[mpen-dayton4] FW: "Invitation" & "VIDEO: How we stopped Keystone, together" & "We Mapped the Uninsured. You'll Notice a Pattern" & "Why Are Asian-Americans Such Loyal Democrats?" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
P.S. Please reply back to me with ‘unsubscribe’ on the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.
P.P.S. "He who dares not offend cannot be honest" - Thomas Paine
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· FW: Invitation to Commemoration
· FW: VIDEO: How we stopped Keystone, together
· FW: One week down, 12 weeks to go!
· FW: Submit your application
· FW: We Mapped the Uninsured. You'll Notice a Pattern – NYT
· FW: Sign my petition: Social Security
· FW: Let's take on the NRA
· FW: SIGN THE PETITION: stop billionaires from running America
· FW: Put the candidates on record about *real action* on big money in politics
· FW: Stop Palestinian incitement: Next steps
· FW: Progressive except Palestine? Not on our watch
· FW: Elizabeth Warren has a plan for next year's COLA
· FW: Why Are Asian-Americans Such Loyal Democrats? - The New York Times
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From: Islom Shakhbandarov; President, Ahiska Turkish American Community Center
Subject: Invitation to Commemoration
On behalf of the Ahiska Turkish American Community Center (ATACC), I would like to invite you to the annual commemoration of the Ahiska Turkish Deportation Day and the Ahiska Turkish Community Photo Exhibit on Saturday, November 21, 2015, from 4:00 pm-6:00 pm in 1306 E Fifth St, Dayton, Ohio.
November 14, 1944 - the day Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of all Ahiska Turks from their ancestral lands in the Ahiska (Meskheti) region of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic into Central Asia - is a day we will never forget. During the deportation, 40 percent of the entire Ahiska Turkish nation perished. The legacy of the deportation continues to affect the Ahiska Turkish community around the world. Sadly, virtually none of those who were deported were able to return to their ancestral lands.
Members of the State of Ohio House of Representatives and Senate, the Mayor and Commissioners of the City of Dayton, and local community leaders will come to show a support on this memorable day.
We are grateful for the opportunities provided for us to rebuild our lives in this great nation, the United States of America, and I welcome you to join us in honoring the history of the Ahiska Turkish community on Saturday, November 21, 2015.
Please RSVP at: info@ataccdayton.org.
We look forward to seeing you.
From: Corinne, Anna, Nick, Victoria, Jadzia, and the rest of the team, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Subject: VIDEO: How we stopped Keystone, together
This victory is a testament to the incredible power we have, when we stand together as a movement, to shape our country and change the course of history—which is exactly what we'll need to do to keep securing transformative actions that can reverse the course of human-made climate change and hold corporations and politicians who continue to imperil the climate by denying science accountable.
Our friends at 350.org have created a video about how, together, we achieved this victory. Will you watch and share their video and celebrate this historic moment?
Over the last few years, hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members have joined the movement to stop the Keystone XL pipeline—putting an end to this massive dirty energy project that would have grossly deepened our dependence on the fossil fuels accelerating climate change.
By joining with communities along the pipeline route, ranchers, farmers, Native American tribes, climate activists, and union members, we accomplished something truly remarkable. Your signatures, phone calls, donations, and local rallies and events over the years helped power this victory.
As we continue the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground and hold corporations like Exxon Mobil accountable for their crimes against our climate, we'll remember to hold up today's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline as a reminder that—even against billion dollar industries—change is possible.
Please, take a minute to watch and share this video from our friends at 350.org.
Want to support our work? MoveOn member contributions have powered our work together for more than 17 years. Hundreds of thousands of people chip in each year—which is why we're able to be fiercely independent, answering to no individual, corporation, politician, or political party. You can become a monthly donor by clicking here, or chip in a one-time gift here.
From: are you covered? campaign
Subject: One week down, 12 weeks to go!
First week of open enrollment, in review
WOW! In the first six hours of open enrollment, approximately 40,000 people submitted applications through HealthCare.gov. In Ohio, there was some great early coverage in the media of the new open enrollment period:
- The Columbus Dispatch: Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment Starts Today
- The Plain Dealer: In Year Three, Insurance Costs in Northeast Ohio Drop 6.3 Percent
- The Toledo Blade: Insurance Sign-Ups to Start: Pay Attention
- Troy Daily News: Health Partners Retains Navigator for Third Year
Resources to make our voices go further
The are you covered? Ohio campaign is a partnership designed to let Ohio consumers know there are trained assisters across the state that are working hard to carry out the same goal: connecting more people with affordable health care coverage that meets their needs and their budget!
