A whiter shade of fail indeed:
African-Americans are cadillac-driving welfare moms, Latino Americans spread crime and disease, while failing to learn to speak ENGLISH, but Asian-Americans don’t fit neatly into a widely-disseminated right-wing propagandist stereotype. Sure, there’s a lot of anti-China rhetoric, but I doubt that makes much difference. Nevertheless:
Two decades ago, Asian-Americans reported voting Republican by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, said UC Berkeley political scientist Taeku Lee.
What is driving the leftward turn of a group that is, on average, more affluent than the average American? Not partisanship, say researchers, who find that Asian voters are the most likely to eschew party affiliation and vote on the specific issues that matter most to them.
“Issues drive Asian-American voting behavior,” said demographer Daniel Ichinose of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. “Asian-Americans care about health care reform. They care about comprehensive immigration reform. These are issues that the Democrats have done a better job of addressing.”
Asian-American voters saw big differences between Mitt Romney and Obama on education, health care, gender and the budget deficit, and favored Obama on most of those issues, according to a pre-election survey of 3,000 voters conducted by Lee and other California researchers.
For whatever reason, it’s difficult for many white people to understand that the contemporary Republican party bases its appeal not on fiscal this or Burkean that but on a cultural appeal to white Christians of a certain mindset.
The dog whistles may be too high for serious white people to hear, but they come through loud and clear to non-white voters.
It’s not about agreeing to immigration reform, it’s about not hating everyone who is “other”.
Patricia Kayden
It’s got to hurt when the “model minority” forsakes you.
redshirt
Let the demonization begin! I’ll predict more frequent use of the slur “Jap”.
And a Fatwa on Psy.
r€nato
I think that Asian-Americans are quite aware that they were ‘the other’ not all that long ago. Plenty of living Asian-Americans left who were in the internment camps during WW2. Even more whose parents or grandparents were there. When they see a major political party pandering to the brown-skin haters, it’s probably really easy for them to imagine themselves as being in their place.
Napoleon
You didn’t mention this nor is it in the quote but a week or 2 ago I read where something like less then 10% of Muslims voted fore Gore but this time around Obama was at something like 70%+ becuase they have had it with the way Republicans talk about them and others.
r€nato
@redshirt:
I think that’s something that both Left and Right can agree upon.
kindness
I voted for Obama and now I’m stuck waiting for all the ‘presents’ he promised me.
Face
Doobie Brothers for the win, Douglas.
Violet
Among non-white comedians, “Republican” and “conservative” have become punchlines. I’m seeing more making fun of white people on mainstream comedy as well. Plenty of white comedians are doing it as well, but it’s been interesting to me to see the shift in just the last year or so. It’s acceptable to point and laugh at dumb white people.
Villago Delenda Est
The GOP is becoming the party of the white christianist tribe. The neo-confederates. You know. Morans.
Asian-Americans are like other “other” groups…they look at the issues, and they know that they’re being targeted as “the other” by the GOP, appealing to their drooling base.
The Golux
It wouldn’t surprise me if a significant factor is the Republicans’ flight from reality that has accelerated during the same period that Asians have become disaffected with right-wing politics. Not to engage in a stereotype, but Asians tend to be pragmatic.
ranchandsyrup
Somewhere, some doofus is considering the Oriental (’cause he’s unaware that they identify as Asian) voter issue and thinking: “We could tell them that the upcoming FEMA camps are just like the internment camps of their ancestors”.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I wonder if this shift is also a demographic one.
20-30 years ago, every person I knew who had come here from repressive backgrounds, in my specific cases that would be Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea, Iran and Pakistan, every person who became a citizen also became a reliable Republican voter.
Why? They felt the Repups were the only thing standing between them and another repressive regime “taking over”, be it here or somewhere else on the planet. And of the ones I’ve stayed in touch with, they’re still reliable Republican voters.
All anecdotal but it would be interesting to see the demographic breakdown on “Asian voter” patterns. I bet they somewhat mirror (un)Real ‘Murkin ones in that the (white) Olds tend to vote Repup far more than the population as a whole.
redshirt
@ranchandsyrup: Yes. It’s working in their minds like this: FDR locked up the Japanese; FDR was a Democrat; ergo, Democrats want to lock you up in FEMA camps and Death Panel your grandma!
jibeaux
Or if you’re Charles Murray, you construct a stereotype of the
“model minority” as rich, educated, married, not divorced, super-hardworking, recent immigrant, individualistic, etc. which how could it possibly be any more complex than that? and then scratch your head in wonderment at why they’re so dumb/gullible to believe the stereotype of Republicans as meddling Bible-thumpers who hate the gays, which stereotype is clearly and obviously wrong and awful.
catclub
@Napoleon: Beat me to it.
Top thread: Also, great band name title. Maybe they could burn down a dance club in Providence.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Damm those sneaky Dems, They blinded me with SCIENCE!
Dork
“Asians” seem like a vague descriptor. Are Soviet-Americans counted as Asians? They are in Risk, so there’s that.
Chris
It’s doubly awesome because quite a few of these groups (the Chinese and Vietnamese most obviously) used to be a solid Republican vote, attracted by their anti-communist rhetoric. Like the Cubans.
And now even the Cubans are slipping away.
What’s that phrase they teach you as kids? “If everyone else in your life is an asshole, then maybe it’s you?”
jibeaux
@Violet: I’m going to be progressive and say dumb people in general. As Hank Hill once said, “Peggy, what kind of a country is this if I can only hate a man if he’s white?”
Ajay
As a registered Independent Asian, I cant imagine there are 27%(Its that number again) who would vote with R. It boggles my mind. I cant say that I agreed with everything Obama has done(drone, too nice to Rs, compromise etc), but the differences between Obama and Rs are stark.
Nicole
@r€nato: Hey! I like Psy. Any guy who sings a line like “I’m the sort of guy who has bulging brains instead of muscles” is okay by me.
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: I think the ‘if you keep this up we will need even more white identity parties’ is also really not helping the GOP with minority outreach. Cause those white identity parties always bring out the swastikas.
Brachiator
@redshirt:
Which will be bizarre when referring to Korean or Chinese or Indian Americans.
@Patricia Kayden:
I look forward to seeing how Rush and company will turn Asian Americans into ungrateful “takers.” And you know they will.
It is also going to be doubly hard on all those white conservative men with an Asian woman fetish.
Chris
Because the white Christian culture is just assumed to be the default “normal.”
Jim
Interestingly, the graph also shows that the Democratic share of the white vote has not changed appreciably since 1992.
Gin & Tonic
@catclub:
Sorry if I’m not catching some pop-culture reference, but clubs and fires make for an unfunny combination in Rhode Island.
Violet
@jibeaux: Yes, dumb people in general, of course. But it’s been a bit surprising to me to see white people singled out. Maybe it’s because the racism has become more obvious so the comedians have more material and have also become more bold.
Cacti
Unsurprisingly, in the home of SB 1070, Asians say Hispanics aren’t the only ones being targeted by law enforcement.
Svensker
How many Asians, Latinos and African-Americans watch FOX and listen to Rushbo, Savage or Beck? Because it seems to me the Republican Party has become the party of people who understand the memes being pushed by those guys. So that if you don’t listen to FOX or the hate radio jocks, you have no idea what the Republican Party is talking about (unless you’re a liberal blog-goer, but I’m not counting that cohort).
Valdivia
ah DougJ how your title wins have been missed :)
also. too. I guess the republicans do not understand how the entrepreneurial spirit of Teh Asians can coexist with the Muslim socialism of Obama.
catclub
@Chris: “What’s that phrase they teach you as kids?”
The common aspect of all your unsatisfactory relationships: is you.
[Demotivators and Douglas Adams get me through the day.]
Ted & Hellen
So this makes you an unserious white people? Or something something?
Chris
@r€nato:
Especially when they look at the treatment of Muslim Americans, who were a loyal Republican demographic right up until 9/11, after which the conservative base dutifully ran them out of the party as the new Enemy Of The People.
“If they’ll do that to an old and loyal demographic like that, they’ll do it to anyone,” I can just imagine them thinking.
pzerzan
Can’t believe you didn’t bring up Charles Murray’s latest screed on Asian Americans-
http://prospect.org/article/how-not-appeal-asian-americans
Violet
@redshirt:
I think you’ll see “Chink” or another Chinese slur before “Jap”. Wingnuts will not have to work too hard to make Americans afraid of the Chinese menace and how China is going to not only take us over economically but use their massive military to attack us. You know, like the real Red Dawn remake before liberal Hollywood caved and changed it to North Korea.
catclub
@Cacti: This was the great hilarity of Alabama’s version of SB1070 – hauling in executives from Japanese car factories. I am glad the policemen did it. Then all the ‘but we didn’t meant that kind when we passed it’ exclamations.
Zak44
Writing “everyday” when it should be “every day” is an everyday mistake that people make every day.
schrodinger's cat
Unless you are rich, white, male and belong to the top 1% the Republicans are not for you. They are the party of preservation of privilege.
