Could Asian-Americans Turn Orange County Blue?

NY Times ^ | November 5, 2018 | Viet Thanh Nguyen

[C19fan]

When I was a freshman at the University of California, Riverside, in 1988, I drove a carload of excited fellow Vietnamese students to nearby Orange County. It was only 13 years after the end of the Vietnam War, but already there was a Vietnamese American Dream, symbolized by our destination, the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster. To the strains of Vietnamese pop music, we ate Vietnamese food, browsed Vietnamese goods, and sat in the balcony of the American-style mall, sipping Vietnamese iced coffee while we watched Vietnamese people.

The mall was the heart of the Little Saigon in Orange County. By 1988, Little Saigon was already firmly established, with multitudes of Vietnamese shops, restaurants and businesses lining Bolsa Avenue. This community was populated with Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese refugees who had fled the end of the war. It was deeply anti-Communist. Orange County as a whole was also anti-Communist and quite conservative, but it was also very white at the time. The arrival of so many refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s was not welcomed by everyone in Westminster and Orange County.

[miss marmelstein]

Most Italians were perfectly decent, good people - Catholic. But from around 1900 - 1920, the Italian anarchists were responsible for the 1919 Wall St. bombing (part of the Sacco-Vanzetti gang) and endless bombs being mailed to politicians and judges. Eventually the famed (or infamous if you’re a lib) Palmer raids got rid of them by sending them back to Italy. Mussolini did the rest.

[DPMD]

In any case, it would be tragically ironic if this generation winds up voting in the very ideology their parents risked their lives and fortunes to escape.

[Wallace T.]

German-Americans and Italian-Americans overcame the leftist sentiments their forbears may have had in their native countries. For the most part, they are solid, patriotic Americans, on a par with colonial British descendants, except for the Ivy League WASPs in the Northeast, who shifted from solidly conservative to liberal in the last century. On the other hand, Irish-Americans are, next to the Jews, the most leftist white subgroup. Both Irish and Jewish people have long memories and grudges. They project crimes committed against their kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic onto traditional American society.

[dp0622]

THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE COME IF THEY DIDN’T LIKE OUR SYSTEM!!!

I would have shot them myself.

I got Italian roots but American blood.

[dp0622]

Or is it Italian blood but American roots?

Anyway, I’m glad my group came around.

Staten Island Italians are Hardcore conservative.

[dp0622]

Isn’t it happening with this cuban generation in Florida?!?!?

I think it is. At least to some extent.

The victim card. The good ones who came from Cuba were the TRUE victims. Of a monster.

But hey, lets’ all go see “The Motorcycle Diaries”!!

GTF out of here.

now i’m pi@@ed lol

[PermaRag]

Orange County is barely 40% white now (that was as of 2015). The ship has sailed.

Orange County voted for Hillary and it’s going to be a long time before a Republican wins county-wide there again. Certain cities within the county may still be competitive or even R-leaning, but Walt Disney is long dead and the county he loved is too now (and the one he loved in Florida is even more dead; it’s the official shithole of the state now, as bad or worse than Miami or Broward).

[lulu16]

This American of Asian descent voted absentee last week for the Trump agenda. The Democrats Abroad in our town in MX made it possible. They would have taken our ballots through diplomatic courier, but AZ has a great system of voting through the net, so we finished the process via email. Of course, hard to tell we would be conservative since my husband is Jewish, but they figured us out and tried to convince us to change our political affiliation.

BTW, we know other Republicans here who drive to Texas in order to vote. They don’t trust the ‘Rats here to deliver their ballot.

[x]

German-Americans and Italian-Americans overcame the leftist sentiments their forbears may have had in their native countries. For the most part, they are solid, patriotic Americans, on a par with colonial British descendants, except for the Ivy League WASPs in the Northeast, who shifted from solidly conservative to liberal in the last century.

You could have said that 50 years ago, but now what was true of "Ivy League WASPs in the Northeast" is true of many well-off suburbanites all across the country. And that accounts for a lot of what's happening in this election.

On the other hand, Irish-Americans are, next to the Jews, the most leftist white subgroup. Both Irish and Jewish people have long memories and grudges. They project crimes committed against their kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic onto traditional American society.

The Irish are a swing vote. Remember Reagan going to Irish bars in very Tip O'Neill Democrat Massachusetts? Some of the people there voted for him, I'm sure.

The Irish vote is divided by age and class. In much of the country suburbanites of Irish ancestry aren't so different from those Ivy League Northeast WASPs. In fact, they sort of are the new WASPs, especially the younger well-off Irish-Americans. Less affluent Irish-Americans don't vote the same way. Older ones are also less reliable votes for the Democrats, depending on where they live.

[x]

After the 2016 election, I was surprised to read that Asian-Americans voted about 70% for the Dims. Would have guessed they would have been closer to 50/50, or a small percentage in favor of Republicans. - Maybe they will vote more for Republicans in the future.

That is more the younger, suburban Asian-Americans. They go to elite universities and vote the way the graduates of those universities vote.

In the Reagan era Asian-Americans tended to vote Republican. Many of them had been refugees from Communist countries - China and Vietnam. But the younger generation doesn't have the same memories.

Japanese-Americans are the WASPs or Jews of Hawaii - the liberal establishment and mainstay of the Democratic Party. Indian-Americans tend - so far as I've seen - to vote for the party in power.

There is a paradox in assimilation. Traditionally, the more assimilated individuals and groups are, the more they vote Republican. But today, groups and individuals are assimilated to the category of Asian-American, African-American, Latino, Middle Eastern-American (and I suppose European-American) and they vote Democrat out of group identity and loyalty.

[Pining_4_TX]

For whatever reason, it seems that people who come from socialist, s-hole countries always vote for socialism and tyranny, and that is why their home countries are crappy. ONe would think they could figure out why this happens, but they don’t. This is the best reason to keep the migrant hordes out of the US.

[Will88]

Several years back I saw the routine of an Asian-American comedian whose main line of jokes was how tough his life was because of all the positive stereotypes about Asian-Americans. I’m sure there are plenty of AA who live up to those stereotypes, but also that all the positive stereotypes have caused many Americans, probably like me, to assume the strong family orientation and emphasis on education, to conclude incorrectly that they are also mostly conservative.