Each week, we'll be sharing a combination of local, state, and national resources and tools to support you as you carry out this work. Remember to order your buttons, pens, and outreach materials to get more people than ever saying "yes" to the question are you covered Ohio?
- Families USA held a webinar called Preparing for Open Enrollment 2016: Resource Roundup. Did you miss it? You can view the recorded webinar here. Beyond the Basics has another webinar coming up next Tuesday, November 10 from 2:00 to 3:00 called Assisting Consumers in Plan Comparison and Selection - sign up here.
- Raising Women's Voices is launching a national campaign next week to help newly-insured women use their coverage to get the care they need. One of the best ways to encourage enrollment in health coverage is to show how valuable that coverage can be! Consider joining their webinar on Monday, November 9 at 2:00 to learn about their Women's Step by Step Guide to Using Health Insurance.
- Are you a call center or other agency making referrals to health care assisters? Use the Get Covered Connector, a tool operated by Enroll America and implemented by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks and the are you covered? Ohio campaign in Ohio, to schedule appointments for consumers with local assisters. Here's a simple training video that walks you through the process of making referrals and scheduling appointments through the Get Covered Connector.
- The Northeast Ohio Outreach and Enrollment Council was recently able to secure a partnership with Trinity Broadcast Network on a local TV segment. TBN has 1 million viewers just in NEO, and have broadcasting stations in other regions of the state. Local broadcasting networks like TBN are always looking for helpful information to share with their audience. Consider exploring TBN and other local broadcast networks to spread the are you covered? Ohio message further!
Thanks for all you do! Together, we can help thousands more consumers connect with affordable health care coverage that fits their needs and their budgets.
From: HealthCare.gov Reminders
Subject: Submit your application:
Submit your application today
Now’s your chance to sign up for 2016 health insurance and join the millions of people who have quality coverage from HealthCare.gov. If you haven’t done so already, submit your application today.
8 out of 10 people who enrolled in a health insurance plan qualified for financial help. In fact, most people can find a plan for $75 or less per month. Sign up for a 2016 plan and see what you could save today!
DEADLINE: December 15
From: khalfani718@cs.com
Subject: We Mapped the Uninsured. You'll Notice a Pattern – NYT
Two years into Obamacare, clear regional patterns are emerging about who has health insurance in America and who still doesn’t.
http://nyti.ms/1HgsMjf
The remaining uninsured are primarily in the South and the Southwest. They tend to be poor. They tend to live in Republican-leaning states. The rates of people without insurance in the Northeast and the upper Midwest have fallen into the single digits since the Affordable Care Act’s main provisions kicked in. But in many parts of the country, obtaining health insurance is still a problem for many Americans.
From: Senator Elizabeth Warren
Subject: Sign my petition: Social Security
On January 1, for just the third time since 1975, seniors who receive Social Security won't be getting an annual cost-of-living increase. Neither will millions of other Americans whose veterans' benefits, disability benefits, and other monthly payments are pegged to Social Security.
Will you join me in calling on my fellow members of Congress to give seniors and veterans the raise they deserve?
Please pass the Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act (SAVE Benefits Act) to give seniors and veterans a one-time 3.9% payment in 2016—the same raise that America's top CEOs received last year.
Sign my petition
Two-thirds of retirees depend on Social Security to pay for the basics: to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads—but seniors who usually get a small boost on January 1 won't see an extra dime next year.
The Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act (SAVE Benefits Act) would:
- Provide seniors and veterans with an emergency, one-time 3.9% payment in 2016 (approx. $581/person). 3.9% is the average raise that America's top CEOs received last year.
- Fully cover the cost of increased payments by closing the tax loophole that allows corporations to write off obscene executive bonuses as a business expense for "performance pay."
- Extend the life of Social Security by bolstering the Social Security and Disability trust funds.
So let's do it. Let's close the loophole and let's use the money to give seniors and veterans the support they need on January 1. Tell Congress that America supports the SAVE Benefits Act.
Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
From: Hillary Clinton via Daily Kos
Subject: Let's take on the NRA
Friend --
Columbine. Sandy Hook. Charleston. Every time our nation endures another mass shooting, we come together to pray for the families affected -- but we owe them much more than prayer. Tragedies like these aren’t acts of God; they’re acts of men, and it’s our responsibility to prevent them.