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
@Ted & Hellen:
Yes, I am an unserious white person.
Woodrowfan
anecdotal only, but working at the polls as an election officer I liked to see what sample ballots people were carrying. We have a lot of Vietnamese in my precinct and I noted the middle-aged and elderly Vietnamese tended to have Republican sample ballots and the younger ones tended to have Democratic.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
In the case of Koreans and Chinese, it’s a double insult. But I don’t expect the morans to care, because, you know, they all look the same.
Cacti
@Svensker:
Isn’t the average listener/viewer for right wing media a 65-67 year old white person?
SatanicPanic
I’ve compared Republicans to the Taliban plenty of times, but just because they’re alike in some ways, doesn’t mean they’d actually get along. This is the fantasy the Republicans are engaging in with Asians. Besides, plenty of Asians come from countries that have things like national healthcare so I don’t see how they’d get upset about something like that here.
Villago Delenda Est
@Zak44:
I see what you did there.
MonkeyBoy
Asians are similar to Jews among minorities. While often being better educated and wealthier than the average Christian white, they strongly favor public education, maybe because it helped them.
Wealthy whites are often in favor of burning down public education and favor a system where the best people should be able to buy the best education for their children while preventing the undeserving from getting a good education and competing.
Punchy
But what does Sullivan think of Chinese finger traps?
Another Halocene Human
@Violet: It’s laugh or cry.
I’m kinda envious of my Black coworkers, in that in their personal circles it’s just a given that Romney sucked and the supporters of him were stupid. Whereas there are oodles of butthurt white people around here just waiting for an excuse to get their ragesplosion on. It’s kind of fucking embarrassing and I still don’t get what is so damn appealing about being a racist twit. Do you get cookies? SMH.
Chris
@Napoleon:
Ah, you beat me to it…
It’s a testament to how low a profile Muslim Americans had before 9/11 that no one comments on how incredibly weird it is, in historic terms, that they’ve become a solid Democratic voting bloc and the Most Wanted Minority on the Republican list.
Lev
Also worth noting that Indian-Americans, who one would assume would be a pretty decent target for Republicans to go after, typically favor Democrats with something like 80%, more than Latinos, more than Jews even. More than any ethnic subgroup except Black voters. Incredible.
clone12
I’m surprised that anyone is surpised that children of this “model minority”, who themselves achieve disproportionately high level of education attainment, find it difficult to vote for a political party that eschews science in favor of cultural dogma.
rikyrah
I’ve written it before…
nobody said anything…but everyone who wasn’t White and not a sellout, quietly observed the unrelenting disrespect shown this President and his entire family.
They, too, have lived under the previous 43 WHITE Presidents, and noticed the difference.
and, they made their voice heard on November 6th on what they thought about it.
they really thought they were just gonna roll and take away the RIGHT TO VOTE for some FIVE MILLION AMERICANS and nobody was gonna say shyt.
I said it before…the number that shocked them was the 70+ percent of ASIANS.. that voted for the President.
They just ‘ knew’ that Asians were down with the ‘ White is right’.
They never heard a peep from the Asians…
but they made their voice heard.
and, they were shocked…SHOCKED…that the Latinos came out to vote, and didn’t vote for a man who cozied up to the Papers, Please Law creator and Prop 187 Pete WILSON. Like that was just supposed to fly over the heads of Latinos.
Because, we all know that they stood by silently – the overwhelming majority of the MSM, as this President and his ENTIRE FAMILY were insulted..
They were ready for the narrative that ‘only Black folk’ were insulted, and of course, it was in our ‘ imaginations’.
Barack and Michelle Obama are the EPITOME of the American Dream.
They are what EVERYONE who wasn’t born RICH in this country, and can’t dribble some sort of athletic ball is told to do:
Go to school
Excel.
Work your ass off.
Nobody is saying that you’ll become President.
But, if you aren’t born rich, this is the way to middle-class success at the very least.
The GOP continually disrespected this self-made man and his wife….but, the only people who noticed were Black folks, and we were told we were being ‘ too sensitive’, and it was in ‘ our imaginations’.
The highest educated populace in this country is the Asian-American community. They value those pieces of paper like nobody’s business.
You don’t think they noticed…
That being President of the Harvard Law Review – is a spectacular achievement…
Until Barack Obama won the Presidency of the Harvard Law Review.
Graduating Magna Cum Laude used to be a spectacular achievement…
Until Barack Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School…..which of course, means he got his degree in crayon at the ‘ Black Entrance’.
How PHI BETA KAPPA meant something…
Until the PHI BETTA KAPPA from PRINCETON that also won the PRIZE FOR TOP STUDENT…was a LATINA…
A LATINA judge that had more judicial experience than any other nominee for the Supreme Court in SEVENTY YEARS…
Suddenly…she became an ‘ Affirmative Action Pick’.
Seriously…..you don’t think folks noticed that?
You don’t think the Asian community noticed the disrespect from the Senate towards Dr. Steven Chu- not only a PhD, but a NOBEL LAUREATE?
Seriously?
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: The name of the band that started the fire was Great White, which was my sidewise point. But if you go all serious on me, of course it is not funny.
Svensker
@Cacti:
Yes, mah point eggzackly. But the GOP doesn’t seem to have anything outside the FOX Bubble any longer.
Violet
@Cacti: Not just white person, but white male.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris:
This is because these minority groups, unlike the GOP base, are not stupid. After all, they’re looking at solid issues the government can address when making choices on candidates, not on vague “social issues” that for the most part are beyond the immediate control of politicians. They’re looking for results, not bromides. They are well aware that GOP policies are about freezing them out as much as possible from the American Dream, and they don’t like it. They have an instinctive love for this country’s ideal as it was founded, as a land of opportunity for those oppressed in whatever old world they came from.
cmorenc
@Doug J:
Yes Asians do, at least if you’re a non-Asian student at a university. The stereotype is that Asians are seen spending most of their out-of-class time seated in a group of 3 to 6 other Asians around a table in the Library or an unused classroom, studying continuously for hours on end together every day until near closing time for the library. Except when they’re seen playing badmitton in the school gym. Not sure there’s any adverse “propaganda” value in the stereotype, except that the stereotype is rather intimidating to anglo students entertaining conflicting ambitions to BOTH get into med school or a decent grad school AND enjoy a substantial party life at college.
Another Halocene Human
@Violet: Among non-white comedians, “Republican” and “conservative” have become punchlines.
Hey, be a love and post some YouTube links. I tried searching but The G000000gle decided to serve me up some hot racism instead and I’m too depressed to go on.
catclub
@rikyrah: Great post.
aimai
I read the piece on NRO where the “where all the yellow menz at” column first appeared–I forget which loser drew the short straw and had to write it but it was filleted over at Tbogg. The comment thread underneath the piece, which I think was written by Mr. Bell Curve himself, was full of GOP voters who resolutely reject the suggestion that their culture war on everyone who is not a white male christian evangelical has any basis in fact. IF they say, for purposes of this election, that they are “For” strivers and workers of every race than fuck the asians–whether indian or japanese–who reject that or who have contrary experiences. I’m old enough to remember when teh WSJ ran an ad campaign “The daily diary of the american dream” that included lots of hearwearming pix of the pakistani-indian newspaper seller and the korean grocer. They dropped that like a hot potato at least twenty-five years ago. Its a little late to try to sell the line that “all those lousy moochers and illegal immigrants and dark skinned others we were talking about–we didn’t mean you.“
MattF
It’s quite a puzzle. Here’s a hint: You think, maybe, Asians have experienced racism? And you think, maybe, that could be a problem for the Republican party? Gosh.
r€nato
@Another Halocene Human: It’s because they have believed their entire lives that it’s THEIR country and it was OK (they guessed) for those ‘other’ people to vote, so long as their weren’t too many of them; enough to swing an election.
Now they have found out it ain’t just THEIR country anymore; they’re going to have to share it with everyone else.
No, they aren’t happy about that. People born with a sense of entitlement seldom are when their toys are taken away from them.
jibeaux
For funsies, try sometime to get a Republican to eat something or somewhere remotely exotic. P.F. Chang’s does not count as remotely exotic. It’s not just that they’re white, it’s a subset of white that is remarkably homogenous and rural. They were born white, but then it’s like they chose to be culturally extra-white.
ksmiami
Again – if you have little or no contact with non-whites, you probably have no idea what their issues are. Asian Americans believe in good public schools and rely on them. The GOP wants to destroy public schools and turn them into bible study groups… And that is before we talk science and meritocracy. And smart money says the GOP is too far gone to moderate; instead they will whittle down to the 27% – Bookmark it Libs;0
r€nato
@MattF: I guess the ‘we’re not really talking about you people, so we’re cool, right?’ disclaimer didn’t get heard loudly enough.
