Here’s Why Asian Americans Shifted Right by 9 points

[Anonymous]

Lots of different outcomes in the “Asian” community. It’s not very useful to group everyone together:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This tracks. Most of 1st-gen Asian immigrants are here to make money and create a better life for themselves and their children. Their cultures value upward mobility and family. Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues are probably far down on their list of priorities. And I say this as a Dem who knows lots of SE Asians and Indians.

As a 1st gen-Asian immigrant (well, I'm 1.5 generation Asian, since my parents came here when I was 12), I assure you that "Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues" are very high on my list of priorities. Yes, do I get miffed that my children are considered the "wrong shade of brown", yes absolutely. But am I willing to sacrifice my country and the principles she was built on, so that my kid can get 1st dibs to go to Harvard? No. c

That being said, I offer another reason why Asians voted Republican this year? Misogyny. The whole idea of voting for a woman, and that too, a brown woman, does not sit well with a lot of the patriarchy. Ask me how I know. And fwiw, I elected to not marry an Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This tracks. Most of 1st-gen Asian immigrants are here to make money and create a better life for themselves and their children. Their cultures value upward mobility and family. Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues are probably far down on their list of priorities. And I say this as a Dem who knows lots of SE Asians and Indians.

As a 1st gen-Asian immigrant (well, I'm 1.5 generation Asian, since my parents came here when I was 12), I assure you that "Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues" are very high on my list of priorities. Yes, do I get miffed that my children are considered the "wrong shade of brown", yes absolutely. But am I willing to sacrifice my country and the principles she was built on, so that my kid can get 1st dibs to go to Harvard? No. c

That being said, I offer another reason why Asians voted Republican this year? Misogyny. The whole idea of voting for a woman, and that too, a brown woman, does not sit well with a lot of the patriarchy. Ask me how I know. And fwiw, I elected to not marry an Asian.

I reposted my quote, I don’t know if you are East Asian or SE Asian but misogyny argument doesn’t hold water:

Just to get the facts right. India elected a woman Prime Minister (actual position of power, President is just a figurehead in India) in 1980.

Pakistan elected a woman Prime Minister in 1988, Bangladesh elected a woman Prime Minister in 1996 and of course Sri Lanka elected one in 1960. All four countries have Prime Minister as the equivalent of a U.S President.

Do they still have misogynistic views? Yes, it’s prevalent. Can they overcome them to elect a woman? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly Asian people are very set against blacks. I see it among my colleagues everyday.

I think it's the other way around - Dem politicians pander to black voters and abandon Asian voters and many Asians are fed up.

But didn’t pander enough.
Black Twitter has been sh—- talking do-nothing dems for awhile.
Republicans have it so good. They don’t have to do anything for anyone.
Democrats have to do everything for everyone.

U
Oof. So accurate.

It’s because democrats paint themselves as the saviors to lead the downtrodden to the promised land. They over extend themselves making naive promises not understanding base reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This tracks. Most of 1st-gen Asian immigrants are here to make money and create a better life for themselves and their children. Their cultures value upward mobility and family. Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues are probably far down on their list of priorities. And I say this as a Dem who knows lots of SE Asians and Indians.

As a 1st gen-Asian immigrant (well, I'm 1.5 generation Asian, since my parents came here when I was 12), I assure you that "Democracy, access to abortion, gay/trans rights, equity, and other Dem issues" are very high on my list of priorities. Yes, do I get miffed that my children are considered the "wrong shade of brown", yes absolutely. But am I willing to sacrifice my country and the principles she was built on, so that my kid can get 1st dibs to go to Harvard? No. c

That being said, I offer another reason why Asians voted Republican this year? Misogyny. The whole idea of voting for a woman, and that too, a brown woman, does not sit well with a lot of the patriarchy. Ask me how I know. And fwiw, I elected to not marry an Asian.

I reposted my quote, I don’t know if you are East Asian or SE Asian but misogyny argument doesn’t hold water:

Just to get the facts right. India elected a woman Prime Minister (actual position of power, President is just a figurehead in India) in 1980.

Pakistan elected a woman Prime Minister in 1988, Bangladesh elected a woman Prime Minister in 1996 and of course Sri Lanka elected one in 1960. All four countries have Prime Minister as the equivalent of a U.S President.

Do they still have misogynistic views? Yes, it’s prevalent. Can they overcome them to elect a woman? Yes.

Except actually PMs are never "equivalent" to Presidents because they don't go on the national ballot. You vote for a party and the party chooses a PM. This is a functionally important difference explains why a lot of countries with misogynist cultures have had female PMs. In India, just 14% of the Lok Sabha (their parliament) are women. This is half what you see in the US even (and significantly lower than in many other countries in Europe and Africa).

Also India has only ever had one female prime minister and she was assassinated. They haven't had a woman PM since that happened in 1984.

Pakistan has only ever had one female prime minister and she was almost removed by coup. They haven't had a woman PM since the 90s.

