Why aren’t Asians Republicans?

AEI Ideas ^ | November 26, 2012 | Charles Murray

[LucianOfSamasota]

Last week, I pointed out that there is no such thing as a natural social-conservative skew among Latino Americans. But that leaves open a rejoinder, expressed by several readers: The GOP doesn’t need to get all of the Latino vote, just its fair share. That’s true, and I should have made my point clearer. In the wake of the election, some social conservatives have tried a new version of the old Silent Majority argument, contending that Republicans can continue to make their candidates pass litmus tests on abortion and gay marriage and still win national elections if only it taps the natural social conservatism of Latinos. Exposing that illusion was the point of the numbers I presented.

This time I will explicitly offer a broader argument and then give the numbers. My thesis is that the GOP is in trouble across the electoral board because it has become identified in the public mind with social conservatism. Large numbers of Independents and Democrats who are naturally attracted to arguments of fiscal discipline, less government interference in daily life, greater personal responsibility, and free enterprise refuse to vote for Republicans because they are so put off by the positions and rhetoric of social conservatives, whom they take to represent the spirit of the “real” GOP.

I use Asian-Americans as an example of how powerfully this antipathy can alienate a naturally conservative voting bloc. Let it be clear: The causal link with social conservatism is asserted here, not proved. But the GOP had better take the hypothesis seriously.

Let’s start with data from the Current Population Survey from 2003 on some key socioeconomic indicators for adults ages 30–49. (The CPS first started identifying Asians separately from other ethnic groups in 2003).

[Daveinyork]

I’m getting real tired of tribal politics. Another couple of years, and we’ll sink past Europe and be Africa.

[mkboyce]

It depends on which “Asian” one is talking about.

Lumping all people of Asian descent together for a political/sociological analysis is beyond stupid. Eastern Russians, Turks, Arabs, Persians, Pashtuns, Hindis and Uzbeks, for example, are not, by any stretch, the same as Koreans, Han Chinese or Japanese.

[ChowChowFace]

Bingo! I work with Asians of various nationalities (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese) and religions. Outside of their families and friends the thing they seem to value the most is money. They are extremely good at slowing down work so overtime will be called. They bring families over, particularly parents so they can receive SSI and Medicare. Free stuff indeed!

[Behind the Blue Wall]

in the universities they are studying useful things like medicine, business, economics, physics, mathematics, science, biology, and engineering-—so therefore I would think they would not be so vulnerable to the usual radical left indoctrination from left-wing professors.

Except liberals are not stupid enough to let them graduate without being subjected to liberal indoctrination. Even engineering students have to take a required minimum of "general education requirements", and it is there that they deliver the toxic stew of victimization. The Asian kids and their families don't spend a lot of time thinking about anything except their studies and their social lives, so they are a blank slate. One or two semesters studying about the racist, sexist, homophobic foundations of America are therefore enough to form their basic political orientation for decades to come.

[Ohioan]

While not a Catholic, I agree with most of the Catholic teachings to which you appear to be referring. But Santorum's nasty attacks on States' Rights reflect a cavalier indifference to basic--and sacred--undertakings, as to who has the power to do what, under our Constitutional system.

Are you suggesting that the usurpation of power over other people is a Catholic teaching? Methinks you are in serious error.

William Flax

[cynwoody]

racial identity is an amazingly powerful force in voting decisions. It's more powerful than values with most minorities. Asians see themselves as "outsiders," and Obama as one who can sympathize with them. Those judgments may be absolutely irrational, but they hold sway with a lot of voters, even those in the "cognitive elite."

One of the commenters to the article, Noah Smith, agrees with you. Here is his diagnosis:

If they're not "takers", why did Asian-Americans break so strongly for Obama? The answer is pretty clear: Conservative ethnic identity politics. The American conservative movement has made it abundantly clear that it sees America as a "white people country", and views Asians - like blacks and Hispanics - as guests (at best) or interlopers (at worst). The blood-and-soil white ethnocentrism of the conservative movement makes Asians feel like permanent foreigners in their own country, and they don't like feeling like that. Who would?

I'm pretty sure this is the right answer. Why? Because I myself am a member of a group that is demographically and electorally similar to Asian-Americans - namely, Jewish-Americans. Jews are America's second-richest religious group (behind Hindus), and yet Jewish voters broke almost 3-to-1 for Obama this year, and more than 3-to-1 in 2008. Why do Jews vote Democratic? Simple: for all their talk of "Judeo-Christian values" and support for Israel (as if anyone cares about that!), the Republicans make it clear that they think the ethnic core of America is not just white, but Christian as well. Jews don't want to have their schools lead them in prayers to Jesus. We don't like it when Bill O'Reilly demands that stores put only "Merry Christmas" on their holiday banners, and not "Happy Channukah".

We Jews are not stupid; we know that the grassroots of the conservative movement, at least in its present incarnation, will never accept us as true "sons of the soil". The liberal movement will. It's as simple as that. And I'm pretty sure Asian-Americans are thinking along similar lines.

How do we counteract that perception?

[Usagi_yo]

Like I said, great — infamous, morality — moral turpitude.

Great is measured by a standard ... when you measure it with no standard then it’s measured by notoriety.

Surely Nazi Germany had notoriety, which makes it great by no standard, but by moral standards it was infamous and not great.

The point was, less platitude, and a little more proverb.

[little jeremiah]

By espousding real Constitutional principles and values with *no* *holds* *barred* which include telling the naked ugly truth about what Dems/lefitsts want, do, plan and accomplish.

