Kid A
11-08-2012, 09:10 PM
This is a little long, but if you've been listening to (or spouting) the right's latest comforting story that they lost because all the greedy minorities "want stuff" and are welfare queens, there are a couple demographics that turn that idea upside down:
Asian and Jewish Americans, two of the wealthiest, most educated, likely to own businesses demographics in the US both broke for Obama by 3 to 1. They aren't voting for free stuff. They don't need food stamps. The difficult truth for the GOP is that they have actively made the majority of non-whites & non-christians feel unwelcome in their vision of America, and Tuesday was the price they paid for that:
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/asian-americans-destroy-makertaker.html?m=1
The "maker/taker" story is exactly the "47 percent" story that Mitt Romney told at that fund-raiser. It's the idea that the Democrats' core constituency is a bunch of lazy and/or untalented "takers" who want to use the government to steal from the hard-working "makers". Here's The Corner's David French summing up the idea:
To tens of millions of American voters, a conservative message of self-reliance and individual economic freedom is, quite frankly, terrifying.
First, each of Obama’s core constituencies (single women, African-Americans, and Latinos) is seriously — and disproportionately — economically disadvantaged compared to the classic paradigm of the white, college-educated Republican voter.
So, here's the problem: The narrative is wrong. Completely, utterly, wrong. The Democrats' appeal is not based on people "wanting stuff". And how do I know this? I know it because Asian-Americans voted for Obama by a 3-to-1 margin. Check this out:
Much has been made of the Latino vote and its crucial role in boosting President Obama to victory, but it was Asian Americans who made the most dramatic shift in support for the president Tuesday.
Exit polls show that 73% of Asian Americans backed Obama, an 11-point increase since 2008. Asian Americans came out in such force for Obama that they topped Latinos as his second-most supportive ethnic group, behind African Americans...
While Asians accounted for just 3% of the electorate – up from 2% in 2008 – their overwhelming support made them a key component of the Obama coalition, especially in swing states like Virginia, Florida and Colorado.
And their numbers are increasing rapidly. They were the fastest-growing ethnic group from 2000 to 2010...
73% [of Asian-American voters] supported Democrats in congressional races.
So, for those of you who don't know this, Asian-Americans make more money than white Americans. Thus, they pay more income tax. And Asians are half as likely as the average American to be on welfare.
Thus, Asian-Americans, by the Romney/O'Reilly/French definition, are "makers", not "takers". Even more than whites. They're also more likely to be married. And to start businesses.
And yet Asian-Americans broke for Obama 3-to-1. French should definitely be including them in his list of Obama's "core constituencies". The fact that he doesn't do so is a telling sign of "epistemic closure" - of conservatives not seeing what is plainly in front of them, preferring instead to repeat to themselves a pleasant, soothing, but false story.
If they're not "takers", why did Asian-Americans break so strongly for Obama? The answer is pretty clear: Ethnic identity politics. The American conservative movement has made it abundantly clear that it sees America as a "white people country", and 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.
Asian and Jewish Americans, two of the wealthiest, most educated, likely to own businesses demographics in the US both broke for Obama by 3 to 1. They aren't voting for free stuff. They don't need food stamps. The difficult truth for the GOP is that they have actively made the majority of non-whites & non-christians feel unwelcome in their vision of America, and Tuesday was the price they paid for that:
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/asian-americans-destroy-makertaker.html?m=1
The "maker/taker" story is exactly the "47 percent" story that Mitt Romney told at that fund-raiser. It's the idea that the Democrats' core constituency is a bunch of lazy and/or untalented "takers" who want to use the government to steal from the hard-working "makers". Here's The Corner's David French summing up the idea:
To tens of millions of American voters, a conservative message of self-reliance and individual economic freedom is, quite frankly, terrifying.
First, each of Obama’s core constituencies (single women, African-Americans, and Latinos) is seriously — and disproportionately — economically disadvantaged compared to the classic paradigm of the white, college-educated Republican voter.
So, here's the problem: The narrative is wrong. Completely, utterly, wrong. The Democrats' appeal is not based on people "wanting stuff". And how do I know this? I know it because Asian-Americans voted for Obama by a 3-to-1 margin. Check this out:
Much has been made of the Latino vote and its crucial role in boosting President Obama to victory, but it was Asian Americans who made the most dramatic shift in support for the president Tuesday.
Exit polls show that 73% of Asian Americans backed Obama, an 11-point increase since 2008. Asian Americans came out in such force for Obama that they topped Latinos as his second-most supportive ethnic group, behind African Americans...
While Asians accounted for just 3% of the electorate – up from 2% in 2008 – their overwhelming support made them a key component of the Obama coalition, especially in swing states like Virginia, Florida and Colorado.
And their numbers are increasing rapidly. They were the fastest-growing ethnic group from 2000 to 2010...
73% [of Asian-American voters] supported Democrats in congressional races.
So, for those of you who don't know this, Asian-Americans make more money than white Americans. Thus, they pay more income tax. And Asians are half as likely as the average American to be on welfare.
Thus, Asian-Americans, by the Romney/O'Reilly/French definition, are "makers", not "takers". Even more than whites. They're also more likely to be married. And to start businesses.
And yet Asian-Americans broke for Obama 3-to-1. French should definitely be including them in his list of Obama's "core constituencies". The fact that he doesn't do so is a telling sign of "epistemic closure" - of conservatives not seeing what is plainly in front of them, preferring instead to repeat to themselves a pleasant, soothing, but false story.
If they're not "takers", why did Asian-Americans break so strongly for Obama? The answer is pretty clear: Ethnic identity politics. The American conservative movement has made it abundantly clear that it sees America as a "white people country", and 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.