Munsup, I need you with me on this. Sign your name if you agree it’s time to stand up to the NRA and the gun manufacturers it represents.
Taking on the gun lobby will be tough, but I’m ready for this fight. We need to close legal loopholes like the one that led to the shooting in Charleston, we need to fight for comprehensive background checks to keep guns out of the wrong hands -- and we need to hold manufacturers and gun dealers accountable when they break the rules.
About 33,000 Americans die every year because of gun violence. Our loved ones are dying, and we can do something about it. A movement of people calling for progress -- and a president willing to wage this fight -- can make a difference.
Are you with me? Add your name right now to say you’re ready to take on the NRA and fight for comprehensive gun violence prevention:
Add your name if you agree we have to take on gun violence in America
From: Kelsey, along with Annie, Eddie, Emma, Laura, Lindsay, Moonyoung, Paul, Scottie, and Tim, Courage Campaign
Subject: SIGN THE PETITION: stop billionaires from running America
I’ve had enough. I’m sick and tired of billionaires and corporate interests running this country. And I know you are too.
Our voices are being drowned out by ever increasing piles of money, and our representative democracy cannot function because of it! We need to make sure the next president stands with the people and NOT with corporations.
That’s why Courage Campaign partnered with 26 other organizations to launch FightBigMoney.com -- an unprecedented campaign to make getting money out of politics the number one priority of presidential candidates.
Click here to join the “Fighting Big Money” movement and DEMAND that every presidential candidate propose concrete plans to fight big money in politics and restore a government of, by, and for the people.
According to the New York Times, 85% of the country wants to “fundamentally change” or “completely rebuild” how we fund elections.(1) That’s right, EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT. That’s over 250 MILLION people. However, even though a majority of the country wants change, Washington, D.C. is doing very little about it.
Thankfully, this past summer, experts from our nation’s leading progressive organizations created the “Fighting Big Money” agenda -- a comprehensive road map to reduce the influence of money in politics and give every American a real voice in our democracy.(2) Since then, the press has hailed the Fighting Big Money agenda as the best plan to FIGHT BACK against big campaign donors, super PACs, and shady “dark money” groups.
But, Munsup, we can’t do this without you. Wall Street bankers and fossil fuel billionaires, who are used to running politics, have made it very clear that this is going to be an uphill battle. It’s time that we, ordinary Americans, show the sleazeballs -- who are buying our democracy out from under us -- that we are a force to be reckoned with. Together we can win by holding each presidential candidate accountable, and making it clear: you’re either with us or against us. And if they're against us, they can be darn sure they won’t make it to the White House.
JOIN US: Tell the presidential candidates to sign on to the Fighting Big Money agenda, the gold standard of reforms to fight back against super PACs and “dark money.”
We will make it clear that any candidate who wants our vote and claims to oppose the power of wealthy special interests must adopt core planks of the Fighting Big Money agenda, which includes:
- Campaigns funded by small donors, amplified with matching funds
- Supporting legislation to increase voter turnout
- Increasing transparency and real disclosure about who is funding political ads
- Overturning Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates of corporate money in our elections
- Enforcing anti-corruption laws to hold campaign violators accountable
Right now we need a groundswell of grassroots action, demanding real solutions to end the corrupting influence of money in politics -- and that’s exactly what we’re building at FightBigMoney.com.
Sign the petition: Tell the presidential candidates to lay out a serious plan to fight big money in politics.
Yours in the fight to take our democracy back,
1. http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/2174?t=9&akid=2252.790590.74Cjyx
2. http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/2177?t=11&akid=2252.790590.74Cjyx
From: Fight Big Money; People For the American Way
Subject: Put the candidates on record about *real action* on big money in politics
Urge the presidential candidates to sign on to the Fighting Big Money agenda, the best, nonpartisan package of principles and policies for a government by the people -- not big campaign donors.
Add your name
Created by leading experts from nonpartisan democracy reform organizations, the Fighting Big Money agenda has been hailed as the best and most comprehensive road map for reducing the influence of money in politics and giving people a real voice in our democracy.