Woodrowfan
it’s been talked about before on here, but as an older white male I am really uncomfortable around other older white males, because I don’t know when one of them is going to assume I’m also a dittohead and start spouting some nonsense he heard on Fox..
r€nato
@jibeaux:
oh hell yes it does with that crowd.
the g/f’s family dines regularly at Red Lobster, Applebee’s, Olive Garden… that’s fine dining to them.
peach flavored shampoo
Isn’t this repetitive?
Schlemizel
@Brachiator:
I think quite a few of them go with a slur that actually came from the Korean term for a Korean. But then since “they all look alike to us” Jap probably works for them too.
Since the war on people of color has not slowed down some white guys fetish for black women I doubt this will have much of an impact either.
Cacti
@Woodrowfan:
You don’t even have to be an older white male. I’m a 30-something white male, and often times when I find myself in the company of other white males, someone invariably assumes that it’s okay to let the racism fly.
Another Halocene Human
@redshirt: Meh, WWII babies like George Takei (who came from a family of California rice growers with a long history in the US, also long history of blatantly unfair racist shenanigans w/r/t citizenship rights) are going to be an entirely different demographic from SE Asian immigrants in the 1970s… or their children. What do we keep saying about lumping all Hispanics together? Goes double for Asians, as Japanese in their imperial phase warred on almost every major East Asian country and the ones they missed, China has a history with.
Then there’s South Asians. Used to be almost none of them in the US, no cultural ties, and now We Are All Bollywood Fans. VERY different politics.
Cassidy
@Woodrowfan: I’d imagine it’s like being former military working as a civilian in a military facility. On a couple of occassions I’ve had to remind people that thier language is inappropriate and disrespectful to the Commander in Chief in said military facility.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
Right on.
Just that. Right on.
(Yes, I do actually remember the 60’s)
Nina
One of the things that bugs me with surveys like this is that they fail to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese and Indonesian and Pakistani and Indian and Cambodian and mixed…
The biggest demographic change in the Asian contingent in recent years has been the absolute explosion of Indian-Americans, as folks live here long enough on H1-Bs and convert to citizenship. I suspect that this group votes Democratic, both on non-discrimination grounds but also because Democrats are friendlier to education, technology and science.
Woodrowfan
and Chik-fila??
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: Still an open sore for lots of people in this area. Sorry.
catclub
@Woodrowfan: My mom was talking about this. Without bringing on a complete shouting match the phrase: “That is not how I see it” comes up.
It may even work to dampen the assumption that ‘we are all in agreement here, right?’
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
RE: Which will be bizarre when referring to Korean or Chinese or Indian Americans.
No. It’s not an insult. It’s just stupid lack of precision.
And Indian Americans look the same as Chinese Americans? In which fictional universe?
@cmorenc:
But the point is that it is hard to turn this image into that of a lazy “taker” who expects the gummint to give them something.
@rikyrah:
Nailed it in one.
The Republicans whine about the death of the white establishment and wonder why Asian Americans don’t feel included in their GOP klan rally. Really?
Oh, yeah, can you say Chinese Exclusion Act?
Woodrowfan
@Cassidy:
@Cacti: We need some sort of gang sign we can flash. 8-)
The Moar You Know
Call a Korean or a Chinese person a “Jap” and you’re probably going to lose some teeth.
Asians aren’t a monolithic bloc of anything, and all non-Japanese remember very clearly what was inflicted on them during the “Greater Asian Co-Properity Sphere”, and to put it nicely, they don’t remember the good ol’ days of bayoneting babies with fondness.
r€nato
@rikyrah:
I guess that the Fox News/Romney campaign/right blogosphere thought they were talking to a room full of white people, who of course are totally OK with that kind of talk.
Nope sorry, you were talking to the entire nation. I think it’s a stretch to say that a vast number of voters took this into account, but for non-white voters who are generally disengaged with politics or were on the fence… yeah I think that this kind of trash talk might have made the difference.
Suffern ACE
@Another Halocene Human: I think of George when I hear about “Scoop” Jackson Democrats and the punditry salivating over the need for them. I would think there would be a whole contingent of older Japanese and Chinese citizens cringing at the thought of anyone rubbing their thighs for the return of that kind of wisdom to the party.
SatanicPanic
@Woodrowfan: Imagine being of mixed parentage, looking white and growing up surrounded by rednecks. If I had a nickel for every time I had to tell someone to can it I would have a lot nickels.
redshirt
@Another Halocene Human: I’m well aware of all that. Your average Free Republic member is not/does not care. And given the US’s institutional racism against Japanese in WW2, there’s lots of pre-made insults ready to go. Propaganda posters, for example.
These people are deeply stupid, and mentally unstable. We should not underestimate them, but neither should we over-credit them. They’re fucking stupid.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes, except I don’t think it’s even a matter of “stupid” or “social issues” for the GOP base. The GOP base, for the last fifty years, has been quite consciously voting to punish the rest of the country – poor people, working people, nonwhite people, non-Christian people, union and government employees, and the “liberal elite” (e.g. anyone who lives on the Eastern Seaboard or California) – for their uppity refusal to conform in all particulars to their vision of How America Ought To Be.
The people you’re talking about, regardless of their opinions on gay marriage or whatever, are mostly voting to help themselves. The GOP base is voting to fuck other people. That’s the difference. And the minorities are very aware that “other people” means them.
replicnt6
@Zak44:
Oh, thank you. I am so tired of seeing this. It’s _everywhere_. (Or is that every where :-)
redshirt
For example: Know your Jap!
J R in WV
@Lev:
India is a socialist country. They are amazed by the policy positions of the Republicans, which they typically see as immoral and unethical. In India the government helps people in every way possible. They expect that level of government support here, and see that only the Democratic Party is willing to support that kind of government.
I’m proud to have enabled many fine Indian workers to come to America and become American citizens. Other foreign minorities, too, but especially lots of Indians. They make fine Americans! And vote Democratic, too. Mostly.
I only know one south-Asian immigrant we hired that is still a Republican. He wants to get married, and can’t understand that no Republican woman will be willing to even date a brown person. I can’t bring myself to just say it to him bluntly, but there it is.
Maybe he’ll get hooked up with a fellow immigrant by one of his sisters, I hope. A great guy, brilliant, but politically naive from growing up in a country without real elections.
hitchhiker
How about the simple explanation? The Rs in the news all the time are STUPID.
They say dumb shit on camera, repeatedly. They don’t like science, and they’re proud of not liking science.
The only one of them who comes across as having no fear of the truly knuckle-dragging base is Chris Christie. As long as a moron like Rick Santorum is the grinning face of the Republican party, they’re going to keep losing ground with every demographic but older white men.
Older white men are just becoming sad, like any demographic that watches its authority — once assumed to be so, so deserved– turn out to be a temporary fluke. They never deserved all the goodies, but they’re just now realizing it.
Chris
@jibeaux:
I remember househunting with a Republican friend who was going to leave her apartment. She flat-out refused to live in any black or Hispanic dominated neighborhood, because “I’d be at risk.” Her boyfriend pulled up a map of crime stats in DC and even when you pointed out to her that the neighborhoods she’d looked hadn’t had a violent crime in years, but nothing going. She just knew it was dangerous.
But don’t call them raaaaacist. Oh dear me, no.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jibeaux:
This. Oh Sweet Mother of God this. Dining with Republicans is excruciating even before they start talking politics, because they insist on eating at places that haven’t updated the menu since Nixon was popular.
Woodrowfan
@redshirt: I show that Life magazine to my classes. The students tend to be a bit dumbfounded by it…
lou
It’s totally the anti-immigration rhetoric. Republicans might “mean” Latinos, but it translates to other immigrant groups loud and clear.
Here’s an anecdote from the Newt Gingrich days. My DH worked on a congressional campaign for a Democrat looking to defeat a Republican who was swept in under Gingrich’s revolution.
I volunteered a couple of days and remember vividly the Korean couple with a store proudly accepting the signs of the Democratic candidate from me. It was the Republican incumbent’s histrionic anti-immigration campaigning that put them over the edge.
Bubblegum Tate
@Woodrowfan:
I’ve seen that trend as well. Older Vietnamese are Republicans mostly due to all the anti-communist rhetoric (as referenced by other posters above), but their children and grandchildren are fairly reliably Democratic because, well, they’re repulsed by the GOP’s race-baiting rhetoric, to say nothing of its atrocious policies.
Schlemizel
It was odd for me to discover that Asians were not considered “same as white” The neighborhood I grew up in the 50s & 60s had two Asian families, both Chinese. The dated white kids, something the Black kids in my High School would not have been “permitted” and I never heard people casually toss off chink or gook like I heard nigger used. (the exception to that came with the Viet Nam War making gook a term used for those people over there not the Asians here).
WHen I moved to Florida I became friends with a first gen Chinese co-worker. He had some stories that stunned me and I did hear a lot more of that sort of thing. Maybe I grew up in an island of sanity, or maybe it was just that the Asians in my neighborhood were ‘more acceptable’ than black of Latino. Still I was surprised
Chris
@Brachiator:
Yes, it is. At that point, you turn it into a “these people think they’re too good for us!” stereotype. Turn them from a “union thugs” demographic to a “liberal elite” demographic, like they already have with Jews.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Point one: You’re not aware of the animosity of Koreans and Chinese toward the Japanese?
