Hawaii... and found it miserable. Maybe there are so many people there whose native languages are Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Chinese, or Korean. (In case you wonder about Japanese -- mass Japanese immigration to the US ended before World War II, and Japanese-Americans are safely assumed to be Anglophone).

(2) Urban America, except for parts of the South, contains the majority of the ethnic and non-Christian religious minorities.  Rural America is far more conformist... and conforming to a culture in which one is not raised is difficult. Sarah Palin insulted people not of her culture by castigating Americans outside her conception of "Real America".

(3) This may apply to Sarah Palin more than to other Republicans -- Asian-Americans are very bourgeois in their attitudes toward education and family life. I can't speak for Asian-Americans, but I saw the spectacle in the 2008 Republican National Convention in which one of Sarah's unmarried daughters came in with a baby  (OK, that can happen) -- but so did the unmarried young man who fathered the child. Bourgeois types would find the appearance of an unmarried woman with a child in a high-profile public event bad enough, but the unmarried seed-supplier as well? What happens in Hollywood and gets accepted because the person involved is a celebrity who earns millions is very different from what one accepts in the Real World.

A Party that vilifies education will offend educated people even if those people are conservative in lifestyle.     

[hopper]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

The MSM does not tilt left, it tilts whatever direction will get more views/page clicks. Look at Politico for a perfect example of this.

1994 and Newt Gingrich was the start of right wing whackoism destroying the GOP, and it gradually got worse and worse until 2008-2009, when it came to a head with the rise of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

Yeah I agree with you about 2008 and 2008 with Palin and The Tea Party. You see say the start of extreme right wing but at least the GOP governed properly then in the mid to late 90's unlike now where the party seems in turmoil and can't govern properly.

You're freaking kidding right? They shut down the government twice in two years and impeached Clinton.

I thought it was once that they shut down the government. There were still some or most government departments that were open in the 1995 shutdown unlike the most recent shutdown. As I have said before Clinton deserved to be impeached. Yes I liked Clinton and his policies but he deserved to be impeached.

Its not like the 1995-2000 GOP Congress didn't do anything unlike this Congress which is too ideological. 4 straight balanced budgets we had back then.

[TDAS04]

I found a poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which states that Obama carried Asian Americans with 77% in 2012 (slightly different from CNN).
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-reveal-south-asian-voters-among-strongest-supportors-of-democrats.html

According to this, South Asians were the most Democratic.

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In addition...
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location.html

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Interesting that Obama won so overwhelmingly among those from the subcontinent.

[The Ex-Factor]

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.

I think this is the most on-point characterization of Asian-Americans in this thread. If you must generalize about Asian-Americans, the one thing that unites nearly everyone* from Chinese-Americans to Cambodian-Americans and Asian parents to ABC's is that we get pissed off when we get the sense that we are considered perpetual foreigners or not Real Americans. With the exception of older Vietnamese Americans (war refugees), most Asian-Americans are in America by self-selection (or are first gen, like me) and don't take too kindly to the implicit notion that we don't belong.

Stuff like Pete Hoekstra's ad and that Chinese Professor ad made big headlines within the Asian American community. At least with younger Asian-Americans, we notice things like the GOP's anti-immigrant rhetoric and the Kenya/birth certificate nonsense and can smell the racist tinges behind those words, even if not directly aimed at us. And finally, the GOP really doesn't know how to talk to minorities, period. Remember the post-2008 argument by Republicans that Obama's win was because of white guilt? It totally removed all sense of agency from the non-white members of the Democratic coalition. Or the current idea that the GOP can maintain decent electoral performance by picking up on "missing whites". Just a few of many examples where Asian-Americans (and probably other minorities as well) get the sense that the GOP does not care about them.

I would also add that Asian-Americans on the whole are ideologically far more liberal and less conservative than other racial groups in America; the idea that family values or social conservatism would tie them to Republicans is a silly and superficial way of looking at it.