Any presidential candidate claiming to oppose Big Money in politics or the influence of wealthy special interests must lay out a concrete, detailed plan that reflects the agenda's core principles and policies:
- Overturning Citizens United and related cases -- Use a constitutional amendment and Supreme Court nominations to overturn the Supreme Court’s disastrous decisions in cases like Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo, allowing lawmakers to set commonsense rules and limits for campaign donations.
- Real disclosure of who is funding political ads -- Use existing executive authority to require more complete disclosure of TV ad sponsors and pass new laws to let voters know who is trying to influence their vote.
- Campaigns funded by small donors -- Amplify the voices of ordinary Americans and end the mockery of billionaire-owned elections, by creating a system of public funding for campaigns.
- Increased voter turnout -- Reduce barriers to the ballot box and urge universal registration.
- Tough enforcement of anti-corruption laws -- Create an enforcement agency able and willing to crack down on violations of campaign finance laws.
Find out more: http://fightbigmoney.com/?source=pfaw
From: Brian Shankman; Director of Regional Affairs and Development, AIPAC
Subject: Stop Palestinian incitement: Next steps
Last week, we asked AIPAC supporters like you to email Congress in support of an important bipartisan letter circulating in the House of Representatives.
Authored by Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), the letter calls on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take immediate action to end Palestinian incitement and to stop the escalating violence against Israeli's.
I am pleased to report that today, this letter will be sent to President Abbas with the support of 369 members of Congress. In addition, the House passed a related bipartisan resolution, authored by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Ted Deutch (D-FL) which further condemns the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism.
This simply would not have happened without you.
At a time when Israel faces unprecedented threats each and every day, you should take great pride in knowing that your voice matters. Your work with AIPAC makes a tangible difference, and you play a critical role in securing Israel’s future.
That is why I hope you will take two important actions today:
- First, please email your representative to thank him/her for passing the bipartisan resolution condemning Palestinian incitement. Urge further support for Israel as the Jewish state seeks to end the ongoing violence against its citizens.
- Second, please join the important work of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee with a special member gift of $36, $50, $100 or more today.
During this dangerous and difficult time, your contribution will ensure that AIPAC is positioned to effectively work with Congress to strengthen the vital U.S.-Israel relationship.
Thank you for your work with AIPAC to guarantee that Israel’s safety remains a legislative priority at the highest levels of American leadership.
From: Stefanie Fox; Co-Director of Organizing, Jewish Voice for Peace
Subject: Progressive except Palestine? Not on our watch
Tell the Center for American Progress to
rescind their invitation to Netanyahu
Since college -- actually, since grade school -- I’ve been a political activist, and I’ve spent my entire career fighting for peace, and justice, and equality. It’s what us progressives do.
But some “progressives” didn’t get the memo.
The Center for American Progress, one of the biggest and most influential progressive think tanks in the U.S. has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak. Let me put it another way: one of the most important progressive organizations in America is giving a huge platform to one of the least progressive men alive, at a time when he’s inciting hatred, entrenching a brutal status quo of apartheid, and presiding over a terrifying descent into far-right extremist violence.
Our allies at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation are calling on CAP to rescind their invitation to Netanyahu, and we’re standing with them.
But we need you, too. Add your name to our letter: Bibi is no progressive, and CAP has no business inviting him to speak.
Over 70 Palestinians and 9 Israelis have been killed this month. Over 8,000 Palestinians have been injured since October. That’s not a typo -- over 8,000. Israeli soldiers and militarized police are inflicting brutal collective punishment on the people of Palestine -- and egged on by Netanyahu's rhetoric, racist mobs march through the streets of Israel, attacking the non-Jews that they pass.
Netanyahu wants us to ignore all that. He wants to give a speech, and offer some vague platitudes, and hope that we’ll forget that he’s spent his premiership shilling for war and dispossession.
But I can see what Netanyahu has done, and you can too.
After nearly 70 years of dispossession and displacement -- and just as many years of Palestinian resistance -- Netanyahu knows that the age-old bipartisan consensus over Israel is breaking up. The Israel lobby can always count on the support of the neocons and the Christian far-right, but progressives are waking up to the reality of Israel’s decades-long occupation and its displacement of the Palestinian people.
Jews like me, and supporters of justice and equality from all walks of life are moving the needle, and changing the political conversation around Israel and Palestine. Fealty to the Israeli occupation is no longer guaranteed, and Netanyahu knows it. The emerging progressive majority has had enough of Israeli apartheid, and Netanyahu is running scared.
