Friday, November 30, 2012

John Yoo: "Why Aren't Asians Republicans?"

He says he's going to write a book. GOOD. 

I would add that in terms of "Republicans" he should make a distinction between establishment big-spending GOP and the actual principles of minimal government and maximal freedom - i.e., the more libertarian side of things where I (and a lot of my friends) live.  We define the American Dream as success from hard work, good education, and self reliance, not handouts and dependency, for goodness sake.

I hate identity politics, their reductive categorization of individuals according to arbitrary traits, and the tribalistic, divisive "us versus them" mentality it tends to breed, but I've also seen a lot of people who aren't Asian Americans trying to "analyze" Asian Americans in the wake of the election.  Let an actual Asian American have a go, shall we? Go, John, go!

2 comments:

Eric said...

Thanks for the link - I left a comment encouraging Professor Yoo with a longer version of what I said to you.

We don't have to like it, but the game is what it is. The GOP and Dems both play it. Other identity and special-interest groups play it.

We're not above it. The Stuy test controversy is a wake-up call, where purportedly Asian advocacy groups and at least 1 prominent local Asian politician endorsed an anti-Asian position on a heartfelt hot-button issue for Asian Americans. Under what kind of political conditions does that happen? And what can we do to fix it? The game is what it is.

Eric said...

Also, good on you not hyphenating 'Asian American'. Asian is an adjective for American, not a conjoined dual identity.