Why Are Asian Americans Democrats?

Politico Magazine ^ | 03/19/2014 | y ALEXANDER KUO, NEIL MALHOTRA and CECILIA HYUNJUNG MO

[Reeses]

I'm not disputing anything you've said about Jews, just trying to explain to you why that is so. People that live in communes tend to vote communist. People that personally own large physical possessions such as a family home on a plot of land tend to vote for American values. Jewish farmers living out in the countryside, of which there are not many, tend to vote right, not left. It has little to do with Judaism, and much to do with living in a city commune vs. living in America.

[ansel12]

I’m telling you that it is nonsense, Jews have not voted leftwing in America for more than 150 years because they are forced to live in the city.

They imported their politics and followed their politics, and still follow their politics, they vote liberal because they are liberal, that’s all.

I wouldn’t know where to find a local conservative Jew, but I can take you to their wonderful and large, Southern California homes and estates and point out that they are liberal, according to our political discussions.

[driftless2]

Because frankly, when Jews first started emigrating to America in large numbers during the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the Dems made them feel welcome. The Republicans in those days made it plain they didn't much like Jews. That feeling of being excluded from the world of the rich, eastern, snooty Pubbies who ran the party in those days remained with many ordinary Jews for years and until this day.

While many ordinary Dems were anti-Semitic, they weren't the ones keeping Jews out of elite universities, jobs, or clubs. Rich, white, wealthy Republicans were. And that's why many Jews identify with the Thief Party...oh, excuse me... Dem party to this day.

[ansel12]

By the way, I understand the general sociological statement you were making, but it is just another of those vague, sloppy generalizations that isn’t very useful.

American voting is not divided by those of “a family home on a plot of land” and “Jewish farmers living out in the countryside” voting for Palin and Reagan, while we working men living in apartments and condos and trailers in trailer parks and driving 15 year old vehicles vote for Obama and FDR.

[ansel12]

Because frankly, when Jews first started emigrating to America in large numbers during the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the Dems made them feel welcome. The Republicans in those days made it plain they didn't much like Jews.

Another crock.

Jews are not voting liberal because of genetic imprinting of ancestors being annoyed 100 years ago.

That is among the silliest claims of all, especially when you follow them back to Europe and see that they brought their politics with them.

[driftless2]

Silly? I doubt it. Other than blacks, no other ethnic group was as discriminated against as Jews. You can keep your head in the sand, but many non-wasp ethnic groups disliked Republicans because they were not welcomed. My Catholic parents and grandparents didn’t come over as socialists or Dems, but they were steered that way by bigoted Wasps.

[ansel12]

Yes, silly, and your parents, and no, your parents were not forced to be liberals, and you may have noticed that blacks switched parties in a single election voting making their last vote as permanent republicans in 1932 giving FDR 23%, and then in 1936 becoming permanent democrats, with the GOP getting only 28%, so there is no permanent genetic memory at play that makes Jews vote liberal, and radical left when available.

Anti-Americanism drives groups to vote left, has it occurred to you as you look at the voting data and immigration, why Americans did not want American voters replaced with liberal Europeans?

“The wave of Eastern European Jews starting in the early 1880s, were generally more liberal or left wing and became the political majority. Many of the latter came to America with experience in the socialist, anarchist and communist movements as well as the Labor Bund, emanating from Eastern Europe. Many Jews rose to leadership positions in the early 20th century American labor movement and helped to found unions that played a major role in left wing politics and, after 1936, in Democratic Party politics. For most of the 20th century since 1936, the vast majority of Jews in the United States have been aligned with the Democratic Party. Towards the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century, Republicans have launched initiatives to woo American Jews away from the Democratic Party.

Over the past century, Jews in Europe and the Americas have traditionally tended towards the political left, and played key roles in the birth of the labor movement as well as socialism. While Diaspora Jews have also been represented in the conservative side of the political spectrum, even politically conservative Jews have tended to support pluralism more consistently than many other elements of the political right.

[driftless2]

You miss my point. Sure, many Jews, Italians, and other ethnic groups came over with leftist sentiments or alliances. But they were not made welcome by the eastern establishment Republicans who ran the party. The Dems gladly cosseted the ethnic groups who mostly settled in large cities. In short, the Pubbies could have done more.

I'm old enough (64) to remember how much religion decided political associations fifty years ago. If you were Catholic, you voted Dem. If you were non-Southern Protestant, you voted Republican. Most Jews were for Civil Rights strongly pushed by northern, non-Republican liberal Dems. The 1964 Civil Rights bill might have not passed without Pubbie support, but most minorities identified northern lib Dems as supporting their groups or causes. Pubbies didn't do enough in those days.

As yesterday like today, perception often trumps reality. The fact that my parents, like many poor or lower middle class people, were not "forced" to be Dems denies the fact that they identified the Dem Party as the party that was for them and as my mother often said "the Republicans are only for the rich." Pubbies didn't do enough to change that false perception.

[ansel12]

Americans did not want to import the liberal groups that had made the Europe that Americans wanted to avoid becoming, but just like today, the liberals wanted immigrants who WOULD vote against the Americans who created this great nation and make it like European countries.

I don’t buy your easy answer that they are liberal today because someone was offended 150 years ago, it isn’t realistic.

People change parties, blacks switched in a single election, when Catholics change church denominations they become more republican.

You are just doing what the media does and offering their neat little package of reasons, that don’t make sense.

Jews vote liberal because they are liberal, they are the most politically engaged group of all, they look at the issues and the parties and they vote for the liberalism that they desire and insist on, they and Catholics are not forcing themselves to vote against what they want, what they think is most important to them, just to take revenge for the 1800s.