Why were Asian-American voters so conservative in the 1990s?

[UWS]

As I saw on Wikipedia, George H. W. Bush won 55 % of the Asian vote in 1992 while Bill Clinton won 31 % of the vote among this ethnic group. In 1996, Bob Dole won 48 % of the Asian vote over Clinton's 43 %.

Why were Asian-American voters so conservative in the 1990s?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1992#Voter_demographics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1996#Voter_demographics

[PoliticalShelter]

Because back in the 90s Asian-Americans were still a predominantly Christian group; 63% of Asian Americans identified as Christians in 1990. However that number had dropped to about 43% by 2001.

This effect can be seen in presidential results;George HW Bush was able to beat Clinton by a margin of 24 points with Asians in 1992.

His son however got beat by a 14 point margin amongst Asians by Gore in the year 2000.

[Santander]

Anti-Communism, LA riots, general racial tensions. There has also been a fundamental change in the meaning of Asian-American between then and now. There were a lot fewer South Asians and Mainland Chinese in the US in the early 90s than there are now.

[Hydera]

Uhhhh please use the search function next time.


1992 the LA riots and attacks on Asian shopkeepers as well as tensions with minority communities along with the issue of affirmative action made Asian americans vote republican. Also a large share of Asian americans were Koreans and Vietnamese who moved to the US and remembered how bad communism was so they voted republican because they were a rightwing party. Also Asian americans trusted the republicans with the economy because of Reagan.

In 1996, the booming economy made Asian americans support Bill Clinton more than in 1992.

After 1996, Asian americans no longer distrusted the democrats regarding the economy because of the economy under Bill Clinton. Also younger asian americans came of age and started voting mostly for the democrats. Making it a strongly democratic voting base since the 90s.

[BoAtlantis]

Korean-American here,

From 90's to 00, there was a religious shift with the evangelical whites moving right. We shifted toward the Democratic Party during that time, as the % of less religious Asians increased.

We also currently have religious divide like the general electorate. Protestants are most likely to be Republicans; Catholics leaning right; atheists/Hindus/Buddhists/others being liberal.

The last group make up about half of us.

[pbrower2a]

Anti-Communism. Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese origin were ferociously anti-Communist, and the Republicans well exploited anti-Communism. Since then the People's Republic of China has become more a business partner than a menace. The People's Republic of China has been more intent on exporting consumer goods than revolution, and has had a strong PR campaign to change attitudes of Asian-Americans toward the former nemesis of Asian-American anti-Communists. (With Korean-Americans, I would guess that they see more likelihood that China would overthrow North Korea than might the United States and South Korea).  Liberals now disparage the North Korean regime about as much as they disparage of a fascist regime.

Americans of Japanese and South Asian origin have never seen Communism as a menace to their ancestral homelands.

Asian-Americans may find the anti-intellectualism of Republican politicians more offensive than people 'soft on Communism'. Anti-intellectualism is an affront to any well-educated people or people who at the least see education as a necessity for the American dream.  Republicans have been getting cozy with undereducated people in recent years to the extent of praising people for being 'low-information voters' as if ignorance were a virtue.

[Arbitrage1980]

Uhhhh please use the search function next time.


1992 the LA riots and attacks on Asian shopkeepers as well as tensions with minority communities along with the issue of affirmative action made Asian americans vote republican. Also a large share of Asian americans were Koreans and Vietnamese who moved to the US and remembered how bad communism was so they voted republican because they were a rightwing party. Also Asian americans trusted the republicans with the economy because of Reagan.

In 1996, the booming economy made Asian americans support Bill Clinton more than in 1992.

After 1996, Asian americans no longer distrusted the democrats regarding the economy because of the economy under Bill Clinton. Also younger asian americans came of age and started voting mostly for the democrats. Making it a strongly democratic voting base since the 90s.

This is a great summary. The older Asians who immigrated to the U.S. from the 60's through the 80's came from Communist or countries heavily affected by Communism. They loved the GOP's tough stance against the Soviet Union, lower taxes, pro-small business, and pro-family. The earlier immigrants tended to be socially conservative small business owners, which fit in well with the GOP coalition.

Their children tended to be far more socially and culturally liberal, and since they did not experience the horrors of Communism, that argument simply did not resonate with them. Also, Bill Clinton's domestic policy success, his aggressive outreach to Asians, W Bush's debacles, the GOP's rightward shift, and the general sense amongst the community that the GOP is a party of white nationalism, all played a role in this shift.