Point two: You’ll notice I didn’t mention the Indian Americans when making that comment, precisely because they don’t “look like” East Asians, such as Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese.
I think the N word will work just fine for those from the subcontinent, thank you.
Svensker
@catclub:
I’ll sometimes say, gently and quietly, “I have family members who are fill-in-the-dots and what you said really makes me feel bad.” That will usually cause embarrassment and bring on an apology. Helps that I’m an older woman, too, probably.
Schlemizel
One of my favorite stories about my friend was one Thanksgiving week the real redneck that worked with us asked him, “What do YOU people eat for Thanksgiving?”
And yes he emphasized YOU PEOPLE
My friend looked at him with a blank face and said, like ice, “We stir fry a turkey!”
Another Halocene Human
@clone12: I think in the past there was a tendency (excepting Chinese and Japanese) for Asian immigrants to be Christians, usually fleeing post-Colonial governments that didn’t look kindly on collabos.
But with the reform of US immigration policies in the late 20th century, the dominance of US universities, even the H1B rush, you have many more non-Christian immigrants. And that evangelical/authoritarian Xtian nation stuff is not going to play well with people who thought that the US was supposed to be a tolerant immigrant nation.
schrodinger's cat
@J R in WV:
Are you saying that India does not have real elections? If so, that’s just wrong. India is a robust democracy and has had elections since its independence in 1947.
trollhattan
It’s easily explained: Hmong gangs are forcing the compliant Asian communities to vote Democrat against their wills, also, too.
We should do something about those gangs.
Schlemizel
@Villago Delenda Est:
Maybe they will save themselves all the bother of defining & just go with the fine old English term: “WOGS”
gene108
Asians (speaking very, very ridiculously) broadly never went through the sort religious tussles Europe did over science and religion.
I think most Asians (even the really Christian ones) have no problem accepting the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, realize Evolution is the best theory available to explain certain natural phenomena, and so find the whole anti-science tilt of the GOP to be disheartening.
A lot of people would probably support the GOP still if the GOP was more flexible on abortion and less anti-science.
redshirt
@trollhattan: LOL. Awesome reference. Yellow Hmongs! Standing outside polling centers!
FormerSwingVoter
Wow. It’s almost as if having a party platform of “We Hate Everybody” might decrease your popularity with the demographic group of Everyone Who Isn’t You.
Who knew?
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Whew! You’re good with the words. Great comment!
And I agree with you that racism directed at the President was noted by more than just the Negroes, unbeknownst to our conservative overlords.
Brachiator
@peach flavored shampoo:
RE: Indian-Americans
Uh, no. The linked article noted:
Perhaps you were thinking of Native Americans.
@Schlemizel:
People are just straining here. Besides, the old school (especially in parts of California) general slur used for Asians is Buddha Head.
Damn, people. Try to keep up.
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemizel:
The Wogs begin at Calais, you know!
Comrade Mary
@r€nato: NOOOO! LEAVE PSY ALOOOOOONE!
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
“Gook” is derived from Korean for “people”.
“Hanguk” is “The Korean People.”
Patricia Kayden
@Woodrowfan: Wear an Obama t-shirt or some such. That will make your position known.
Just joking.
replicnt6
@Gin & Tonic: Maybe this anecdote will inflame the sore:
Back when it happened (ok, soon thereafter), I was driving with my then-girlfriend and told her that a club fire had killed around 200 people at a Great White concert in RI. Her jaw dropped and she stared at me, stunned. Then she said “That’s unbelievable. 200 people went to see a Great White concert?”
Comrade Dread
Look, it’s really not all that complicated, here’s how you win back well, not just minorities, but a lot of voters:
1. Come out and say we are committed to making the voting process as easy as possible while ensuring its integrity, so we’re going to push for the expansion of voting hours across the nation. Every citizen should vote and their vote should be counted.
2. Say “we recognize that in a free market society there are winners and losers. We also recognize that sometimes bad things happen to good, hard working people because we live in a fallen world. And we recognize that while personal and local charities are important for helping folks out and we want to encourage them, that sometimes government has a social responsibility to make sure people don’t fall out of society. We need a safety net, but at the same time, we don’t want to discourage able bodied people from working, so we’ll strive to work with Democrats to make sure Americans going through difficulties have the basic things they need while ensuring that they continue to try and come back into the work force.”
3. Admit that there are things that the free market cannot do and that government should do. Also recognize the limited resources and power of state and local government and admit that sometimes the Federal government must be involved.
4. State that you are not for small government or big government. Commit yourself to a position of a government that is smart and functional. One that is just big enough to do what needs to be done and smart enough that we periodically review government regulation and consult non-partisan experts (not just businessmen) about whether or not a given regulation does what was intended. If it doesn’t, commit to repealing it and replacing it with a different regulation that tries to accomplish the same task.
5. State that one of those Judeo-Christian values you support is forgiveness. Therefore, you recognize that many people came to this country seeking a better life and you are committed to giving them a way to citizenship. Construct this first, then reform the immigration process and laws. Then, after you’ve made the process easier and gotten illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, broach the topic of further securing the borders.
6. State that you are committed to being pro-life, and adopt pro-life policies: Greater contraceptive access and education to reduce the number of abortions; increased funding for free prenatal and OBGYN care for lower middle class and poor women; increased funding for pre-school and education, etc.
7. Recognize that you really screwed up on Iraq. Admit it. Commit yourself to not sending off our boys to die in a place where we have no national interest and a place that has not attacked us. That is, rediscover your 90’s opposition to foreign interventions.
8. Recognize that crime doesn’t just exist in the inner cities. It exists on Wall St and in corporate board rooms. Make the enforcement and compliance of regulations a legal/criminal affair and commit sufficient resources to a Federal Law Enforcement agency to hire enough cops to police corporations to ensure compliance. No more, “We’re going to trust industry to police itself.”
9. Recognize that the tax rates of the Clinton era were pretty damn good for your buddies in comparison to how they were under Eisenhower through Reagan.
I could probably go on, but I think presenting that type of platform might start to convince independents and minority voters that you’re trying hard to leave your insane racist douchenozzle past behind and even let you win an election or two.
jibeaux
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: My thanksgiving involved people marveling in disbelief that you could actually eat a Brussels sprout.
Jim
@rikyrah: BRAVO!
Cassidy
@Comrade Dread: That’s more than a 5 point plan. No one will go for it.
burnspbesq
@Brachiator:
They took all the places in the Ivy League, UC, Duke, and Stanford that were supposed to be earmarked for white kids.
Comrade Dread
@Cassidy: Damn, and I even left off the part about letting folks know that they’re aware that Climate Change is not a conspiracy by scientists who want to use government grant money to buy Ferraris.
replicnt6
@Comrade Dread: So, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying that the Republican party could expand its appeal by adopting the Green party platform?
Carl Nyberg
To add an anecdote to the statistics, I talked with Steve a Republican turned Democrat in Barrington, IL. He worked his entire precinct for Leslie Coolidge, the Dem Congressional candidate.
He said the Koreans–and anybody who lives in his precinct is doing well financially–were reluctant to talk politics until he said he was a Democrat. And then these guys who were almost certainly self-made success stories and people who attended church regularly unloaded on the Republicans. Steve said these wealthy Koreans were angry at Republicans over immigration and other issues.
The GOP has put itself on a losing path. I don’t see how they overhaul their issues or their coalition without risking losing the Tea Party, the crackers, the social conservatives and the other whackjobs the GOP has come to count on.
But it’s not like the status quo is sustainable either, if the GOP has aspirations of competing for the presidency.
schrodinger's cat
@rikyrah: So true, also don’t forget the disdain with which they treated the Clintons. Also another example of someone making it to the top on their own steam, unlike the sons of privilege like Bush and Romney. They talk a good game, they don’t mean any of it.
Svensker
@jibeaux:
I love Brussels sprouts, especially roasted, but I can’t help but think of the scene in Alice Adams whenever we have them. Do you know it? Where the family that is desperately trying to impress the rich young suitor serves hot, long-boiled sprouts at dinner on a stifling summer night? One of the most excruciating vignettes ever in film or in literature.
aimai
@burnspbesq:
Yes, also “asian gangs” and “triads” and “tongs” and ungrateful second and third generation kids. Just look at Gran Torino–the entire movie is based around the reality that second and third generation Asian kids, descendants of Cambodians, Vietnamese, Hmong are often ghettoized and simply a part of the despised working poor in this country. In other words: it will be just as easy to demonize any “Asian” group–south east asian, south asian, east asian, whatever as soon as they want to demonize them.
aimai
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
I have Asian American friends who were in Japanese concentration camps during WW II. One lost an eye because a guard used him as a punching bag. He was born in the Philippines. Oddly enough, his daughter is engaged to a Japanese American man. The father had to go through a lot to put the past aside. He is still on that journey.