As for some of the other theories postulated in this thread, I'm not comfortable generalizing about them to speak for the Asian-American community as a whole; most Asian-Americans really care about educational issues for sure, but between Indian-Americans (70% with a bachelor's degree) and Cambodian/Lao/Hmong-Americans (~12% with a bachelor's degree) there's a lot of intragroup variation that makes issues like affirmative action tricky. The "Asians have more respect for civil service" claim also suffers from oversimplification; for every Chinese immigrant who grew up in a bureaucratic-revering, Confucian society there is a Filipino or Syrian-American who escaped from a dictatorship and wants the government to get the hell out of their business...or a first gen like me who grew up reading Locke and Nietzsche. And don't get me started on the "Asians are more collectivist!" argument...let's not make David Brooks-esque arguments here, guys.

tl;dr version: Asian-Americans are strongly turned off by racist Republican rhetoric that drive them closer to a Democratic party that they ideologically lean towards anyway, but the inherent issues with generalizing about a group so broadly defined as Asian-Americans make it hard to explain why. Hence why we get a hot article every year or so asking "Why are Asian-Americans so Democratic?"

* we have our share of twinkies, no doubt.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

The GOP thrives off No Information Voters (ie FOX watchers). Asians tend to be very well educated. 1992 was largely before the GOP began appealing to the least common denominator with their War on Education/Science/Logic.

So you think watching the MSM and MSNBC is getting good info about politics without the Sunday Political Shows factored into the equation? I don't think so. The MSM tilts left and MSNBC is left wing whereas FOX is right wing.

What war on education did the GOP in launch in 1992? I know the religion factor really came into play in 1992 with the GOP Base though.

Liberals understand what MSNBC is.  Conservatives do not understand what Fox is.

There is your difference.

[DC Al Fine]

What the coalitions are based on has changed. The GOP was the anti-communist party during the Cold War , which was plenty to keep Koreans, Vietnamese etc, voting GOP (and Cubans for that matter). Now the alignment has changed somewhat and there's not a strong force keeping East Asians in the GOP, especially irreligious ones.

[Sbane]

I found a poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which states that Obama carried Asian Americans with 77% in 2012 (slightly different from CNN).
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-reveal-south-asian-voters-among-strongest-supportors-of-democrats.html

According to this, South Asians were the most Democratic.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

In addition...
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location.html

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Interesting that Obama won so overwhelmingly among those from the subcontinent.

If anything, it is Filipinos and Vietnamese who vote differently from the rest of Asians. Also Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh don't vote for the republicans for obvious reasons. Also I would guess 10-15% of Indian Americans are Muslim too. Though it should be noted that the Vietnamese areas in Orange County swung hard to Obama in 2012. Westminster swung about 15 points to Obama. Obama won the city in 2012 after losing it by double digits to McCain.

[Brittain33]

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

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

IIRC there were a lot of Muslims who supported Ron Paul.

[All Along The Watchtower]

It is a testament to the Republican Party's (lack of) understanding of current social realities and trends in America that voters from groups as diverse as almost every Asian cultural group or nation, not to  all the people of many different races, ethnicities, languages, and religions-black and Latino, religious and secular, white and not white, Native English speakers and those who aren't-all resoundingly reject the Republican Party. And it's not as if the Democrats are particularly appealing either; there's just an understanding among immigrants and minorities that outsiders to the dominant culture of the US are not cared about or worse, actively harmed by the policies of the GOP.

[Хahar 🤔]

I found a poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which states that Obama carried Asian Americans with 77% in 2012 (slightly different from CNN).
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-reveal-south-asian-voters-among-strongest-supportors-of-democrats.html

According to this, South Asians were the most Democratic.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

In addition...
http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location.html

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Interesting that Obama won so overwhelmingly among those from the subcontinent.

I don't necessarily disagree that 96% of Bangladeshi-Americans voted for Obama (that seems about right), but they're such a small group that it would be exceedingly difficult to find an adequate sample.

[Adam Griffin]

This may be interesting to some. At least in rural and suburban northern Georgia, "Asian-Americans" average out to be around 70% Republican (which is roughly the region's average as a whole).