Those must be national or statewide numbers. In Orange County, for a variety of reasons, Asians tend to vote at higher rates for Republicans. In Royce’s district, Asians are heavily Taiwanese and from Hong Kong, and came here legally, and resent people coming here by circumventing the lengthy, byzantine and expensive process they had to take.
In the case of the Vietnamese community, for a long time, they felt the Democrats betrayed the South Vietnamese Government and left them to horrors of the Communists.
Although that has changed somewhat since the older generation is passing into history.
Let’s see – In 2016, the congressional vote totals for California were 64% Dem to 36% Rep. And you’re telling me that they have super-majorities in the legislature because of the jungle primary system, and not because people are voting Dem 2 to 1? Are you saying that the Dems would have less of a majority if they were using party primaries to nominate general election candidates? Evidence?
I don’t expect mathematical literacy from Republicans. Virtually every thing they do and are for is based on mathematical illiteracy–mostly based on magical thinking and Underpants Gnome ellipses.
But I find it distressing that so many people in the Reality-based Party, mostly with at least college educations, cannot acknowledge even something as basic to reason as the inexorability of math. Seems to just be an immutable part of being human because, as applied to the human condition, math is rarely nice.
It’s not just that, though. People’s opinions can be easily manipulated. Like I said, I don’t have a full-time staff to research the intricacies of every initiative. Yes, we all have opinions, but even those of us with the best of intentions don’t have the resources to confirm that our opinions are well-grounded.
Back in the 90s, I remember one election that had two competing initiatives about old-growth forests. One was written by environmentalists; one was surreptitiously written by the logging industry. They accomplished exact opposite things – and they both passed! That’s how awful the system is!!
(And don’t get me started on how many years SF voted on competing initiatives to either keep or tear down the Central Freeway following the '89 earthquake. Every election provided a different result.)
I don’t know whose side of the argument this supports, but things like jungle primary laws get passed because one side or the other deemed it in its interest and hid behind high minded good government talk to make it happen.
So who pushed the law through?
Of course, even so, things don’t always work out the way we anticipated, do the answer could be irrelevant . . .
While i applaud the “theory” of non-partisan primaries, the Achilles heel of California’s system is that it functions in a non-partisan manner only to end up being completely partisan by its end destination - the US Congress. California must adjust its primary system to mirror its product of a partisan elected official. In this case, the non-partisan primary is incongruous with its partisan product. Absent the immaculate appearance of a multitude of political parties producing viable candidates for Congress, this system must be changed to reflect our national partisan reality.
No gaming going on. All candidates from all parties compete in a single primary race. The top two go through to the general election. The Dems are trying to avoid a case where we split our votes over three or more candidates and end up third in the primary between two GOPers.
I figured as much, because California. But who came up with the idea, who funded the petition drive and who paid for the commercials? Was it the Earnest Good Government Nonprofit With Transparent Funding types, the guy who thinks having a lot of money makes his ideas legislation-worthy? Or was it some Fake Earnest Good Government Nonprofit with Suspiciously Opaque Funding types?
A lot of Asian voters in Southern California are very conservative, but not in a Freedom Caucus, Tea Party, or Evangelical manner (though there are some in all categories). I think that the GOP’s relentless anti-immigrant message with its strong racist flavoring has been pushing them toward Democrats, but probably not permanently.
A good example of demented American democracy in action: instead of those registered in a party, or an elected, delegated convention of a party, being able to choose the party’s candidates, it’s tossed open to the general public, incuding outright opponents.
Me, too, but they seem to be in a fog or fugue state or something. I’m amazed at the people who know nada about how and when SS and Medicare came about and how they were near miracles. I’m getting to where I don’t care any more.
If you don’t know how voting has consequences, you deserve what happens to you.
Good questions, all. Seems to me that this could cut against either Dems or Republicans in different scenarios. Both parties have countless examples of crowded primary fields, particularly when a seat comes open. I also wonder about who paid for that initiative to pass, and they think their investment paid off.
Getting an initiative on the ballot is really expensive due to the number of signatures required, so it is almost always moneyed interests. With the legislature firmly Democratic, ballot propositions are the favorite end run by conservatives. With 50% of the votes, they can even amend the state constitution. Even the ones that don’t amend the constitution will often include language which sets a higher threshold (60% of the vote, say) to reverse the law than it took to enact it.
My default is to vote no on all ballot propositions that aren’t put on there by the legislature. Occasionally, there is one I can support, but most of them are crappy law even if I support the general aims.
The voter guides sent out before each election include full text of each, plus a neutral description of what it does and how it impact the budget, plus a blurb each by advocates and opponents, and rebuttals from each side (with much use of ALL CAPS). Those suckers are twice the size of a Federal 1040A booklet with instructions.
It is no way to make good laws, and a really bad way to make amendments to the constitution.
But what DCCC is worried about would not be a democratic outcome. DCCC is worried about a possibility that the general election will be between two candidates who only have a minority support. This is a real problem of CA jungle primary system.
I like parts of it, but I would strongly prefer a jungle primary with an instant runoff.
There is something in the air these days that tells me that won’t be as significant a problem for Dems this year than in the past. Dems have done quite well in every special election since 45 was elected. This mid-term will probably shake out like a national-scale special election where Dems have a unique opportunity to correct the course of American governance. My guess is that the general electorate understands now that apathy is not an option. This is a use it or lose it moment in American history. My guess.
You are exactly correct. I worked for Chinese factories or trading companies for over 20 years, and one Taiwanese gentleman for about 50% of those years. They are pro-business, entrepreneurial, strong families and very pro-education.
I remember my boss, who really ended becoming my friend asking, “Do American kids understand what children across Asia would do for a free, quality education?”
Many Chinese businessmen come here with money, but the strength of Asian families is inspiring. It is very common for working class Asian families who come here with little or nothing to pool their resources. So they will scrape together enough money for a house and then multiple families will live in the house, and begin saving money for a a second house, and so on, until they all eventually own their own home. Also, you will almost never see an Asian family (or hispanic for that matter) shunt their elderly off to a nursing home.
Latino’s can be very conservative as well. My in-laws came from Mexico, and live in a gang infested neighborhood. To say they are law and order would be an understatement. Their are a few gang members in the neighborhood they would just as soon have taken out into the backyard and executed, no trial. I was a little shocked at this at first, but after a few times of driving down the street and have some shaved head teenager, who is almost certainly armed, eyeball me all the way down their street, is a little disconcerting.