On the other hand, another friend was one of the first organizers of the Japanese American reparation program, a debt he felt he owed to his parents.
So, please do not try to adumbrate any points with me.
Aside from this, we are not in any way on opposite sides here.
Also, too the animosity you speak of is complex, but not thought about in the same way by younger people, often used to hanging out together. Fer instance, I hung out for a chunk of time in Gardena, California, which had a substantial Japanese American population. One of the best and most popular restaurants was a Chinese restaurant. Some of my Japanese American friends regularly partied with Chinese Americans and noted that they couldn’t understand white people’s love for sushi.
Both the N word and Sambo have been used to slur people from the subcontinent. And of course, Helen Bannerman’s book was originally about a South Indian boy. Also, too, let’s not forget that other UK imported insult, Paki.
Carl Nyberg
@Comrade Dread:
Acknowledging the immorality of Republicans on Iraq in 2003 would go a long way to establishing credibility with me.
But the GOP opposition to intervention in the 90s was simply anti-Clinton sentiment.
His foreign policy actions were taking media coverage away from Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky.
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread:
That’s the type of platform the Rethugs will NEVER embrace.
Schlemizel
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oddly enough that works just fine for the modern GOP – WOGS it is then!
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread:
That’s Rethug projection at work, again.
Culture of Truth
What is driving the leftward turn of a group that is, on average, more affluent than the average American?
Look at the rise around 2004. You invade one country by mistake and people make such a HUGE deal about it. Sheesh. get over it.*
* also please get over over katrina and the depression. also schiavo and choice and antigayness and also the rape stuff oh and also the racism. thanks, the gop
Valdivia
@rikyrah:
amen. that is all.
Schlemizel
@Comrade Dread:
You missed what would be point 10 if they did this – lose your entire wingnut base & their army of morans, lose elections
@Cassidy:
NO! We’re the one that are supposed to be for 5 point plans!
Comrade Dread
@replicnt6: No, I don’t think this would be a Green platform as much as it would be a return to fiscal responsibility, skepticism of power (both Government and corporate), law and order, realism, and Christian values, which are all things conservatives supposedly like.
TerryC
@Cacti: I’m encouraged about my young and old disc golfing friends, then. I’m 65, and although the cultural diversity in disc golf is broad, have only heard racially disparaging words when I have competed in Texas.
Comrade Dread
@Villago Delenda Est: Oh, I know. Modern conservatism is all about fear and faith.
Fear of minorities, fear of losing their cultural dominance, fear of foreigners (no matter how weak they are) and faith in markets, faith in tax cuts, faith in their particular interpretation of Christianity that has only existed for 160 years, faith that businesses will always do what is in their best long term interest, faith in economic models that ignore real world situations and variables.
Modern conservatism is an entirely emotion based outlook.
Schlemizel
@Brachiator:
I had a neighbor who was taken at Corregidor in WWII. He hated the Koreans, said all the guards where he was kept were Korean with Japanese officers. He claimed an officer saved his life so he did not hate the Japanese as much but really blamed his Korean guards whom he said “felt they had to bloody their bayonet to prove their manhood”.
Cassidy
Funny you mention that, because I can’t get over how inconsistent Christian values are with conservative/libertarian ideology. It’s almost as if they’ve forgotten that whole Jesus, thing.
Carl Nyberg
@Comrade Dread:
When did the Republican Party stand for these things?
Not “When did the Republican Party say they stood for these things?” but when did the GOP act on them.
My limited knowledge is that that GOP had the corporate interests of the rail industry infused in the party from the beginning.
Once Lincoln got elected, he consolidated power in the federal government.
In the post civil war era, the GOP went on to profiteering during Reconstruction and getting pro-corporation policy and laws enacted.
Teddy Roosevelt was a brief reformer who was driven out of the party.
And then there were a string of GOP crooks.
Some sanity under Eisenhower which was attacked by Republicans in Congress.
And then we’re into the McCarthy era, the Southern Strategy and the eventual Bush 43 debacle.
aimai
Is this the birth of a new internet meme, along the lines of “I am familiar with all internet traditions?” Is this all it takes to shut down everyone else’s right to discuss a knotty issue? That someone say “please do not try to adumbrate any points with me?” Is it the new magic word?
aimai
schrodinger's cat
What is this BS in Charles Lane’s article about Asians being a natural Republican constituency. The natural Republican constituency is the richest 1% of the population and the terminally stupid.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jibeaux:
I think you can file this away under VDE #107’s “The Wogs begin at Calais”.
First they offered me a bowl of Brussels sprouts and I said nothing, because I figured ‘what the heck, I can do this just once’…
The part when they bring on the Escargot, that isn’t even the last of it. The ending is horrible and it rhymes with Kale.
Woodrowfan
@Comrade Dread: I have Democratic gun-owning friends and Republican-gun owning friends. The Democrats enjoy the skill and fun of target shooting and otherwise keep their guns unloaded and securely locked up. The Republicans are afraid of gangs of robbers “from the ghetto” running rampage through their nice upper-middle class suburb, raping and pillaging. Their guns are stored loaded and easily accessible.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Yeah, but we are talking about people who are not big on precision, as you correctly pointed out earlier. I mean, making a distinction between ni*CLANG*, sambo, and paki is just not their forte, you know.
A friend of mine in the Army was from a TexMex family that could trace their presence in the Rio Grande valley back to Spanish colonial times, and was pretty adamant that he was NOT a “Chicano”, and to call him that was demeaning in his eyes. Yet many ignorant white types assumed a Hispanic surname – “Chicano”.
To make such distinctions among Asians would require actually coming to know more about the various shades of brown, and the various distinctions between them, that are apparent to those who aren’t interested in painting with a broad brush. Epicanthic fold = all the same.
Never mind that by paying attention (there I go again) it’s quite possible to discern if someone is primarily of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, or other east/southeast/central Asian ancestry.
AND THEN, and only then, select the correct ethnic slur to use on them.
Don K
@Napoleon:
Check out the voting in east Dearborn, MI, sometime. It’s heavily Middle Eastern (not all of them Muslims), and there was a huge increase in the Dem vote share between 2000 and 2004. These precincts are adjacent to Detroit, but have almost no African-Americans living in them (it’s still Dearborn!), and regularly give the Dems 70-80% of the vote these days.
Another anecdote: a few days after the election, my partner and I saw a doctor who is a Sikh. We spent a few minutes talking about the election and she said, “Here’s the thing. Republicans just don’t like brown-skinned people.”
Alex S.
@rikyrah:
Wow, that was righteous. But it must be true, the conservative code does not work for non-WASPs. The denigration of intellect & taking pride in being ignorant doesn’t work with people from a different background. An hispanic presidential nominee alone is not enough – this candidate also has to change the party.
johnny aquitard
@rikyrah:
Plenty of other folks noticed too. And noticed that the pres and his wife are great American role models for family and marriage. But not all of the reactions to this disrespect were outrage.
For white people who noticed, there are two kinds. 1, white people like me and my wife, who like you seethed at the disrespect and hypocrisy toward the president and his wife by these ‘family values’ neoconfederates, and 2, white people like the GOP base, who got satisfaction from the disrespect because deep down inside they seethe with hatred and envy that a black man made a better leader, father, husband, and a black woman made a better wife and mother, and together they had a better, more beautiful family than anything the bigots could ever dream of.
Nothing stone hard racists hate more is having the object of their hate doing the right thing under pressure and adversity, and getting it right with more grace, courage, integrity, faith and dignity than they could ever imagine.
Carl Nyberg
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s not the stupidity, it’s the bigotry.
Enough bigotry short-circuits one’s ability to reason and deal with facts that contradict one’s previously held worldview.
SatanicPanic
@aimai: I learned a new word today, so there’s that.
schrodinger's cat
@johnny aquitard: The media has by and large ignored this disrespect, even if they noticed it.
Villago Delenda Est
@johnny aquitard:
This provides support for the old adage that “Living well is the best revenge.”
roc
@ksmiami:
This and the student loans thing. The anti-science, anti-education nonsense does not play well with the Asian American (nor Indian American) demographics.
Brachiator
@burnspbesq:
RE: I look forward to seeing how Rush and company will turn Asian Americans into ungrateful “takers.
Hmm. Given the Santorum and company disdain for college and the Ivy League, it’s gonna be tough for them to use this against Asian Americans. But I know they will try hard.
I heard some crap not too long ago about complaints about sly Chinese nationals buying slots in American schools that “should” be going to poor, hard working Real White Americans.
I also vaguely recall David Duke, was it?, trying to come to California with tales of woe about Asians taking college places that could have gone to white people. He got shouted out of town.
But this is what the Republicans have left for themselves. The sad thing is that they don’t seem to care. And they clearly learned nothing from how they alienated Latinos in California with all the Pete Wilson lead Prop 187 demonization. So, now they want to do the same thing on a national scale against practically all nonwhite groups.