Guts, courage, strong Constitutionalist/conservative principles, and character. Squeamishly trying to such up to minorities or bribe them goes exactly no where. Trying to play nice with the MSM/leftists/Dems is a 100% losing tactic. It’s hard to figure out if the professional Rs WANT to lose or are terminally stupid. Of course they could be both. But it’s not mere stupidity anyway, it’s mixed with cowardice, lack of real conservative aka Constitutioanlist principles, and desire to be liked and accepted by knaves and thugs (leftists).

Character is what matters, not “tactics”.

Without Rs running for office like the above, it’s over, toast, fuggedaboutit.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

I live in SGV......We are talking about Chinese predomitantly. And to a lesser extent, Phillipinos, Koreans and Japanese. The rest you mention are not in the statistics to the degree necessary to effect the numbers.

[Lurking Libertarian]

I'm pretty sure this is the right answer. Why? Because I myself am a member of a group that is demographically and electorally similar to Asian-Americans - namely, Jewish-Americans. Jews are America's second-richest religious group (behind Hindus), and yet Jewish voters broke almost 3-to-1 for Obama this year, and more than 3-to-1 in 2008. Why do Jews vote Democratic? Simple: for all their talk of "Judeo-Christian values" and support for Israel (as if anyone cares about that!), the Republicans make it clear that they think the ethnic core of America is not just white, but Christian as well. Jews don't want to have their schools lead them in prayers to Jesus. We don't like it when Bill O'Reilly demands that stores put only "Merry Christmas" on their holiday banners, and not "Happy Channukah".

Speaking as a Jew (who voted for Governor Romney), I concur 100%. The attitude you describe is very prevalent even among very successful Jews I speak to.

[donna]

November 8, 2004
...the untold story of the 2004 election, according to national religious leaders and grass-roots activists, is that evangelical Christian groups were often more aggressive and sometimes better organized on the ground than the Bush campaign. The White House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted with the movement’s leaders in weekly conference calls. But in many respects, Christian activists led the charge that GOP operatives followed and capitalized upon.

This was particularly true of the same-sex marriage issue. One of the most successful tactics of social conservatives — the ballot referendums against same-sex marriage in 13 states — bubbled up from below and initially met resistance from White House aides, Christian leaders said.

In dozens of interviews since the election, grass-roots activists in Ohio, Michigan and Florida credited President Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, with setting a clear goal that became a mantra among conservatives: To win, Bush had to draw 4 million more evangelicals to the polls than he did in 2000. But they also described a mobilization of evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics that took off under its own power. (snip)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32793-2004Nov7.html

[little jeremiah]

Oops -

“Squeamishly trying to SUCK up to minorities etc”.

[Wallace T.]

American politics have often been tribal, starting with the War for Independence, where merchants with established trade with England, much of the Anglican clergy, recent immigrants from England, Indian nations such as the Iroquois, and ethnic groups like the Highland Scots in North Carolina the and Dutch in New York and New Jersey sided with the British. The Civil War had both sectional and ideological elements. In the North, certain groups, such as settlers of the Ohio Valley one or two generations removed from the South, Irish Catholics in the large Northeastern cities, and Middle Atlantic residents who had resided in that region for many generations were skeptical of Lincoln and the effort to stop Southern independence. Many Union supporters mistrusted military units from New Jersey because of that state's lukewarm attitude toward the Union. In the South, many Scots-Irish residents of Appalachia and the Ozarks, German and Mexican settlers in Texas, and settlers in the Southwest one or two generations removed from the North were reluctant supporters of or actively hostile to Southern secession.

Tribal loyalties determined voting patterns from Reconstruction and the period of mass immigration between 1880 and 1920 through the 1960s. Generally speaking, most white Southerners and white Catholics, along with smaller groups like Jews and Eastern Orthodox, voted Democrat. A majority of white Protestants of British, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian ancestry outside the South and Border states voted Republican, as did blacks, at least when they were allowed the franchise.

Politicians have manipulated tribalism from the earliest days through our time. Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Barack Obama, among others, were more successful at mass manipulation than their Republican opponents. The Democrats' microtargeting of select population is not much different than techniques used by Pendergast in Kansas City or Curley in Boston. The only difference is the advances in technology.

[al_c]

Most of the Asians I know are conservative. But then, I live in Collin County, Texas ... one of the most conservative counties in the state, if not the nation.

[donna]

You and Lady Thatcher:

...The government aims to supervise these different groups and keep the peace by redistributing income from one to another.

Thus the utopia of multiculturalism involves a bureaucratic
class presiding over a nation divided into a variety of ethnic nationalities. That, of course, looks awfully like the old Soviet Union. Such a system cannot work, and its failure is likely to inflict great damage on the people, their traditions, and their liberties.
— Lady Margaret Thatcher

[reagandemocrat]

When I asked my 3rd generation Japanese-American in-laws why they they all vote dem, when FDR interned their mother at Manzanar, all I got was blank stares.

[Marko413]

Although a case can be made about a majority of Asians being fiscally conservative, I would guess they avoid the GOP because of all the typical stereotypes. The Dems have established themselves as the party for minorities. Our 2-party system completely ignores the founding principles of each party and runs on a few social issues (i.e. gay marriage, abortion, etc). It’s no wonder they join the Dem party without realizing all the things they don’t share in common with them.

Like it or not, Whites are still the racial majority in the US and will always be viewed as racist bigots who try to keep everyone else down until another ethnic group becomes the majority. Not saying I like that outcome, I just don’t see how it will evolve another way at the rate things are going.

[ansel12]

Let’s hope they remember the biggest disaster of all, the history making mistake of Mitt Romney, who lost to Jimmy Carter, or that they remember the only Senate pick up, Deb Fischer, or the benefits of getting a Ted Cruz over a Dewhurst.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Public schools

MSM

[Jyotishi]

I agree, and suggest that the geographical term “Asian” needs to be dropped from use in issues such as this, because doing so is like including all countries in N., C. and S. America in the label “American”.