First, I want to preface by saying I am not a Democrat nor a Republican and identify myself as a centrist although my 1st generation parents are both registered Republicans. I’ve been thinking a lot about why Asian Americans as a group overwhelmingly vote Democratic and whether that alignment is more cultural and historical than policy driven
If you think about it, many traits common in Asian American communities (such as high rates of small business ownership, emphasis on education, relatively higher household incomes, and prioritization of public safety) seem to align more closely with traditionally conservative positions. Issues like tougher stances on crime, opposition to race based admissions or hiring, lower taxes and regulation for small businesses, and stricter education standards often appear to materially benefit our communities.
Yet politically, there seems to be a strong social expectation that Asian Americans should be liberal or at least not openly conservative. That's what my perception has been like, at least where I live. And I’m curious how much of this is driven by historical coalition building with other minority groups, fear of being associated with racism within conservative politics, immigration narratives or simple inertia passed down through families and social circles.
For those who lean liberal, do you feel current Democratic policies are still delivering better outcomes for Asian Americans in areas like education, safety, and economic opportunity?
For those who lean conservative or more moderate, what experiences or issues made you question the default political alignment?
Conservatives don't benefit nobody except the rich, well connected, and old white boomers
List the policies please. Recent Asian immigration to US started in around 90s and took pace after that, tell me how it benefits us Asians. A lot of conservatives would curb stomp you out of existence because you're not:
They would much rather have no Asians at all and frankly speaking I'm starting to see how miserable a few tiny percentage of Asians are and why Caucasians have a good point when they don't want none of self-hating inferiority complex BS to be popping up in their white European American heritage communities or keep mentioning community divisions, Asians stick to Asian communities, blacks to their communities and whites to their own. Because the core issue is we do a terrible job at proving to others that we are worth anything or are of any importance when we constantly grovel even at the feet of known racists or racial supremacists or perpetuate inferiority complex issues. There's no way any community is going to respect you if you don't first fix up your issues, stand up, demand respect and watch others respect you. This also reminds me of an incident of that Asians dude that got dragged around like a rag doll at Australia's white supremacists rallies a few weeks back.
So do enlighten us OP, when a huge chunk of conservatives/Republicans are openly saying they would much rather have American burn rather than to see non-Caucasian/non-European calling it home or settling there. Heck, you & I are literally in their list of pests to remove off US soil on the Reich, sorry, The Right takes full dominance.
When they say 'our founding fathers', they don't mean people like you and me. So do whatever you want, vote conservative, everyone needs a reality check and FAFO moment in their life. The only reason they became anti-immigrant is not because of early era African-Americans they themselves brought in and abducted, nope. It's because smarter and highly intelligent Asians are outperforming them in every metric when it comes to having functional family system, well educated Asians coming to US, this is what ticks them off.
Damn this is a lot to unpack but you're not wrong about the "founding fathers" part - they definitely weren't thinking about us when they wrote that stuff
The whole "model minority" thing is basically just a way to pit us against other groups while still keeping us on the outside looking in. Like yeah we might do well on some metrics but that doesn't mean we're actually accepted or that conservative policies won't screw us over when push comes to shove
What in the yellow to white ass is this?
OP's a bot but my comment keeps getting removed when pointing it out
Affirmative action aside, a large portion of these issues are controlled by the state/local level, where it definitely does affect our voting patterns. Being tough on crime means absolutely nothing to us on the national level, for example.
If it's the other Five Eyes countries like UK, Canada, Aus and NZ, in those places, I don't see a problem with Asians supporting conservative parties and it's not because relative to the U.S. Republicans that they are less right wing. All those things the OP mentioned about Asians having higher rates of small business ownership, emphasis on education, relatively higher household incomes, and prioritization of public safety; all these things Asian place great importance regardless of what country they reside and normally conservative parties cater to that. In the case of the U.S., the Republicans don't seem to care about the Asian vote. If only all they would do is just act themselves on all those issues that Asians hold dear and be done with it, that should lock in that vote. Instead, they engage in this fear mongering about China and Chinese people or this irrational fear of the other, even people who have conservative views.
lol I remembered when that pro-Trump commentator Patrick Bet David made a tweet mentioning"our founding fathers" (as in the founding fathers of the U.S) and probably some WN Trump guy said to him that it's not his founding fathers because he's from Iran. And then you got that loud mouth Vivek Ramaswamy who stood there taking shit from Ann Coulter.