I don't think it's fair to paint all people from these countries as misogynist. It's like saying everyone in Nebraska loves Trump -- there are a bunch of people in Nebraska who don't! But pretending that misogyny is not a prevalent part of culture in SE Asia is just false. These are highly patriarchal cultures and there is a LOT of resistance to women in positions of corporate and political leadership in these countries. That is just the truth.

[Anonymous]

Asians are smart
They also don’t believe in hand outs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds right. Many of these cultures also don’t have strong democratic traditions and have greater allegiance to family rather than state or national government. “Ask not what your country can do for you…” has no relevance for them, so Trump is a perfect answer.

It's this kind of condescending bullsh*t that drives them even further. As an Indian American who voted (and has always voted) democrat, here's my take:
- Asians ARE treated as the wrong kind of Brown. Look at all the chinese hate crimes by Blacks in cities after Covid. Regardless of who started it, what did the cities, esp. the ones on the west coast, do about it?
- We hate the opaque college admissions process in this country. We know the narrative that it helps the disadvantaged but think it helps the rich more than the disadvantaged. My kid ended up going to a 'lesser' school over an ivy and we saw 'lower qualified' kids get in.. and they were not even 'real Blacks', just immigrant kids with UMC parents but from Africa. That hurts. BTW, two such families we know talked about voting Trump
- Crime: We (US and friends) have kids working in Chicago, LA, SF and NYC. Crime is rampant and there's no action. Young people getting mugged when exiting the metro or filling gas late at night has happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah.. crime is low per capita relative to Red state cities and long-term trend is down. None of that matters if you are the victim.
- Immigration: We spent years, some of us decade+, to get permanent status in this country with major consequences for even minor infractions, but we see that all it takes now is a walk across the border, declare you are persecuted in your home country and you are released into the wild. Where do you think they all end up? What are the consequences? We've seen this happen in our home countries, see it happening in Europe and Canada, and don't want a repeat of that here. And if you were to say (I've heard this), "You wouldn't be here but for our friendly immigration policies", my response would be "F U! Of course I wouldn't be here, I chose to come here and would have gone elsewhere more welcoming or stayed where I was which would have been perfectly fine".
- Mindless spending: Enough said on this topic but y'all know what I'm talking about.
- Lesser citizens: There's sometimes an insinuation that we are somehow 'lesser citizens' compared to people born here. This comes from both sides. The Right accepts Elon (who has been in this country for less period of time that I) as more of a citizen that me. Dems of all color insinuate that in some conversations implying that we don't 'fully understand' American history. To such people I say, I (and other Indians) are better educated, make more money, have more international perspective that y'all. Don't think that or bring that up. You are only pissing us off.

Despite all this, the vast majority of Asians still vote Democrat. If Trump's 4 years ends up being 'not that bad', this trend towards voting R will only accelerate. Fix that before the R's realize this, become more moderate and become the Big Tent party.

Interesting enough, I agree with just about everything you wrote. Of course, if you look like me, you would be called angry.

signed,
African American/ADOS Female.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asians are smart
They also don’t believe in hand outs

Stupid post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense, but I'd be curious to know more about the breakdown e.g Vietnamese/Chinese/Indian/Japanese/Korean, etc and SES to better understand.

It would be interesting to know whether the data included South Asian as well as East Asian Americans.

Not sure but here’s what happened in Edison, NJ.

It’s not that surprising, after speaking to my family and friends. Many Indian-Americans, especially the more recently arrivals venerate Modi and see in Trump a leader in the same vein. All the equity stuff also doesn’t help with many of these folks. They are more interested in making money for themselves and bettering their own families. The traditional grip Democrats have had on this group is loosening.

And it’s not PC to say it and people won’t openly admit it but Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric also resonates with the Hindutva mindset.

Except Trump did well with South Asian Muslims like Pakistanis or Bengalis as well and with Arab Muslims.

I definitely think it’s the affirmative action thing with schools. Asians literally don’t care about anything in America (political topics) except the schools. For Arabs, they are technically considered white on the census not even Asian so they also faced the affirmative action issue

[Anonymous]

It’s not just the affirmative action stuff but also the gender ideology and queer theory put into elementary school or trans in bathrooms or sports. If that was alarming for White America, it probably was even more strange to Asians, who are far more conservative.

It doesn’t matter that Kamala is part Asian herself. She was seen as way too liberal. Barack pretended to be semi socially conservative until he was in office for his second term

[Anonymous]

Asian lives matter only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly Asian people are very set against blacks. I see it among my colleagues everyday.

I think it's the other way around - Dem politicians pander to black voters and abandon Asian voters and many Asians are fed up.

But didn’t pander enough.
Black Twitter has been sh—- talking do-nothing dems for awhile.
Republicans have it so good. They don’t have to do anything for anyone.
Democrats have to do everything for everyone.

U
Oof. So accurate.

It’s because democrats paint themselves as the saviors to lead the downtrodden to the promised land. They over extend themselves making naive promises not understanding base reality.

DP..