We can’t let the Center for American Progress give Netanyahu the veneer of bipartisan respectability. Not now, when the tide is turning for peace and human rights.
Tell the Center for American Progress: don’t roll out the welcome mat for warmongers. Rescind your invitation to Netanyahu.
It really comes down to a simple truth: you cannot call yourself progressive and be silent on Palestine. If you’re committed to human rights, your commitment can’t stop at the Green Line. If you believe in equality for all, that has to include Palestinians. And if you want to fight racism, you have to fight it in Israel, too.
I’m Progressive. Netanyahu isn’t. Add your name, and tell CAP to disinvite Netanyahu.
From: Andrew Tierman
Subject: FW: Elizabeth Warren has a plan for next year's COLA
End welfare for multi-millionaires to allow COLA for the rest of us. – Andrew
------------------------------------
As you may have heard, there will be no Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries next year. Despite average annual benefits of just $14,375 and rising medical and housing costs, Social Security payments will remain flat.
CEO pay for the top 350 US Firms, meanwhile, saw their pay increase by 3.9% last year, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute. Why are we stretching thin seniors and people with disabilities while CEOs whose average pay is $16.3 billion—much of it paid through a tax-free “performance pay” loophole—are making more than ever?
Thankfully, Social Security champion Senator Elizabeth Warren has just introduced a bill which will give a 3.9% raise to Social Security beneficiaries in 2016 – around $580 – and pay for it for by eliminating the CEO performance pay tax break.
Stand with Elizabeth Warren today and help build support for her important piece of legislation to support seniors, surviving spouses and people with disabilities.
At a time when more than half of households 55 and older have zero retirement savings, and when two-thirds of retirees depend on Social Security for the majority of their income, Senator Warren’s legislation is critical to providing financial security to Social Security recipients in 2016.
Please, stand with Social Security Works and our friends at CREDO Action in supporting Elizabeth Warren’s Seniors Before CEOs Act today!
It is time for Social Security beneficiaries to receive a raise and for the wealthiest Americans to start paying their fair share.
From: Jim
Subject: Why Are Asian-Americans Such Loyal Democrats? - The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/opinion/why-are-asian-americans-such-loyal-democrats.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
Why Are Asian-Americans Such Loyal Democrats?
Monica Almeida/The 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.
The accompanying chart, provided by Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside, shows the steady movement of Asian-Americans away from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.
Asian-Americans have the potential to transform the Democratic coalition. They add a large block of voters who combine economic and educational achievement with deeply felt liberal convictions.
According to Taeku Lee, a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley:
Asian-Americans are, their vaunted educational and economic successes notwithstanding, a group that has in various contexts experienced differential treatment and a group that in various contexts identifies as a minority group.
In addition, Lee wrote in an email responding to my inquiry:
Today’s Asian Americans are not only liberal on the expected issues like health care reform, immigration reform, and educational reform, but they also seem to espouse liberal views across a wide range of unexpected issue areas like environmental politics, affirmative action, and the like. We even find, in our 2012 National Asian American Survey, that nearly 2 out of every 3 Asian Americans who report earning more than $250,000/year supported an approach to reducing the federal budget deficit that would raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000-a-year.
There is one issue, race or ethnicity-based affirmative action, on which Asian-American loyalty to the liberal agenda is more conflicted.
More than 60 Asian-American groups have filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Department of Education charging that preferences for African-Americans and Hispanics at Harvard and other selective colleges have reduced the number of Asian- Americans accepted. The complaints are based on the fact that Asian-Americans as a group have substantially higher standardized test scores and grades than competing demographic groups, including whites.
The complaints prompted a separate coalition of 135 Asian-American civil rights groups to declare its firm support of affirmative action
The accompanying chart, compiled from data provided by the College Board, shows that college-bound Asian-Americans received the highest average SAT scores in 2015 of any group.
The cumulative score on all three SAT tests – critical reading, math and writing – was 1654 (out of a possible 2400) for Asian-Americans, 1576 for whites, 1277 for African-Americans, and 1343 for Mexican-Americans.
A 2005 study published in the Social Science Quarterly, “The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities,” by Thomas J. Espenshade, a professor of sociology at Princeton, and Chang Y. Chung, a statistician at Princeton’s Office of Population Research, found that “Asian applicants are the biggest winners if race is no longer considered in admissions” at “three highly selective private research universities” which the authors declined to identify. The Asian share of those accepted at such institutions would grow from 23.7 percent to 31.5 percent, they wrote.