I'm an Asian-American. My parents LOVED Reagan, did not like W Bush, liked Obama, and utterly despise Trump. 

[Beet]

Asian-Americans and conservatives are natural allies. The real question should be, why do they now vote Democratic? First, Bill Clinton brought them into the fold by moving to the center. The Republicans attacked Asians like Johnny Huang and Buddhist temples for giving money to Clinton and Gore. The neoconservative Blue Team at the Project for a New American century advocated a new Cold War with China.

The 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis discredited neoliberalism in Asia. The free market ideologues at the IMF and World Bank, and the Treasury Department like Larry Summers, Robert Rubin told Indonesia to raise interest rates to 15% to fight capital flight, but it failed as the rupiah continued to plunge. Riots destroyed the Chinese business community in Jakarta that had a overseen a 30 year boom when Obama’s mom was living there. The conservative Suharto regime collapsed. Meanwhile Mohammed Mahathir imposed capital controls, which worked despite the free marketeers all saying it would fail. China was saved by capital controls and a massive Keynesian stimulus package enacted in 1998, and did not devalue the yuan. Japan entered deflation. Neoliberalism was discredited in Asia, and when the 2008 Crisis happened, Asia was spared the worst.

[Santander]

The neoconservative Blue Team at the Project for a New American century advocated a new Cold War with China.

Adopting a more openly hostile stance towards China, is not something which most non-Chinese East and South Asians (including many Taiwanese) would have had qualms about at that time. Southeast Asians, such as Filipinos and Vietnamese, would probably be turned off by such an idea, but that is probably due to their insecurities about their place in the world.

[Hydera]

Asian-Americans and conservatives are natural allies. The real question should be, why do they now vote Democratic? First, Bill Clinton brought them into the fold by moving to the center. The Republicans attacked Asians like Johnny Huang and Buddhist temples for giving money to Clinton and Gore. The neoconservative Blue Team at the Project for a New American century advocated a new Cold War with China.

The 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis discredited neoliberalism in Asia. The free market ideologues at the IMF and World Bank, and the Treasury Department like Larry Summers, Robert Rubin told Indonesia to raise interest rates to 15% to fight capital flight, but it failed as the rupiah continued to plunge. Riots destroyed the Chinese business community in Jakarta that had a overseen a 30 year boom when Obama’s mom was living there. The conservative Suharto regime collapsed. Meanwhile Mohammed Mahathir imposed capital controls, which worked despite the free marketeers all saying it would fail. China was saved by capital controls and a massive Keynesian stimulus package enacted in 1998, and did not devalue the yuan. Japan entered deflation. Neoliberalism was discredited in Asia, and when the 2008 Crisis happened, Asia was spared the worst.

Also consider that many asian americans are lower income and/or poor. Asian americans are more supportive of welfare programs considering the homelessness that is experienced by many in their communities. Theres korea towns and china towns filled with aging chinese americans who never 'made it' doing bad manual labor jobs and some even digging through trash for cans to get some cash to survive. Younger asian americans that are just starting their lives absolutely are heart broken by things like this that happen but are not hateful of capitalism just hateful of capitalism without safeguards like welfare programs to help those in need.

[darklordoftech]

I think it's interesting that Dubya lost with Asian voters in 2000 in spite of his support for No Child Left Behind, his strong advocacy of "family values", and his tough-on-China rhetoric that I would expect to please anti-communist Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Korean-Americans, and Taiwanese-Americans.

[Pennsylvania Deplorable]

Uhhhh please use the search function next time.


1992 the LA riots and attacks on Asian shopkeepers as well as tensions with minority communities along with the issue of affirmative action made Asian americans vote republican. Also a large share of Asian americans were Koreans and Vietnamese who moved to the US and remembered how bad communism was so they voted republican because they were a rightwing party. Also Asian americans trusted the republicans with the economy because of Reagan.

In 1996, the booming economy made Asian americans support Bill Clinton more than in 1992.

After 1996, Asian americans no longer distrusted the democrats regarding the economy because of the economy under Bill Clinton. Also younger asian americans came of age and started voting mostly for the democrats. Making it a strongly democratic voting base since the 90s.

^^This. Also, the majority of Asian immigrants today are not East Asians but South Asians and as was mentioned before, most Asians are not Christian. Finally, Bill Clinton represented a very different image of the democratic party than the cosmopolitan one ushered in by Obama.