I hadn’t ever really given any thought to the political orientation of Indian-Americans–I’d sort of assumed that the cultural conservatism, prosperity and entrepreneurial tendencies would have made them more amenable to Republicans, though probably not by much because pretty much no ethnic community wants to join up with the angry white guy party. So I was somewhat surprised to learn that Indian-Americans are actually among the most loyally Democratic ethnic groups out there, second only to blacks. Which is interesting to me, though perhaps not surprising. White nationalism and religious exclusionism have worked wonders in driving minorities of all stripes away from the GOP, which used to do well with a number of different minority groups. In my home state of California, Republicans used to have big advantages with any number of ethnic minorities that kept them competitive in the state. Vietnamese-Americans tend to be conservative, and there are many here. The state has a lot of Russian immigrants, who also tend toward the GOP. Japanese-Americans carried a residual bitterness against Democrats for decades due to internment, and that community formed the base that elevated Sam Hayakawa to the Senate in the late ’80s. Hayakawa wasn’t the greatest Senator ever–just one single term with no real accomplishments–but he was the product of his community, and rose to power partly based on their support. For the fifty years after WWII, the state only elected two Democratic governors, each of whom won in a catastrophically bad Republican year. Each of whom had the same name. The times of a broad-based GOP are long gone, and there’s not a single minority community I can think of that still trends Republican aside from Cuban-Americans, and that advantage isn’t nearly what it was, and looks to keep declining. Probably Russian-Americans too, though I haven’t seen any data recently on that.

The article, interestingly, notes that the two highest-profile Indian-American pols, Govs. Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, are not exactly beloved figures in the Indian community here, for ideological and religious reasons (both converted to Christianity). Admittedly, they both have other obstacles to overcome–Jindal has some, er, quirky speaking habits, and Haley is to the right of Pinochet (sans kidnapping squads). But having a base like that can be a real boost in presidential nominating contests, and not having one can be crippling. Just ask Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama himself, both of whom benefited from having a large group with ties to them that went deeper than policy. Dubya had a solid following of Christian conservatives, and Mike Dukakis had deep support in the Greek community. It’s impossible to imagine these guys having won their nominations without having those ties. Meanwhile, tons of promising candidates have floundered because they lacked a base. It is indispensable in presidential politics, I do believe. Without it, you wind up like George H.W. Bush, or Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford–when their party turned on them, they had nobody to fall back on, because they got where they were thanks to the inside game. It does seem that an Indian-American candidate who could tap into wealthy Indian donors would be in a pretty good position in presidential politics, but both Haley and Jindal self-consciously distanced themselves from their communities to enter Republican politics. I suspect that decision will wind up having severe negative implications if either one tries to move up the ladder any further.