Republicans always overextend themselves promising prosperity and freedom and to erase the debt yet haven't even remotely delivered on any of that in decades. Yet nobody ever holds them accountable or punishes them for failing to deliver. That only happens to Democrats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Dems and liberals is that they constantly whine about equity, racism, inclusion, white supremacy, yadda yadda, but the fact of the matter remians is that ASIANS actually have the highest median household income and wealth out of all racial groups in the country. How is that possible if there is lack of equity, systemic racism and white supremacy?

The uncomfortable truth is that you CAN actually make it in America if you work hard and have strong family values and discipline. It's not a govt or societal problem, it is the fact that other groups besides Asians simply don't have the same traditions and values that Asians do. No one ever wants to take personal responsibility for their own outcomes, it must be because of white supremacy and inequality. It is just amazing how so many Asians can come here with nothing and in one generation produce offspring who have more wealth than the average American.

People need to fix themselves if they want equity. You can socially engineer being a good parent.

They need to understand the history and legacy of slavery in the US, and the level of discrimination that still exists towards Black Americans. If they hate DEI so much, maybe they should go to another country.

A victim mindset does not help anyone get ahead. There are many immigrants that have moved here with nothing and become very successful. I don’t buy this argument that the “legacy of discrimination ” somehow ruins people’s generations later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Dems and liberals is that they constantly whine about equity, racism, inclusion, white supremacy, yadda yadda, but the fact of the matter remians is that ASIANS actually have the highest median household income and wealth out of all racial groups in the country. How is that possible if there is lack of equity, systemic racism and white supremacy?

The uncomfortable truth is that you CAN actually make it in America if you work hard and have strong family values and discipline. It's not a govt or societal problem, it is the fact that other groups besides Asians simply don't have the same traditions and values that Asians do. No one ever wants to take personal responsibility for their own outcomes, it must be because of white supremacy and inequality. It is just amazing how so many Asians can come here with nothing and in one generation produce offspring who have more wealth than the average American.

People need to fix themselves if they want equity. You can socially engineer being a good parent.

They need to understand the history and legacy of slavery in the US, and the level of discrimination that still exists towards Black Americans. If they hate DEI so much, maybe they should go to another country.

Maybe you should stop with your anti-Asian bias. The US is so racist it elected a black president ... twice!

You just can't stand the fact that much of what the left promulgates wrt DEI, equity and all of the other mumbo jumbo has gaping flaws. The fact that Asians have more wealth than even white people entirely blows up the narrative of white supremacy and oppression. At the end of the day, 95% of it comes down to personal responsibility these. That's just not palatable though for progressives.

Harris talked about working family issues.
She didn’t talk about DEI.
she didn’t talk about her identity. Like not at all.

Yes she did pander to identity politics. She said that she wanted to create forgivable loans for Black Men. She also said that she wanted to decriminalize marijuana to help Black men. This ridiculous and insulting to many people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My analysis of precinct-level voting data in four major urban areas shows that the exit polls may actually be understating the degree to which Asian Americans shifted to the right. Using census data, I identified majority-Asian precincts in these areas and compared the Republican margin of victory (or loss) between the 2024 and 2020 elections. The results are much more stark: Majority-Asian precincts in New York City, for instance, saw a rightward shift of 31 percentage points. Precincts in Dallas and Fort Bend counties in Texas both saw rightward shifts between 17 and 20 points. And precincts in Chicago saw a 23-point shift to the right.

If the rightward shift among Asian American voters is real and significant, what is behind it?

When asked, neither APIAVote nor Asian Americans Advancing Justice were able to provide an explanation. But several Republican-leaning Asian American voters I spoke with were not surprised by the shift.

'Wrong side of brown’

Asian American voters also told me that they were turned off by the Democrats’ racial equity policies. The Democratic Party heavily leaned into racial equity following George Floyd’s death and the riots that followed in 2020. Democrats made bold promises to reduce racial disparities in economic and other outcomes, arguing that current racial disparities are the result of decades of systemic discrimination that must be addressed. However, race-conscious policies like affirmative action often ended up pitting Asian Americans against other minority groups. For many Asian Americans, they end up on the “wrong side of brown,” as Nomani puts it.

Noeth told me that Asian American parents were “fed up” with affirmative action policies in school admissions. Sue Ghosh Stricklett, a former Trump administration appointee, said the Harvard affirmative action case and the removal of merit-based admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia both “ignited passionate activism” among Asian American parents. In Fairfax County, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology changed its merit-based admissions policy in a bid to “decrease the representation of Asian Americans” in favor of other racial minorities.

“The injustice of being labeled as ‘privileged,’ ‘selfish,’ ‘cheaters,’ ‘overrepresented,’ ‘white adjacent,’ and ‘resource hoarders’ hurt very deeply,” Nomani, who is also a parent of a Thomas Jefferson graduate, said. It led to “political mobilization and a reconsideration of long-standing political loyalties.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/11/19/heres_why_asian_americans_shifted_right_151965.html

Asian Americans are approximately 6% of US population and hardly sway elections by themselves.

They will in VA. Asians make up about 17% of the NoVa population and about 10% statewide.