Asian-American resistance to race-based affirmative action surfaced in California last year when leaders of the Democratic-controlled State Legislature considered putting a referendum before the voters to restore race-conscious admission policies at public colleges and universities. Asian-American voters flooded legislators with phone calls and emails opposing race-based preferences, prompting three Asian-American Democratic state senators to declare their opposition. Legislative leaders dropped their plans for a statewide referendum.
Affirmative action aside, support for the liberal agenda is solid among the broad population of Asian-Americans.
Janelle Wong, a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, emailed in response to my query:
Asian Americans tend to support a strong social safety net and stronger role for government in everyday life.
Wong noted that on a key polling question that tests political ideology, “58 percent of Asian Americans, versus 39 percent of the U.S. population in general, supports a ‘bigger government with more services’ over a ‘smaller government with fewer services.’ ”
The same tilt to the left is clear on other issues, according to Wong: “Asian Americans are more likely than the U.S. public in general to support Obamacare and to support environmental protection over economic growth.” In the case of immigration, support among Asian-Americans for a path to citizenship for the undocumented has grown steadily, Wong writes, “so, as the Republicans’ rhetoric on immigration has become more punitive, the community has actually moved in the opposite direction.”
The political liberalism of Americans of Asian descent is notable given their affluence, success in the marketplace and the high status of jobs they hold.
Asian-Americans, according to the Pew Research Center, “are the best-educated, highest-income, fastest-growing race group in the country.”
In 2014, median household income for Asian-Americans was $74,297; for whites, $60,256; for Hispanics, $42,491; and for African-Americans, $35,398.
Three out of five in the Asian-American work force have a college degree, compared with 37 percent of whites, 27 percent of African-Americans and 18 percent of Hispanics. Fifty percent of Asian-Americans have managerial or professional jobs, compared with 39 percent of whites, 29 percent of African-Americans and 20 percent of Hispanics.
Asian-Americans also stand apart from other Americans of all races and ethnicities in family structure. The percent of out-of-wedlock births among Asian-Americas in 2013 was 17 percent, just over half the 29.3 percent rate for whites and far below the 53.2 rate for Hispanics and the 71.5 percent rate for African-Americans.
The work ethic is robust among Asian-Americans, who believe by 42 points (69-27) that “most people can get ahead if they’re willing to work hard.” Among all American adults, it’s a much smaller 18 points (58-40).
On the divisive issue of abortion, Asian-Americans are more liberal than the general electorate. By 17 points (54-37), Asian-Americans believe abortions should be legal in most or all cases, compared with an eight point spread (51-43) in the general public, according to the Pew Research Center.
What can we make of all this data? There are a few preliminary inferences.
The first is that despite their affluence, Asian-Americans are on course to become a mainstay of what Stan Greenberg, the Democratic pollster, calls the “rising American electorate”: the liberal alliance of black and Hispanic minorities, single women and young voters.
In this respect, Asian-Americans are similar to another minority voting group with strong Democratic ties, American Jews. They, too, have incomes and educations well above average. The Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of Jewish households had an income of $100,000 or more, compared with 18 percent of all American households. Along similar lines, 58 percent of Jews have college degrees, compared with 29 percent of the entire population.
Jewish support for Democrats is similar to that of Asian-Americans. According to Pew, 70 percent of Jews identify themselves as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, and 22 percent are Republican or lean Republican. Asian-Americans share with blacks, Hispanics and Jews an experience of previously marginalized status and social exclusion. These four constituencies also share a belief that a commitment to hard work and self-reliance does not conflict with a belief in a strong government and a reliable safety net.
Such views stand in direct contrast to those of the Tea Party and Wall Street wings of the Republican Party, both of which see self-reliance and big government as antithetical to each other.
It may prove that the values that Asian-Americans, Jews, blacks and Hispanics share will create sufficient cohesion to sustain a liberal coalition, even as some members of the coalition fail to ascend the socioeconomic ladder in lockstep with the others. That is the current conundrum of the upstairs-downstairs American left.
Their Republican adversaries, who have themselves fielded a multiracial and multiethnic set of presidential candidates, are determined to fight fire with fire, as they claim to be the party most committed to upward mobility. When voters go to the polls a year from now, these Republican claims will be tested as never before.
End of MPEN e-Newsletter
posted by lucas at 7:15 PM
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