Cassidy
@Villago Delenda Est:
To be fair, In my younger days, in the barracks, I almost got into a couple of scraps by not being aware of Hispanic/ Latino identity terms. My saving grace is that I wasn’t being a bigot.
Chris
@Carl Nyberg:
This.
I suspect there’s more than a few people in the GOP base who do realize that Republican policies will probably be worse for the economy, but figure as long as it hurts “other people” more than them, it’s worth it.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I think you’re contradicting yourself. Not all Asians have the same memory of Japanese rule. For example, many old Taiwanese families have better memories of the Japanese, who were responsible for modernizing the country, than they do of the KMT, who treated the Taiwanese as a bunch of collaborators. I also get the impression that the Japanese were no worse than the Dutch in Indonesia, at least in their treatment of ethnic Malay.
Cassidy
I just want to say, but man white people loved them some Jeremy Lin. He was like Tebow Jesus, but Asian.
Napoleon
@Don K:
Funny you should mention that because after my original post up-thread I wondered if Mich perhaps is now well and truly out of range for the Reps with a flip of the Arab-American vote. I could see Mich as being a state where there are enough of them to really make a difference in the outcome.
rb
@rikyrah: Hear effing hear. Steven Chu – I’d forgotten that. Jesus, your litany could go on for weeks and the examples would still be pertinent and poignant.
Yes, in reality none of this is surprising. But the surprise in some corners is kind of invigorating, in a sad way. Easy for me to say, I know.
Southern Beale
Speaking of hating everyone who is “other”:
Yes let’s remember that Santorum has already thrown his hat into the ring for 2016. Republicans are still the party of crazy people.
Alex S.
@Carl Nyberg:
You talk about railroads, I might be mistaken, but I think the Democrats represented agriculture (slavery) and the Republicans represented the emerging industrial sector. As agriculture vanished as a political force, the industrial sector created ‘big business’ as we know it (Standard Oil DuPont etc…). Democrats were forced to expand their message to a general ‘anti big-business’ message which was achieved by FDR. The rift between forward-looking entrepreneurs/technocrats and the conservative industrialists who were content with defending their wealth and privileges broke open with Teddy Roosevelt.
Kyle
@jibeaux:
I had one who refused to go to a French restaurant as part of a cycling group we were both involved with. This was a few years ago and he still had his head up his ass about Freedom Fries.
Sad that people actually live like that.
Joey Maloney
@replicnt6: Why not? They’re already funding it.
Cain
@peach flavored shampoo:
I think they mean Asian Indians. Not our tribal indigenous people in the U.S.
SatanicPanic
@Brachiator: Republican oppostion to attending college extends only to other people’s children.
SASQ
@rikyrah: Word!
I have to comment (my first comment): my friend B (parents immigrated from Vietnam literally on one of the last airlifts) is fairly conservative and often strikes me as ripe for GOP messages. But she noticed what the Republicans said about Chu, noticed the wise Latina, and feels keenly the disrespect of always being considered a foreigner from Republicans. She noticed, did not say anything (since she avoids confrontation), but yes, voting was the BF revenge.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cassidy:
The military is a pretty good place to mix it up with people of backgrounds quite different from your own and find out that they’re just people like you.
It does help if you go into it with an open mind, of course. Some have to learn the hard way about those things.
Used to tell my troops that they were all green to me.
Paul in KY
@Napoleon: About fucking time. They should have voted for Gore too.
gwangung
And I’m goddam PROUD of it.
Mary G
@rikyrah: @Comrade Dread: These are the two best comments I have ever read on the internet. Bravo.
I want to copy and paste them over all the right wing blogs.
Brachiator
@aimai:
Nope. I am enjoying the discussion and enjoying adding to it.
However, I hate it when people presume what other people may know, or may have experienced, with respect to racial discrimination. That’s dumb and unproductive.
@Villago Delenda Est:
I will give you that.
As an unrelated, related aside, I love that the word “boondocks” (as in down in the boondocks, people put me down ’cause that’s the part of town I was born in) comes from a Tagalog word, bundok. A word for “white trash” hicks was brought into this country by American military personnel who had served in the Philippines during WW I.
Funny sometimes how slurs originate.
jibeaux
@Kyle: Shoot, the French would probably have to bomb me personally before I would boycott (some of) their food. Steak frites might as well just descend from heaven on a golden platter surrounded by a chorus of angels.
I remember that stupid, though, it was a real low point. There were people pouring out their French wines. Because THAT’ll show ’em!
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: I thought number 10 was: Admit that these are the Democrats’ policies now, and switch.
Death Panel Truck
@Villago Delenda Est:
“They’re all the same” reminds me of this from All In The Family:
gwangung
Just to point out that “Asian American” actually IS an invented identity, which was created by Asian Americans themselves in the 60s and 70s, to emphasize that they were indeed Americans and not foreigners—and to get the aggregate power of numbers.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@rikyrah:
kudos for a great comment.
And what BHO’s critics miss is that he is, amongst a great many other things, an extraordinarily enthusiastic and effective spokesman for those virtues and for that American Dream. When they attempt to attack and insult him, they are attacking not just him personally or his family or his party or his perceived ethnic group, but also one of our most aspirational visions of what this country at its very best can be and can mean to ordinary people.
When political partisans overshoot their intended target and attack the very idea of America at its best, it generally doesn’t go well for them.
Cassidy
@jibeaux: Which were really California wines with French sounding names, much like shampoo.
@Villago Delenda Est: I just thought it was funny, because I’ve always been fairly liberal and I thought Hispanic was a race neutral term; I honestly didn’t know any better. The Puerto Rican who was as drunk as the rest of us disagreed.
Sly
When Newt Gingrich can point out the absurdity of your argument (albeit in a preening, racist way), you’re probably in big trouble.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
I think the Japanese to some extent tried to use anti-European nationalism in the countries they occupied in order to rally as many people as possible against the Allies. The entire “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” thing was largely a propaganda ploy in the service of that notion – with the American-friendly KMT being portrayed as a stooge of the imperialist whiteys.
gwangung
@rikyrah: Yup….and you can say it as many times as you want; I’ve read it before and I still enjoy it every time I read it.
decitect
@Brachiator:
no harder than it’s been for them with black women, latina women, hell, even white men… they just objectify regardless; they’re still infected with the white privilege thing
FlipYrWhig
@SatanicPanic: adumbrate is, in all honesty, one of my favorite words. Limn is useful too.
BruceFromOhio
As a long time serious white people, I about went deaf from the Gaia-damned whistling.
Even the dogs were trying to hide from it.
I expect more than a few Japanese-Americans are sensitive to anything that looks or sounds like ostracization. There’s plenty of documentation for those that could not attend.
catclub
@jibeaux: Pouring out good food( or wine) because of hatred. Well, the next step is burning books (and then people).
So rejoice, we are not there,…. yet.
David in NY
I remember in 1984 (Reagan/Mondale) being a Democratic poll watcher in Queens and helping a 20-year-old Asian girl whose name didn’t appear in the registration book go down to court and get an order to let her vote. She came back two or three hours later with the order and exclaimed how happy she was that the first vote she would cast was for President Reagan. Not the result I was working for, but, anyway …
The result would not be the same today, in party terms, though the 20-year-old Asians were no doubt voting for this President, this time.
Chris
@David in NY:
The difference being that I’m pretty sure you’d have done it even if you’d known who she was voting for, whereas the GOP has made it quite clear that it’s not just preference but policy to not lift a finger to help citizens vote unless it’s for them.
SatanicPanic
@FlipYrWhig: Nice, now I know 2 new words. I knew coming here wasn’t a waste of time ;)
Woodrowfan
new inclusive Republican slogan to win the Asian vote..
“Vote Republican, We Love You Long Time!”
Should work like a charm…
steve
Maybe asians aren’t voting for republicans simply because they aren’t stupid. The GOP is the Party of Stupid.
Joey Maloney
@FlipYrWhig: How do you feel about cynosure? That’s one of my personal faves.
David in NY
Wait. I’m the average Rush listener?
Ouch.
Paul in KY
@Sly: That was funny to watch ole Newt tear them a new one.
FlipYrWhig
@Joey Maloney: ooh, that’s a beauty. I’ve used that one in print!
? Martin
@ksmiami:
It’s not the bible study that’s the issue. Lots of pretty conservative Christian Asians out there. The issue is the war on teachers, the war on public school funding.
Many Asians are familiar with the promotion ranks system used in China and surrounding countries. The US promised top-rate education for everyone. The GOP is trying to eliminate that, quite directly.
I live in a city that has been built around public schools. Property values are directly tied to the quality of the schools at all levels. The asian community LOVES it here and contributes significantly to the system, and they are mystified that the US which has cleared all cultural, financial, and structural obstacles to high quality education for everyone has a group running around trying to recreate 3rd world education systems.
