No surprise, Asian Americans leaning towards Democrats, Sanders

Immigration is a top concern for Asian/Americans.

AMONG the so-called political experts, its was widely believed that Asian/Americans would be an easy demographic for Republicans because of their orientation towards family and entrepreneurship. As it turns out, that image is a couple of decades old and no longer holds true -- if it ever did.

That belief has apparently shifted according to a new Gallup Poll that shows Asian/Americans moving into the more progressive camp and preferring social democrat
platform of Sen. Bernie Sanders over the more traditional Democrat, Hillary Clinton.

Sanders enjoys the highest level of popularity for any major candidate of either party among Asian/Americans, with his favorable score exceeding his unfavorable score by 29 percentage points with this group. His competitor for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, is not far behind, with a net favorable score of +21.

Both Democratic contenders score better than any of the Republican candidates, especially for Donald Trump, whose favorability among Asian/Americans is a minus 43 points.

One reason Asian/Americans may prefer Sanders over Clinton, and indeed all other presidential candidates with this group, is the comparatively liberal lean of Asian/Americans. Over a third of Asian/Americans (35%) classify their ideology as liberal, much higher than the level of Euro/Americans (22%), African/Americans (26%) and Latinos (26%).

While this trend may not mean a whole lot for 2016 because Asian/Americans are only 5 percent of the voters, if the growth trend continues, it could have greater significance in the future since Asians make up the fastest-growing racial group in the country. In some jurisdictions with a large Asian/American community, their impact will be felt immediately, especially if they feel that their needs and issues are not being addressed.

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Through recent presidential election cycles, Republicans have successfully defined the political dialogue. Simplistically put, that meant family values, strong faith in God, patriotism, anti-choice, fiscal responsibility, small government were conservative values. We might as well through in mom and apple pie in there. A lot of conservatives were happy with this description.

But real life is not always so easily defined.

In 2008 and 2012, voters of color who overwhelmingly voted for Obama. GOP strategists felt that to have any real chance to win the presidency, they had to take away some of those votes from the Democrats. 

At the start of the current presidential campaign in 2014 and as late as early this year, Republicans believed they could woo enough Asian/American voters into their camp.

Since 1965 when immigration laws were  reformed so that Europeans didn't receive favored treatment, immigration from Latin America and Asia increased dramatically creating a sense of unease in the traditional - mostly Euro/American - conservative camp that they were losing control of "their" America.

Immigration is perhaps the one issue that unites the vast majority of Asian Americans. What has happened as a result of the 1965  immigration reforms is that first-generation immigrant Asian/Amerians now outnumber American-born Asian/Americans.

In addition, most of us are still closely connected to our immigrant roots no matter how many generations we may have been here because, more than likely, we are related to a first-generation immigrant.

So if you attack immigrants or espouse stricter immigration laws, what you are saying to Asian/Americans is that our families are not important and to Asian/Americans, family is of the utmost importance. Therefore, if you attack immigrants, you attack our relatives, our families.

And that's where the Republican party has missed the boat. Not only have they missed the boat, they are trying to sink it.

Donald Trump, the most reviled of all candidates in the eyes of many Asian-Americans. Trump has been outspoken on the issue of immigration throughout his campaign, vowing not only to end all illegal immigration (most notably with his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border), but also to limit the level of legal immigration into the U.S. Given that around three-fourths of Asian-Americans are themselves immigrants, Trump's xenophobic rhetoric has almost certainly offended a large segment of this group.

The new Asian/American gothic

Just two decades ago, Asian-Americans were more apt to back GOP candidates -- in 1992, Republican President George H.W. Bush garnered 55% of the Asian/American vote as he unsuccessfully vied for re-election, according to exit poll data. But Asian/Americans have since abandoned the Republicans and now self-identify as Democratic (or as independents who lean Democratic) at a rate that far exceeds the portion of Asian/Americans who identify as or lean Republican.

With racist Donald Trump leading the way, GOP candidates for president have tripped over themselves trying to out-Trump Trump by voting against DACA, speaking against Obama's immigration reforms, proposing construction of a "wall"  across our southern borders and now, asking for stricter screening of refugees (beyond the 2-year process already in place) and Trump's latest proposal, an outright ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.

If you attack immigration reform, try to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment among the "conservatives," call the immigrants rapists, drug dealers, gang members, murderers and try to associate them with "anchor babies,"  curtail family reunification laws, threaten some with deportation separating children from their parents, you are essentially attacking our families, our cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

It's no wonder the family-oriented Asian/Americans are not buying the anti-immigrant rhetoric spewing forth from the Republican candidates. In the Asian/American view, family trumps all other issues.

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Children of Asian immigrants say 'thank you' to their parents

The Diokno family, circa 1961. My parents, Felicidad and Melchor, are seated in front.

ONCE, I was giving a speech at a dedication of a mural depicting the immigration of Filipinos to the United States. I managed to slip in the landing in Morro Bay in California, Manila Village, sugar cane workers in Hawaii, the Alaskeros and farmworkers, then suddenly ... I got choked up. I had to pause to fight back tears. I had rehearsed the speech (sorta) and knew what I was going to say but the well of emotion that overcame me was totally unexpected.

When I was giving the short speech about Filipino immigration to the U.S. and the hardships they endured, I was also talking about the journey of my own parents, who had to leave all that was comfortable, all that was familiar, their families, friends and barrios full of more relatives in order to make the trek here for a better life for their children. 

I thought of the discrimination that they encountered here even as they didn't recognize it as such: not getting the promotion, not being able to buy homes in certain neighborhoods, receiving poor service in stores and restaurants, being invisible and overlooked by the dominant culture, and all the small slights ("racial micro aggressions" is the current term) that build and build. In most cases, they were too proud to complain. They couldn't even bring themselves to complain about their beloved adopted country. "Discrimination, bigotry, racism," those words were not in their vocabulary. 

Only as an adult, when I recall instances and actions that they faced, did I realize what they had to put up with in order to make sure that I had a comfortable life, a good education, a productive career and a future much better than they could ever have imagined in the Philippines. 

The difficult choices they made in the 1940s to immigrate to a foreign land, as a young couple with their three young children, set off a chain of events that has left a lasting legacy for scores of their descendants, some of whom may not even know their names: Melchor and Felicidad. Our family, now into it's fifth generation of Filipino Americans, owe so much to them. The life I'm able to live today is the fulfillment of my parents' long-ago dreams.

That's why I was on the verge of tears at the speaker's podium. Everything my parents had done, all their sacrifices, what those triumphs have meant to scores of children they will never know - came crashing down on me. I took a deep breath and somehow finished the brief speech without totally losing my composure completely. Whew! 

To my parents, and to all the immigrant parents from countries around the world who aspire for a better life for their children, I give my most sincere and humble gratitude.

Watch these young Asian Americans as they give thanks to their immigrant parents, but first, have a box of Kleenex nearby. Thanks to Buzzfeed for the video.

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