[NY Times] Why are Asian Americans such loyal Democrats?

November 4, 2015

 

Workers urge Korean Americans to register to vote in March 3 municipal elections inside a Korean market. (Park Sang-hyuk/Korea Times)

Workers urge Korean Americans to register to vote in March 3 municipal elections inside a Korean market. (Park Sang-hyuk/Korea Times)

[NEW YORK TIMES]

In just two decades, Asian American support for the Democratic presidential candidate more than doubled, from the 31 percent Bill Clinton got in 1992 to the 73 percent cast for President Obama in 2012, according to exit polls.

This shift followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, developments that freed anti-Communist Asian immigrants – those with roots in China or Korea, for example – from single-issue ideological concerns that had previously drawn them to the Republican Party.

Today, Asian Americans, a population of 17.2 million, are among the fastest growing constituencies of the Democratic Party.

In some ways, Asian American voters, combining personal wealth, entrepreneurial success, high incomes, traditional family values and a strong work ethic, would seem to be ideal recruits for the more conservative political party. Nonetheless, the Republican Party has steadily lost their support.

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