Bill
@Comrade Dread:
These would help the R’s win votes, but it would also turn them in to the Modern Democratic Party.
FlipYrWhig
@SatanicPanic: it’s time for Limn-sanity!
David in NY
@Chris: Yes, I had no idea whom she intended to vote for, and I probably wasn’t supposed to ask. And anyway, as you suspect, I’d have helped her even if I knew. I guess you’re right — we, unlike the Republicans, believe in the right to vote for everyone.
trollhattan
@David in NY:
You got you some catchin’ up to do.
Step 1. Buy goooooold!
Step 2. Buy gunz(pbut)!
Step 3. Ammo(duh)!
Rinse and repeat, until further instructions.
schrodinger's cat
@? Martin: Not just third world education systems, they want to recreate a third world economy and politics, where you get to have a say only if you are rich and powerful. GOP is the neo-feudal party.
gwangung
Friggin’ right. Bedrock concept, respect for scholarship. (My family considers me somewhat under educated with just a masters).
With that core of a value, any party has to work with it, and not oppose it like the Rs have been doing.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
That sounds about right. And it was more successful than we’d like to admit, at least initially, because so many of the colonial nations treated their colonial populations wretchedly. My impression is that they were more successful in areas under civilian control, like Taiwan, in places that had especially poor colonial government, like Indonesia, and with ethnic groups that had previously been oppressed.
David in NY
@trollhattan: I may be relocating, part-time, a hundred miles or so north, to rod-and-gun-club heaven, and have thought I wouldn’t mind taking up hunting, like my father and grandfather. But how awkward, as an old guy who doesn’t know anything about rifles, to admit my ignorance to the guy in the sporting goods store or shooting range …
But no gold. Never.
KXB
@ksmiami:
THIS – even wealthy Asian families would rather send their kids to a top notch public school than shell out for private school. The idea of paying school property taxes and private school tuition is seen as absurd.
Add this to the bizarre anti-intellectualism (theories about rape and creationism), that is not going to win points with people from cultures where it is still common to stand at attention when a teacher steps into the room.
Big vs. small government arguments will have less sway – they would like to see effective government, and vote accordingly. With 9/11 and Iraq WMD intelligence failures, Katrina failures, and banking regulation failures – Republicans are increasingly seen as the party of incompetency. They may have misgivings about some Democratic programs and their costs, but they do not want to see the safety net shredded in the hopes that the private sector will step in to fill the void.
Plus, Asians are more religiously diverse than a generation ago. Appeals to the Bible will not win over South Asian Hindus/Muslims/Sikhs or SE Asian Buddhists. While Jewish and Christian Republicans can talk about their faith prominently, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley had to downplay their non-Christian roots. While I believe one’s religious choices are his/her own business, that pressure to downplay or simply not mention one’s family was distasteful.
catclub
@SatanicPanic: I like the auto-antonyms, sanction and cleave.
Gin & Tonic
@Joey Maloney: I’ve always liked mellifluous.
FlipYrWhig
This whole conversation, where Republicans act all wounded and confused by the idea that their seething contempt for everyone who isn’t like them means that people not like them don’t vote for them, is just a hoot. Do programming directors of country music radio stations expend this much energy wondering why only a niche audience tunes to their frequency?
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
The Wiki entry notes this folk etymology about the word. And as wrong as the Wiki can be, it correctly notes that one of the earliest uses of this word dates back to 1893, citing a use by US Marines for Filipinos. This might weaken the connection to any Korean word.
@decitect:
RE: doubly hard on all those white conservative men with an Asian woman fetish
I was being super snarky here. I have a running joke with friends about a moron who posts all kinds of anti-woman bile on his Facebook page and then wonders why he can’t get a date.
Or how fools slut shaming women about birth control ever expect to have sex with a woman anytime in the next 100 years.
Similarly, the GOP’s “We expect you to vote for us even though we hate you and wish you would all go away” stuff is jaw droppingly funny. This goes beyond notions privilege. It’s more like a washed up actor shouting “Do you know who I used to be?”
Maybe it’s more like someone acutely aware of losing privilege trying hard and destructively for a last grasp at any kind of relevance.
Ash
Grouping “Asians” together as one big group doesn’t work at all. Being Indian myself, I see huge culture differences between East Asians and South Asians.
FlipYrWhig
@Gin & Tonic: I like admonish and castigate. Animadvert is good too.
Redshift
From a great email over at TPM:
schrodinger's cat
@KXB:
Cry me a river, when you sleep with dogs you wake up with fleas. They made the decision to run as Republicans, no one forced it on them.
Randy P
@Kyle: Just came back from a trip to El Paso. Fantastic Mexican food everywhere of course. Yet my colleagues kept going back to Applebee’s & Chili’s.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: Ever like the sound of euphonious?
Redshift
@Comrade Dread: Excellent platform. I think the main difficulty with it would be finding any points that differentiate them from the Democrats.
Gin & Tonic
@catclub: Euphonious is, verily, mellifluous.
Gin & Tonic
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t think I’ve ever come across the occasion to use animadvert. Or limn.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Very nicely stated.
@Woodrowfan:
Absolutely This.
People I’ve known, or at least used to know are/were posting on FB how great zomney is/was. All people I would never have expected to have gone over to the side of evil and stupid. But there they are. I keep wondering which white moron I’m going to have to tell to fuck off next.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m a big fan of “recondite”, a self-descriptive word.
FlipYrWhig
@Gin & Tonic: they’re handy for describing other people’s work or arguments. It’s always nice to use something more distinctive than “says.”
Redshift
I find it quite hilarious that Republicans’ attempt to convince themselves that Asian-Americans should naturally support them is basically the same as their weak arguments about Latinos during the election — if you just care about the issues we think you should care about (the economy) and ignore everything else (including the race-baiting), of course you’d vote Republican!
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s basically the same assumption that everyone is greedy and self-centered that underlies pretty much all of their ideology. They never seem to get that white privilege and racism are the only reasons their sole remaining demographic doesn’t get that it’s crappy economics, too.
FlipYrWhig
All this generous sharing of favorite words is putting me in an eleemosynary mood.
FlipYrWhig
@Redshift: yes, that’s absolutely right. They think that the economic arguments and folderol about Liberty are what bring all the boys to the yard, when the sad truth is that that’s never been anything more than code for roiling resentment at Those People who get free stuff and an easy life.
jrg
@Roger Moore: The term for that type of word is “autological”.
YoohooCthulhu
@r€nato:
Progress, I guess. Their equivalents in the 60s would probably still see Olive Garden as run by greasy “eye-talian” types. People forget how much bias there used to be against Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, etc)
Joel
As someone who went to college in southern california in the late nineties-early aughts, this doesn’t surprise me.. at. all.
Suffern ACE
@Southern Beale: Yep. Only modern Republicans could think making a stand against people in wheelchairs and blind people makes them look tough.
gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
Jindal converted to Christianity in high school, from what I’ve read. He was already a fundie before he got into politics.
Haley “converted” upon marriage. She basically threw her belief in her religion under the bus to become governor.
Comrade Dread
@Redshift: The devil would be in the details. How high should taxes be? How to provide a safety net that addresses human need without becoming a permanent crutch, etc.
I imagine Democrats and Republicans would differ on their approaches to many of those things and the two parties used to fight and compromise on things because the mainstream Republicans had yet to adopt their current Rand fantasies as dogma.
Chris
@Brachiator:
QFT.
I noticed this in Iraq, with the obsessive resentment from conservatives (and others, unfortunately) for the supposed “ingratitude” of Iraqis for the U.S. invasion.
They weren’t being assholes (not on purpose, that is). They very sincerely expected their victims to get right up and profusely thank them for the destruction of their country, very sincerely believed they deserved it, and were very sincerely shocked when they didn’t get it.
I can’t even fathom the kind of mind it takes to have that kind of entitlement mentality.
Ksmiami
@roc: thing is the GOP is stuck in the 1980s and have no ideas or capacity to deal with modernity and America’s challenges going forward… It pisses me off that they are unserious and engaged in the luxury of fox delusional fantasies leaving the actual work of governance to the democrats while gumming up the works
Ruckus
@Comrade Dread:
Modern conservatism is an entirely emotion based outlook
Only if your only emotions are fear and hate. Normal people have more than these two.
mai naem
This thread is long – haven’t read all the posts so I don’t know if I am repeating. Asians vote democratic for sure but I also think Obama personally has something to do with it. Obama comes across as cosmopolitan. He’s lived in Indonesia. His half sister looks Asian. His BIL looks Asian. His mom spent significant time in Indonesia. He was born in Hawaii a place with lots of Pacific Islanders. He carries around a Ganesh chalisa around with him for luck. He seems to have made a real effort to hire a lot of Asians. Not just Steven Chu. There’s the tech officer. The Solicitor General. Do you see that with Romney or Ryan? All of Romney’s sons were married to white women. All the grandkids(quite a few were produced through surrogacy) are white. His kids couldn’t even adopt an Asian kid. I am not saying that they had to but when you see people around the candidate who look like you it’s pretty much a positive.