I think this huge shift towards WN today has totally overshadowed any good that Asians had done in the past. If this was 10 or 15 years ago (before Trump became Pres), Asians were viewed as people who had their head down, worked hard and not complain (basically the model minority myth). Nowadays, the same people who applied Asians in that model minority box would view Asians as a threat to them. I've seen comments saying that Asians work hard because they want to "take us over" or some crap like that.
Used to feel the same way. But republicans being anti-immigrants, and anti globalism, doesn't really benefit Asians or anyone. They are also pro white supremacist and racist rhetorics. They are also more authoritarian. Some Asians like it, because it feels like "home". Religion also plays a big role, Chinese / Asian churches worship Trump and Kirk.
I find democrats kind of irrelevant, their main goal is get votes, so they can retire with a big fat check or go into lobbying. Whichever racial minority is louder, has more voters, they will side with them. You think they care about how Asians/businesses were attacked?
From Asians I've spoken to, they are really just repeating either parties talking points. Had one vietnamese guy tell me, how Trump had done so many great things for this country, it's literally the same shit promoted by Fox news.
The identity politics, had made many Asians very woke. Their wokeness is not about their own racial group, but more so for Blacks, Hispanics, LGBT, etc. I've had Asian women tell me, say Blacks have it so hard in this country. And Asians are privileged.
When whites uses arbitrary criteria for admissions to benefit their own people, they've lost credibility to treat people equally.
Liberal or Conservatives, everyone is just coping, and being used to divert attention from the real issues.
There's seem to be this narrative, that racial minorities should have more solidarity. But I wonder, are POCs really allies, or competitors for proximity to whiteness. Cause disrespecting and bullying Asians is definitely not a white only thing.
More and most likely competitors for proximity to the nation's majority(White)
Being conservative is one thing, but being Republican is completely different. There are those who just vote with their religion, and they will pretend that the Republicans actually stand for anything, but they are used to believing myths anyway.
I don't know how any minority can support these open fascists. There is so much overt racism. They are openly anti Chinese. Spending any time in Republican areas, even purple states opens your eyes. Give them time and you'll see they are openly white supremacists.
To be clear tho, both parties are anti-Asian. They criticize China/the Chinese, fully aware that to both parties every Asian is interpreted as Chinese by them & the public at large, to discriminate & assault. So many Democratic celebrities pull their eyes & say “ching-chong” with no repercussions from the Democratic establishment. Look at mainstream media’s (ex. CNN & MSNBC) lack of East Asian anchors or East Asian doctors as their medical spokespersons. Exclusion of East Asians is still on the agenda. The meta-message of our absence is we’re irrelevant. We only matter when they want our votes. We’re expected to fall on our swords, while they know so much of their convoluted policies only hurt us but benefit others.
because the republican party only caters to whites/jews. They want to make the most powerful privileged groups even more powerful . While dems throw asians under the bus, they still keep white supremacists in check. The taxation policy difference most likely isn't significant enough to swing ppl either ways unless you're extremely rich/poor...While I do see Rs as the more hostile party and I don't think it's in Asians' interest to donate/support either party, it's important that Asians don't become overly loyal to the Dems like black ppl are...you have no leverage when the Dems/GOP can take your vote for granted
Liberal institutions, universities, social media and local government actively avoid, oppress the Asian community while gaslighting them into thinking they're allies and try to get their vote.
You will see a high amount of wmaf in liberal circles, tech companies, etc. Don't fall for it.
The Conservative Party has been built on its unfair (to put it mildly) treatment of minorities, especially relative to the Liberal Party
Asians come from very socialized countries. Big govt responsibilities and working for the govt isn’t something pursued by “dumb lazy” folks like USA. The govts may not spend as wastefully as USA, but they are doing a lot of things.
There’s also subsidized public transit and healthcare. Subway rides in Seoul, Shenzhen, Tokyo are cheap. Like $1 USD in Shenzhen. Japan high speed rail from Tokyo to Osaka was $100 USD. I had to go to a clinic in Seoul, the visit plus pharmacy drug was $25 USD.
