do you guys follow politics? i am not an avid follower but i get excited when an asian-american has a chance to represent his party and his ethnicity by running for office.

my co-host, danny, did a blog about mark keam today of whom i had no idea about but hes running for office in the great state of Virginia. the blog is a little more humorous but im wondering if you guys support your local asian-american delegates?

are there others in your home states/cities that are attempting a very challenging feat of an asian-american in US politics?

-J

check out the blog at http://janddshow.com/?p=414

Well, i would suggest everyone to vote for the party and platform, not for the race.

Well in the case of Boston, we had a mayoral candidate here who is Korean-American, and he was the only Asian politician I've ever considered voting for. The reason was not because he is Korean, but because he had a platform that was very focused on education and transparency, which I find very important in a mayoral candidate. He also campaigned heavily on the internet-- in many ways, his campaign reminded me a little bit of Obama's campaign.

Otherwise, I don't want to play identity politics, and yes, I follow politics pretty closely. I was actually set on voting for our incumbent, who is Italian-American if I remembered correctly, before being persuaded by Sam Yoon.

Tuff, as an independent myself, I'd say vote more towards platforms.

Rofl. How asinine.

I'm not laughing at you, but what you said. It's very natural to try to frame your mindset into stating ideology is something to focus on rather than someone's identity. However, sort of contrary to what has occurred in U.S. racial politics. There is a justification on basing your political preference to someone's race if you share the same background.

I'm not saying that you ought to discriminate based on race, but you can endorse someone for it.

One's racial experience tends to overlap someone elses because of the same socialization experience. That's a great generalization, but I'm not going to do too much on that. Besides, a colored person is a different person who brings anything new to the fold. Having someone new is sometimes a sufficient reason for a voter. And the great thing about the U.S. is that anyone can vote for anyone.

My point is that it's great to believe in something like that, but it shouldn't be discouraged if they base it on identity politics.

Fair enough. If there's one thing consistent with all politicians, it's that they all lie to get into office anyways. But just saying, ideologically speaking, vote for the platform or at least mostly for it. Don't base your vote too much on race because what's good for the social whole is more often than not, also good for the minorities in the community. You don't necessarily need a politician in office to show favoritism towards your own race.

I commend the few Asians who venture into the political areana, but Asian on the whole need to start retraining their children, their mind, social issues about other races, their ignorant and annoying beliefs make them the underdog in any and all political arena, they just do not socialize with other races, for those who seek office I support and find out about their platform.

This is the great hypocrisy and discrimination known as the political system in American. It's not about freedom and equality that America is known for but to keep people in their social class. What you are suggesting is that Asians should reform, throwing away their beliefs and assimilate entirely into American culture because their culture and religion are unimportant and stupid. What about accepting people for who they are and celebrating what makes us different.

But we all know that the political system is inherently discriminatory because it's a numbers game. Stupid people will vote for familiarity, whether it be race or religion because they are too lazy and ignorant to do the work and research to choose a capable candidate. It saddens me that Asians will always be the underdogs regardless of how capable they can do the job because they don't eat steak and potatoes and believe in Christianity like the majority of America.

No, I did not say for them to reform and throw away their beliefs, most asians look down on other races without knowing them, the choose not to try and understand and get along with other races vice/ versa
why would I want them to assimilate, my family did not assimilate into the American culture thou we are all American but of British descent we still have our beliefs, but we are a well rounded family that incorporate all ethnicity into our circle of friends, no one is better than the other. Why are they the underdogs? They choose to be separate from everyone and deemed all other unworthy.

Asians are seldom found in politics because politics is largely a waste of time and, more importantly, unprofitable... unless you have an established power base of support and history.

Established political institutions and power families in America are not Asian, and have little connection to Asians. The Asian demographic/voting block is also fragmented and relatively inactive politically.

I would never waste time considering politics as an avenue to make money when the barriers to entry are so much higher for us than in practically any other sector. People aren't in politics for "change", or any vague ideological notions like that - those are demagogic tools to obtain/retain power. Politicians are in office to monetize their power base. As a profession, it doesn't make sense for us to enter it.

Temoin has a point. Compare the US to China. In China you can't do business without mixing with the government. no political ties = no chance of big business. Asians, I think anyway, would prefer to influence the players behind the scenes. In that situation they can bring to bear other resources covertly without being in the public spotlight. There as a case of that back home in Aus where the defence minister got busted having some ties with a Chinese businesswoman who turned out to have serious connections with the PLA in China.

One fascinating program I watched showed an American investor, who invested superannuation funds into businesses, that wanted to invest in businesses in China. He approached the son of the owner of a big bank in HK who he had dealings with previously and asked him to establish contacts in China for him. That he did and the American talked to bankers who took possession of dead companies and wanted to buy one but also wanted to staff it with American management and wanted it to all intents and purposes to be an American company in China. The bankers all looked at him like he'd grown a third head but they gave him polite and vague replies. The HK banker tried to help by introducing him to local provincial government officials who might help.

Ultimately the american investor ended up cooling his heels back home and no one wanted his money. The HK banker ended up being asked to take over a provincial government role.

Moral of the story, doing business in another country, you do it by their rules, not yours. Hence why few asians want to get into politics in the US.

I've actually considered it. However, I neither have money or charisma, the two most important factors in politics. A politician has to be charismatic, sociable and above all appeal to the voters.

why not. its cool if they win, cus it means a lot of non asian americans voted for them. unless its like... la or nyc or maybe even sf.

gary locke was governor of Washington state. But he had to resign because him and his family kept on getting death threats from the eastern parts of Washington state. Oh wells.

definitely would be awesome.

FYI - we actually edited our blog per the request of Mark Keam, candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. If you read our blog now, you will not find our comment but basically it mentioned in a humorous mode that Mark must have changed his last name to 'Keam' from the standard/typical spelling 'Kim' in order to garner more non-asian votes. We jested that this was genius!

Mark found our article and did not ask us remove the post but that he found it funny and truth be told that he actually did not change his name for political reasons but that 'Keam' is in fact the proper phoenetic spelling of the name.

As some have noted on this thread, we DO need to support people running for office especially if they share commonalities, whether political or ethnic similarities. Don't want to go down this road but african americans who voted for Obama were not necessarily informed voters but wanted to see someone that could relate to them. some of the jews followed jesus because he was a jew and they thought he would be a reigning king over the empire of rome... its ok to follow your own kind. embrace it. support it.

more of my 2 cents.