Citizen_X
@Southern Beale: God. I have no words…
@Chris: My favorite comment on that assumption was from Iraqi blogger Salam Pax: “Well, pardon me for not throwing roses at the cruise missiles.”
Patricia Kayden
@Redshift: The entire email is pretty powerful and fitting for this thread. I think that so many Republicans have a special venom against African Americans (which sometimes doesn’t extend to Caribbean or African Blacks) that they are blind to how they appear to other non-Whites.
They definitely have a White people bubble problem.
gwangung
Yeah, not hard to be accepted as part of the Asian American family when your sister and brother in law are Asian American.
KXB
@gene108:
In Haley’s case, it appears that when she was just starting out in politics, she had no hesitation about her Sikh background and interracial marriage. Her website had generic sentences about the importance of faith. As she became more prominent, and questions began to be asked about whether she still attended Sikh ceremonies, the wording on her website took on a more explicitly Christian phrasing.
Again, I don’t judge on their religious motives, but it was telling that Scott Brown of Wisconsin makes a more eloquent plea on behalf of Sikhs being a part of America (after the gurdwara shooting) and shows no hesitation in covering his head out of respect. All Haley did was send out one tweet about the need to be tolerant.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
It might partly be due to being treated as an “other” group, but part of it is probably that Asians as a group are well educated. The anti empiricism of the GOP would tend to turn them off, I would think.
Patricia Kayden
@mai naem: In your comment, you forgot that Obama was once married to a Pakistani man!!!!
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/scott-lively-pushes-claim-obama-was-once-married-man
SatanicPanic
@FlipYrWhig: Not a favorite, but I recently managed to grasp the meaning of “recursive” though I still find the concept kind of unnerving.
Mike G
@Woodrowfan:
Fixed it for you. It certainly works for Michelle Malkin.
schrodinger's cat
@SatanicPanic: Why? it is frequently used mathematical technique.
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat: I think unnerving because of the concern that the recursion will not end. Electron self-energy.
Mayken
@Schlemizel: I think you must have grown up in a strange place – my mother’s parents were greatly displeased when Mom started dating Dad (Indonesian) and Grandma wore black to the funeral because she was “losing” her daughter to a “black man.” Thank gods my father was in the USAF. The rare occasions we were forced to see that side of the family was… Less than fun.
Otoh, Granspa did sign the papers giving her permission to marry and Grandma always send birthday and Xmas presents so I guess they tried.
I do wonder sometimes who my Chinese son would have gone over at the family reunion. But not that much.
GregB
This is just so much outrageous slandering of Mitt Romney. He’s so attuned to diversity that he even shot a video paying tribute to South Korea’s hottest pop-star Psy.
Mitt Romney’s mulit-cultural tribute to Asian type of people who engage in sport.
SatanicPanic
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m not so good with the maths. The word causes me to remember the times I’ve been in rooms with opposing mirrors. Am the only person really bothered by those?
coin operated
@rikyrah: That is one righteous rant there!!!
Frankensteinbeck
@MonkeyBoy:
This would still be a useless rump position, except white racists, Christianists, and Confederate-nostalgists (lots of overlap) all want to get rid of public education. For them, it’s the threat that exposing their children to information from the outside world will make those children realize what useless fuckery their culture is. Heck, the Christianists are quite clear on why they’re doing it.
Tone in DC
@rikyrah:
YES. AND IT COUNTS.
KXB
@Nina:
Many Indians with a technical background work in government agencies at all levels – the National Institute of Standards & technologies, your city & county level building departments. Many also teach in STEM fields at public universities – both elite and more average schools. When states threaten to cut public spending on education or inspections – it directly affects them.
Svensker
@Gin & Tonic: .
Lemon-limn?
First heard “limn” in L.A. since it was a great headline word for Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Odd where one picks up things, innit?
Brachiator
@Chris:
You were in Iraq? Kudos for whatever you did there. Hope it was not too tough.
And yet, I have not been in Iraq, but have observed variations of the “why are you not happy with the shit we are so arrogantly trying to serve you?” attitude. And in reading history, I just shake my head at all the missed opportunties due to arrogant assumptions and condescension.
It’s odd how all this was bubbling up from the Tea Party, and how naturally Romney became a perfect fit for this nonsense, and how time and time again he just oozed increasing amounts of disdain for people.
All the nonsense tossed at Obama for being elite and out of touch, and the Republicans selected as their candidate the poster child for arrogance and entitlement. And true to form, Romney still doesn’t get why he was kicked to the curb by “ungrateful” voters.
priscianusjr
They used to call Eastern European Jews “Asiatic”, usually meant as an insult. But guess what? If there was a line on that chart for Jews, they’d be in the same place as the Asians. (70% Obama.)
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/obama-jewish-vote.html
priscianusjr
@MonkeyBoy:
metricpenny
@rikyrah:
Truth!
JasonF
This is spot on. One of my closest friends is an Indian-American. He is also an entrepreneur, who over the last five years has built a multi-million dollar business. Yes, the vaunted small businessman. Four years ago, my friend was probably apolitical, or maybe even moderately Republican.
This year, however, he was a die-hard Obama supporter, heavily involved in the campaign and giving very generously of his time and money. Why? For a variety of reasons, but if I had to pick one above all others, it would be his perception that the Republican Party is hostile to anybody who is not white and not Christian.
People aren’t stupid, and the lessons of Pastor Niemoller are not lost on them.
Darkrose
@Brachiator: One of the people who pushed for the Chinese Exclusion Act was Governor Leland Stanford. I suspect if they could find a way to harness it, his gyrations in the Mausoleum could power the entire campus.
Darkrose
@rikyrah: Can I have an “Amen” up in here?” <3
ruemara
@mai naem:
FTFY
ruemara
I used to wish I was Asian, because they had the benefit of what I term “positive prejudice”. The assumption is that they are very smart, capable, more creative than everyone else. My HS best friend was always frustrated that people assumed she knew things because she was Chinese, when she was a C student. Meanwhile, particularly once I entered the working world, the assumption is that I do not have a degree and come from a poor background. I thought it might be nice to have people assume intellectual ability, as opposed to assuming it’s lack. We used to joke, my friends and I, that there was a sliding scale of acceptance: Japanese/Chinese=nearly as good as white; Vietnamese=step up from Latino but not as good as white; Cambodian/Philipine=Latino, because who can tell the difference; Hmong/Laos=almost black, voiced in the cruder dialect. NY, it makes comedians of us all. But when I heard the article referenced in the post, I knew intimately what the fellow was saying. “they’re practically honorary white people, why are they voting with those guys?”
Matt McIrvin
@YoohooCthulhu: I think much of the clientele for those kinds of chain restaurants is families with young children, who are attracted by the standardized chain-restaurant kids’ menus and are guaranteed to get nothing with unfamiliar spices or threatening specks in it on their plates.
I know it’s the reason I eat all too frequently at Olive Garden even though there is no shortage of actual good Italian food around here: my six-year-old daughter begs and pleads to go there, and it’s several steps up from Wendy’s.
Platonicspoof
@Southern Beale:
Thanks Southern Beale.
Sounds like it’s coming up for debate very soon.
The Repugs already have the UN conspiracy vote, why would they want to even appear to be dumping on people with disabilities?
bob h
Nobody seems to care about the Muslim Americans, but I’d guess they have forsaken the Republicans in entirety, also.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub: Yes, well, when you’re actually using recursion in your code, that unease is a useful thing to feel, so you make sure the recursion does end.
Rusty
China Grove!
Can’t believe anyone had said it within 261 comments, although one commenter did note it was the Doobie Bros.
Best China Grove reference is from Will Ferrel’s one man show as George W Bush, just as his Presidency was winding down. The show was mostly unremarkable but when Will started imitating W’s penchant for giving nicknames I started howling. He interacted with one guy from the audience who had a gray haired pony tail. He said (paraphrasing), “You like the Doobie Bros? You look like you like the Doobie Bros. I’m gonna call you China Grove”.
Goblue72
@rikyrah: Here here. My wife – who is Chinese-American – feels the same way. From her perspective – one I share – the Republicans treat everyone who isn’t white. & Christian as some un-American Other. It’s first, middle and last about the bigotry at the rotten center of the modern GOP. Almost every Asian in this country has likely had a racial epithet thrown at them at some point in their lives – whether the Chin#, Goo#, or Ja# words. Or had some white person do the Charlie Chan voice at them.
You don’t forget that shit. I can’t even use the word goop (as in there’s some goop clogging this drain) without my wife cringing reflexively because it’s so close a word.
Asians understood the dog whistles perfectly. And voted rationally in response.
Citizen Alan
@YoohooCthulhu:
True story: In the Eighties, my father still considered pizza to be foreign food. I’m not talking Italian pizzeria here. I mean he considered Pizza Hut to be foreign food.