For some reason, Newt Gingrich is still running for President, and according to Politico, he has a new plan to win the Republican nomination for the 2012 Presidential Election: court the Asian American vote! (See http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61647.html) Keep in mind, according to the August 24th Gallop Poll, Newt Gingrich is currently polling at 4% (Poll), and his campaign and affiliated PAC are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in debt. But he's not giving up,  Well, as much as I support Asian American and Pacific Islander communities' increasing engagement with the political process, I support progressive politics, not Gingrich's brand of right-wing rhetoric. So...can he just go away please?

This post is a little late, but the gist of it is that Gingrich reached out to Michelle Park Steele and other prominent California Asian American Republicans in a last-ditch effort to save his candidacy. It's interesting how Gingrich is trying to reach out to AAPI voters only as his campaign is dwindling down to an expensive, lackluster finish. That these millionaire, corporate-financed GOP candidates have so little reach into our existing community leadership infrastructure just highlights how the Republican Party has no interest in honest engagement with AAPI interests, progressive or otherwise.

When the GOP does attempt to "reach out" to AAPI communities, they cater to the assimilated, business-oriented, conservative elite, rather than to existing civic groups and organizations! It's funny, because I dislike admitting this as a progressive, but a re-oriented GOP can probably make decent headway into certain Asian voters. Anti-Communism plays well among certain conservative Korean, Southeast Asian, and Taiwanese immigrants because of homeland politics. Pro-military stances will pay off in Filipino and Pacific Islander communities. Religious and sexual/gender conservatism in most first generation and religious communities. "Pro-business" rhetoric for highly-educated immigrant professionals. Racial triangulation in general.

Yet in the 2008 Presidential Elections, 68% of AAPI voters voted for President Obama (according to AALDEF, APALC, and other organizations), representing an increase in the already-strong AAPI turnout for the Democratic party. While I won't claim to predict how political and economic trends are going to affect these numbers in 2012 (and I have a suspicion that there will be effects on voting patterns and more crucially, voter registration and turnout), the GOP's patterns of race-baiting, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, and voter suppression won't endear them to APA voters, especially as our progressive organizers gear up for the 2012 elections.

For whatever reasons, GOP leaders aren't putting two and two together and realizing that this isn't because we're "un-American" or even because they're just not outreaching enough. This disconnect is because by and large, GOP politics and policies are wrong for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, they aren't receptive to our grass-roots movements or community leaders. Their racial politics with regards to our communities vascillate between paternalistic condescension and "model-minority" false platitudes at best, or xenophobic and racist naivette at worst. So please, Newt, go away!

Photo Courtesy of Associated Press and Politico

About me: Hey, I'm Dayne, and I'm a recent graduate of Pomona College. In college, I was active in AAPI student organizing as well as community work. I'm currently based out of Washington, D.C., and I'll be posting two to three times a week with the latest in progressive and AAPI political news and policy analysis, as well as spotlight features on young community leaders. Leave comments and share with friends! Follow me on twitter @ dayne4progress