How did the Fil-Ams vote?

PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz

Once again, the Filipino-American vote did not show on the radar screen during the recent presidential election.  Yes, unlike in past presidential elections, the Fil-Am vote was virtually invisible this year.  There were no organized national efforts from the Fil-Am Democrats and Republicans.   And if there were, I didn’t see them.  

In a survey conducted by the National Asian American Survey (NAAS) last summer, Filipino-Americans comprised the largest bloc of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) racial group who would vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with 38% to 32% for President Barack Obama.  This is a tectonic shift from the 2008 elections when Fil-Ams voted 50% for Obama to 46% for McCain. 

What is interesting to know is that the survey showed that among Fil-Ams, 27% identify themselves as Republicans, while 24% identify themselves as Democrats and 45% identified themselves as independent or non-partisan.       

 ***

On Election Day, the exit polls taken were astounding!  Among African-Americans, they voted 93% for Obama vs. 6% for Romney.  Among Latinos, they voted 71% for Obama vs. 27% for Romney.  Among Asian Americans (AAPI), they voted 73% for Obama vs. 26% for Romney.  

 The question is:  Why did Fil-Ams shift to Romney in 2012?  Or, did they?  But before we address this question, it might help to ask if a large number of Fil-Ams register or change their registration to Republican?  If so, that would be a massive registration effort targeting the Fil-Ams.  I didn't see that happen, though.  If that had happened, it would have been done by an organized effort supported – and paid for -- by the Republican Party.  But that was not the case.  The Republican Party concentrated its registration drive in white or suburban communities in the battleground states.  Would they set up registration tables in areas where there are large concentration of minorities… and risk registering Democrats?

 The only plausible explanation that I could come up with is that the number of Fil-Ams who voted in 2012 increased substantially.  But these are not newly registered voters but the independent or non-partisan voters.  While it can be surmised that those who identified themselves as Republicans (27%) would vote for Romney and those who identified themselves as Democrats (24%) would vote for Obama, it would be reasonable to presume that a majority of the independents and non-partisan would vote for Romney to make up to the 38% total vote for Romney and a smaller number would vote for Obama to make up to the 32% total vote for Obama. 

Now, back to the question: Why did Fil-Ams shift to Romney in 2012?  Also, what motivated them to vote for Romney?

Since they were not registered Republican or Democrat, these independent or non-partisan voters didn’t appear on the political radar screen and as such the candidates weren’t able to reach them with their mailers and campaign materials. Therefore, they were less informed on the issues in the campaign.  And any bits of information they got would have to come from the grapevine… from relatives, friends, and the likes.

***

 In this age of information, it’s so easy to spread or propagate lies and hoaxes in the Internet.  The amount of misinformation that was created in the Internet during the presidential campaign was mind-boggling.  And they were there for one reason: to destroy Obama’s credibility. 

 In my article, “Romney’s ‘Romnesia’ ” (October 25, 2012), I wrote: “With no clear definition of what he stood for and no specifics on how he is going to improve the economy, Romney has to resort to playing games to mislead the voters.  Indeed, by feigning ‘Romnesia’ and flooding the airwaves and networks with untruthful infomercials and attack ads against Obama, he just might be able to hoodwink the voters into buying the snake oil he’s peddling.

“And there is the underground campaign that’s hitting the Internet and bombarding millions of emails with lies and hoaxes about Obama.  This reminds me of Adolf Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, whose mantra was: ‘If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people eventually come to believe it.’ ”

 It did not then come as a surprise that Fil-Ams who were exposed to these anti-Obama “hit pieces” were led to believe that he was what the character assassins depicted him to be: socialist, communist, foreigner, anti-American, anti-religion, atheist, liar, etc.  The truth is: none… I repeat… none of these were true.  I fact checked them and they were either a lie or a hoax.  But sad to say, it played into the psyche of a lot of people who believed every word hook, line, and sinker.

 As the election got closer, the intensity increased.  The detractors changed their tactic to mongering fear among voters.  Some of the detractors even invoked God and recited passages in the Bible.  They claimed that Obama was the anti-Christ!  Then, came the finale.  The documentary “2016” was posted in the Internet.  It was the “grand demolition job,” which was intended to sow fear that if Obama were re-elected, he would change America to a socialist state by 2016. 

***

Election Day came and Obama was re-elected.  Obama won the majority of women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, married women, single women, and single men.  

Among Asian Americans, the exit polls showed that Democrats had a 34% to 18% advantage.  However, a majority (51%) were “Independent or do not identify with the U.S. party system,” which is higher that the national average of 40%.  It was also reported in the news that 77 million Americans did not vote on Election Day.

 This brings the question: How did the Fil-Ams vote then?  Sadly, there were no exit polls specifically for Fil-Am voters.  They were lumped with Asian Americans that gave Obama the second highest percentage (73%) of votes next to the African-Americans.  

 We’ll probably never find out how the Fil-Ams voted.  But based on pre-election NAAS surveys, there was only a 3% difference between Fil-Am Republicans (27%) and Democrats (24%).  However, if the large number of independents and non-partisan voters (45%) voted on Election Day, I would venture to say that they would probably have voted for Romney as a result of the misinformation campaign against Obama.  But I have a visceral feeling that in this historic election, a large number of Fil-Ams stayed home… just like in previous elections.   In my opinion, fear of a candidate would not compel a person to go out to vote for the other candidate.  It just doesn’t work that way.

 Some 30 years ago, the late political leader MelecioJacaban once told me, “Until we have Filipino-Americans elected to Congress, we have not yet arrived in Washington, DC.”  Today, we may have one or two members of Congress who are of Filipino descent, but with close to four million Filipino-Americans, we are underrepresented on Capitol Hill.

 But there is good news in California, where half of the nation’s Fil-Am population resides.  Finally, the first Fil-Am, Rob Bonta, was elected to the California State Assembly. 

 Finally, a Fil-Am broke the glass ceiling at the Capitol in Sacramento.  (PerryDiaz@gmail.com)