Most of the Asian Americans around me care about three things: financial independence, good education for their kids and living away from crimes. For point one conservatives policies definitely offer more benefits to small business owners, but for your average corporate ladder climbers both platforms have their pluses and minuses (gop slightly less taxes, dems better benefits). In regard to education Dems are definitely more pro higher eduction but at the same time anti Asians in elite college admissions. Asians who believe in elitism resonate well with the liberal crowd though, because the former think it’s more prestigious. Tough anti crime policies is the one area where I think conservatives have more sway over Asians Americans, who statistically commit only a fraction of crimes as the national average.
That said, I think it’s best for Asian Americans to be divided on the left/right spectrum. This way their votes will carry far more weight to the politicians especially in swing states. When a group of people’s voting patterns become too predicable they tend to be taken for granted.
This is important. A lot of Asian Americans imagine white supremacists committing violence on Asians for their skin color. While that does happen, Asians are far more likely to have violence committed on them when there are anti-police policies or whenever sentences for crimes are light.
The other things is that it is already a crime if someone attacks you, whereas Asians face a lot of discrimination that is perfectly legal. With attacks there are things you can independently do such as remain vigilant, learn self-defense, or congregate in groups. Discrimination that is legal - there is nothing you can do.
Geography has virtually everything to do with it. Nearly all Asian Americans live in just 3 states. California, New York and Hawaii. They are the bluest states on the map. Even if we did vote Republican, our votes wouldn't matter.
However, this is slowly changing. Asian Americans are on the move, escaping the things you mention (high taxes, crime, affirmative action, dei, a decline in public schooling, etc). Nearly every Asian that leaves these 3 states is moving to purple or red states. This is the reason the number of Asian American democrats is plummeting, even though the demographic is increasing.
Asians tend to live in these states: California, New York, Hawaii, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Illinois. Those states tend to be liberal (except Texas).
Back in the 70's to 90's, first generation Asians that migrated from SE and East Asia were told that Democrats were for minorities. Later on, it was learned that by minorities, it excluded them and referred mostly to Blacks and Latinos. So there was a period for about a decade where Asians realized that Republicans represented more of their conservative views. Then in the last 15 years, the propganda became, if you are Republican you are racist since Obama was black and voting against him "meant" you didint like blacks. So, the younger generation of Asians outwardly became more liberal and far left cause they're weak minded, felt the need to be accepted in pop modern social media society and believed that anything Republican is bad wrong and racist.
Heres the thing, as East and South East Asians, Republicans align more with our culture of work hard play hard and no free handouts etc. BUT...and a big BUT, neither side cares for us. We dont mean much to either party and they shouldn't mean much to us. Handle your business, take care of yourself.
A large swath of modern conservative culture is openly racist, espouse white supremacist ideology, and openly support conflict with China.
In what world is this a group or ideology that Asian people would want to align themselves with?
Perhaps maybe amend "support conflict with China" to "support anti-Chinese sentiment" to distinguish it better? Some might find issue with it as people can already see, and it'll also help minimize geopolitical division among the community.
Yeah bad except the conflict with China part. China is evil.
China has uplifted more people out of poverty at a far larger scale than any other country in the history of the world.
But ignoring all that, even if you are opposed to China for whatever reason, any sane actor should not wish for a path which leads us closer to WWIII.
Yes, Chinese citizens who are members of the CCP
Most Chinese citizens aren’t even party members. And even if they were, so what?
don’t waste your time with that braindead r*tard
because white/jew media says so...come back to me when they invade countries to stealing oil and when their politicians are fucking children for fun....
but who am I kidding, self-hating asians are probably looking at those child victims with envy ..they wish trump & co would go down on their own kids and make them beautiful superior mixed babies.
No. Because they are genociding ethnic minorities…
because you are spewing USA white man propaganda...you are brainwashed, many ppl have gone to xinjiang, including my cousins from HK, there is no genocide..arab league sent a tem to investigate, they found nothing...msulim countries sided with China on the Israel led XJ genocide resolution...the only genocide is white on arabs, israeli on palestinians that you obvious don't give a fuck about
No, that’s also bad.
[removed]
[removed]
Yeah, because the US and the rest of the west are such saints lol. China is giving tons of practically free support to developing nations while the west openly exploits them for resources.
[removed]
[removed]
[removed]