Source: The Washington Post
California is a pretty “blue” state, so the likelihood of the state going for McCain is pretty slim, so Asian Americans don’t necessarily can swing the fate of the election. However, Virginia is becoming quite the battleground state – and Asian Americans make up 4.8% of Virginians. The Washington Post describes the excitement in “Asian Americans Feeling the Power – Ethnic Groups See Opportunity to Affect Outcome of Presidential Race in Va.“:
“There are more than 160,000 Asian American citizens of voting age in the state, and an aggressive registration drive is adding several thousand voters. Partisan activists and public interest groups said Asian Americans could play as important a role in this national election as they did in the 2006 Senate race in Virginia, when they helped Democrat James Webb, a Vietnam war veteran, defeat incumbent George Allen… In Virginia, for example, the Hispanic populace, at more than 250,000, outnumbers Asian Americans. But most Hispanic residents are relative newcomers and a minority are U.S. citizens. By contrast, more than half of Asian American residents in the state are U.S. citizens of voting age. African Americans are by far Virginia’s largest minority group. In 2006, blacks accounted for 19.9 percent of the state population; Hispanics, 6.3 percent; and Asian Americans, 4.8 percent.”
Asian American activist S.R. Sidarth, an Indian-American, was a tracker videotaping Senator George Allen’s campaign event that captured Allen pointing to Sidarth and calling him a racial epithet, “macaca” – which spread like wildfire on the Internet and media, helping Democrat Jim Webb to defeat George Allen! As I had blogged and someone dismissed my comment, one Asian American can make a difference. And Asian Americans can help swing the election for Obama or McCain in Virginia, which could tip the election for either of them!
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14 Comments to “Asian Americans Feeling the Power in Virginia”
XZL314 wrote:
I feel angry at the asians voting for mccain, most of them think that voting republican makes them “White”
Posted on 21-Oct-08 at 3:03 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
That is very interesting – I’ve never heard that theory on Asian American Republicans.
Well, Virginia I think will turn blue this year…
Posted on 21-Oct-08 at 3:23 pm | Permalink
Mike wrote:
I’ve never heard that either. From what my father has said, he’s seen him and his friends starting off as Democrats as new immigrants and as they have become successful and raised families, they have become more Republican. So maybe there is some validity in that… And then you have my grandparents who won’t vote Obama because he’s black and says he looks like the devil. You got to love that old world motherland racism.
Posted on 21-Oct-08 at 7:09 pm | Permalink
anon wrote:
Asian Americans voting for republicans are traitors to all the history that our people had to suffer through in order to be treated equally (or close to it).
Asian American’s used to be a solid voting block for Democrats, just like African Americans; however over the year’s we’ve lost our identity, and forgotten about our history. While older generations still feel the pain of racism and being treated as less than human, the younger generation has been de-sensitized to our struggles and have drifted off to the party that wanted to take no part in giving us our current freedoms.
Never forget, we were once looked down upon just like slaves and treated similarly in many ways. Open your eyes, we are still facing these challenges today. Especially in this election; John McCain hates gooks. Can McCain even distinguish between gook and Asian? I don’t think so. Racism matters.
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 12:54 am | Permalink
Akrypti wrote:
People need to review the history books and recall which abolitionists, civil rights advocates, etc. were Republican. Many APAs are Republican because it’s the party most aligned with traditional Asian values. We can critique the state of the political parties today, but some of these comments here were unconstructive, not to mention wrong.
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 8:02 am | Permalink
minoritymilitant wrote:
I read this article a couple days back. I’m not as disturbed that Asians vote Republican, I’m disturbed that they vote for someone like John McCain. And the picture, it hurts to watch all those people holding up McCain/Palin signs. My goodness.
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 9:07 am | Permalink
Ben wrote:
I think you mean that Allen called Sidarth an epithet, not an epitaph!
(Editors note: Thanks for the catch. I fixed this.)
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 10:03 am | Permalink
Rob wrote:
Republicans were mostly responsible for fighting slavery but times change. Just because someone did something in the past doesn’t mean he can still laud it in the present day.
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 11:05 am | Permalink
Max wrote:
The ethnic, generational, and immigration diversity of ‘Asian Americans’ almost guarantees it will never be looked at as a voting ‘block’.
Can you imagine any other ‘racial’ voting block having a noticeable percentage of it voting for the candidate that voted against an apology for the treatment of one of the ethnic groups making up it’s racial identity.
McCain voted against the ‘Civil Liberties Act of 1988′, an apology for the Japanese American internment camps and their loss of real estate and property. Yeah, local governments taking away real estate and personal property is a conservative value?
As Paul Igasaki wrote at aaa-fund.com,
“Barack Obama taught his law students about this story as a fundamental part of American Constitutional law. As a civil rights lawyer and as a community organizer, the lessons of the relocation helped define his work.”.
Going back to our 1960’s civil rights era Asian American roots it comes down to:
McCain who voted AGAINST an apology and redress for the Japanese American internment.
McCain who voted AGAINST MLK day.
McCain who was still using the word ‘GOOK’ in his vocabulary until his presidential run.
Or
Obama who grew up in Hawaii with and around a large population of Asian Americans.
Obama who was raised by an Asian step father.
Obama who’s sister married an Asian Canadian.
Obama who taught Constitutional Law at Harvard with lessons learned from EO 9066 (Japanese American relocation).
As a 4th generation American of Asian ethnicity, I identify with American values. My family has been American for over a 100 years. Akrypti, please inform us Americanized Asians what ‘Traditional Asian Values’ are. Racial/ethnic stereotypes and sweeping generalizations = Fail
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 11:33 am | Permalink
SC wrote:
It’s really quite simple, it’s all about the money!
-Asians that are wealthy vote Republican (tend to be East Asians, generation 1-3)
-Asian that are poor vote Democratic (Can be East and Southeast Asians)
Values don’t play as much as a factor as you think, poor Asians with Asian values still vote Democratic even though those values are conservative in nature. What’s a bigger factor is what generation they are, obviously the larger the number the more assimilated they will be, they will then tend to vote in the same fashion as an regular Americans.
Posted on 22-Oct-08 at 3:46 pm | Permalink
Rob wrote:
Oh, in regards to the comment about how some won’t vote for Obama because of his race, you can rest assured that there is balance. My entire extended family of about 15 people are voting for Obama specifically because he’s black.
Posted on 23-Oct-08 at 5:37 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » CNN: Asian Americans on election: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] coverage, which is true. Asian Americans do make about 5% of the U.S. population, but this year, there are some swing states like Virginia and Nevada that Asian Americans CAN make a [...]
Posted on 28-Oct-08 at 1:09 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » CBS News: the Asian American Vote in Virginia: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] story profiles Asian Americans who support McCain and those who support Obama. As you may know, Virginia is surprisingly a key swing state this year where there are enough Asian Americans to actua… swing the state one way or another. One part of the news piece which I think CBS got wrong was that [...]
Posted on 28-Oct-08 at 3:39 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Power of the Swing Vote: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] by 0.5% of the vote and where Asian Americans in Virginia voted 76% for Jim Webb over George Allen. Asian Americans comprise approximately 5% of Virgina’s population, and makes up 16% in Northern Virginia – in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Virginia and Asian [...]
Posted on 03-Nov-08 at 7:43 pm | Permalink
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