Where the American Dream is Alive and Well

We hear much about the American Dream becoming increasingly unobtainable.  There is some truth to the story line and most of it comes from decades of Republican efforts to undermine the social safety net and to take from the working and middle classes and give even more benefits to the extremely wealthy.  Add to this the GOP refusal to face modernity, including climate change and it is a recipe for disaster for many.  Sadly, the willingness of far too many whites to fall for GOP class to racism and religious based bigotry has only helped to exacerbate the negative impact on large numbers of Americans.

But the American Dream is still alive and attainable.  Where do you find it?  In the nation's immigrant communities.  This is where one finds a respect for education and great efforts to learn and gain degrees.  Perhaps most importantly, this is where a willingness to move to find opportunity and a dedication to hard work still flourishes. The immigrant community that I know best is the Indian/Hindu community from which I have many clients.  Last night the husband and I went to a house warming party for an Indian-American client's spectacular new home (it was an amazing party, by the way).  As expected, numerous other clients were among the guests.  Many of these individuals were not born in America, arrived with little other than a desire to better themselves and their families, and shared a willingness to attain an education and work hard.  Our host noted that for him, America is truly a wonderful country where hard work could still move one ahead and allow one to find success.  The same stories can be found in other many other immigrant communities, including the Hispanic community. As the post yesterday on the disability epidemic in with rural America, far too many whites - the majority of whom voted for Trump and the GOP - have forgotten what is known and valued by our immigrant communities.  I feel truly blessed to have come to know the Indian-American community.

Another aspect that struck us last night was that we as an openly gay couple were completely welcomed.  Sadly, in many circles in Hampton Roads such is still often not the case.   Rather than judge people by their character and contributions to the community, the "godly Christians" reject those who are different be it in terms of skin color, faith or sexual orientation.  These "Christians" act in a manner the opposite of the Gospel message they pretend to worship. Indeed, my own quest for the American dream too a huge hit when I was forced from a large local law firm for being gay. The powers that be at the firm did  not want to upset the sensibilities of their "conservative clients."  Thankfully, things are back on a positive track for me - in no small part due to the Indian-American community's embrace of me. 

To truly make America great again, we need more hard working immigrants who put a premium on education and fewer Trump-voting whites.  

The New Indian-American Lobby

The party of angry white men - i.e., the Republican Party - may have a new lobby to face that will not sit well with its Christofascist/Tea Party base: Indian-Americans, a group I am acquainted with through my numerous Indian-American clients (some of whom were at a  White House gathering last month).  Like other minority groups, these immigrant and native born Americans subscribe to the so-called American dream and want to have more input into policy issues.  In the last presidential election, they voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama for obvious reasons.  Today's GOP is a party of exclusion and if one isn't a white, heterosexual conservative Christian, one truly is not welcomed.  A piece in Politico Magazine looks at the growing political ambitions of this demographic.  Here are highlights:

November wasn’t kind to the political power of Indian-Americans. In the hundreds of congressional and gubernatorial races across the country, only five Indian-American candidates were on the ballot. Three lost. Representative Ami Bera, incumbent Democrat from California, left Election Day trailing by thousands of votes only to secure a narrow victory during a recount. Two of Indian-Americans’ biggest victories were the electoral equivalents of shoo-ins—California Attorney General Kamala Harris and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Come next month, Indian-Americans will have only one elected representative in Washington—the same number that they have in the current Congress.

But this electoral thumping obscures the truth behind the curtain: The nation’s three million Indian-Americans are increasingly looking to flex their political muscles, and they have one very clear advantage to bring to the money-driven world of modern politics: They’re one of the wealthiest ethnic groups in the United States. According to a 2013 Pew Survey, Indian-Americans’ median household income sits at $88,000, the highest of all Asian-American subgroups (the U.S. average at-large is a relatively paltry $49,800).

Indians as a whole have a long way to go before they can be seen as an influential group in politics.  But he has a very clear benchmark in mind as he tries to navigate his educated and wealthy ethnic group towards political power: Jewish-Americans. “We’re learning a lot from the Jewish diaspora here and what we have noticed from the Jewish diaspora is that they’re willing to contribute, invest, and write checks,” Rangaswami told me. “Because of the size of India, we could become a much larger community [than the Jews] in terms of population and also in terms of diversity.”

Anand Shah believes that Indian-Americans will likely replicate this path—uniting around certain causes close to the heart of the population, like the well-being and future of India itself. USINPAC, the largest Indian-American lobbying organization, was lauded for its highly successful lobbying of Congress to pass the U.S.-India Nuclear Treaty in 2008 (after President Bush first negotiated it in 2005), but has not boasted any landmark victories since. U.S.-India relations cooled notably in recent years as the U.S. began to court China more formally and many Indians have been irked over a lack of visas for highly-qualified Indian engineers.

Much like Jewish-Americans, Indian-Americans currently lean heavily towards the Democratic Party—in 2013, a Pew Survey claimed that 65 percent of Indian-Americans identify as Democrats, while only 18 percent identify as Republicans. Yet as a group, there’s reason to believe that Indian-Americans votes are up for grabs.

Paul Kapur, a professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School who focuses on U.S. policy towards South Asia, argues that because neither party has yet “really reached out to Indian-Americans … they’re not really captured by one party or the other.” Kapur says that Indian-Americans’ overwhelming support for Obama may stem from the president’s association with the third world.

[F]or Indians who come from a country with a cacophonous democracy filled with numerous coexisting religious, linguistic and ethnic groups, keeping social values private and out of the public sphere is the norm. In India, much of family law differs for Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, and thus many Indian immigrants are likely perplexed by evangelicals’ efforts to codify aspects of their faith in broad-sweeping legislation.

Jindal and Haley have formidable barriers that could keep their stories from resonating with Indian-American donors in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. Around 80 percent of Indian-Americans are Hindu and Jindal and Haley have both converted to Christianity (Jindal was raised a Hindu and Haley a Sikh). Both Jindal and Haley have Americanized their first names—Jindal was born Piyush and Haley, Nimrata—and both of their home states contain small Indian-American communities that pale in size, wealth and importance to those in California, New York, New Jersey and Texas.

Unsuccessful Democratic candidate Ro Khanna in California’s 17^th district in the heart of Silicon Valley also claims that the GOP’s outdated views on science could push Indian-Americans in tech, engineering and medicine towards Democrats for years to come. “Jindal…doesn’t believe in evolution,” Khanna told me. “The Indian-American community believes in science.” . . . . Khanna believes that Republicans who do not recognize the threat of climate change, deny evolution, or dither on so-called “Net Neutrality” could face significant barriers in courting Indian-Americans.

From my experience, this is a community that doesn't suffer fools or bigots.  The GOP has much to learn if it wishes to truly court this growing voting block.