Is that so bad?
Clinton = fighter, Obama = wimp.
That was the conclusion of one disgusted Obama supporter in a post-Pennsylvania primary e-mail to me with the subject line, “Obama has to fight back, or he doesn’t deserve it.”
While Hillary Clinton remains the leading candidate among APAs (by virtue of her dominance in the most populous APA states), Obama does have his supporters amongst us. But there is dissension in the ranks of Obama’s grassroots Asian American backers.
They appear to be growing tired of their elitist candidate who seems to be missing his opportunity to go mano a mano, preferring to give us an AP Civics lesson. When it’s time for a little escrima (stick fighting), a soft Obama can’t find it in him to beat back and put away a hard Madame Hillary for good.
Of course, don’t think Obama is so high-minded that he doesn’t engage in some questionable tactics himself, like the use of negative recorded messages or so-called “slime calls” out of public view. That way he can have it both ways, high and low. In any case, it didn’t work in Pennsylvania.
In the meantime, many are rediscovering the fighting “no quit” spirit of Hillary Clinton.
The Pennsylvania victory gives her supporters, who might have had their doubts, the right to now claim that Clinton is the better choice for Democrats. In a dogfight, Hillary can beat the boys, which makes her a supremely more electable candidate. For those voters who go straight to the bottom line, that may be all that matters. The girl dog can win.
Politics isn’t high tea for policy wonks, after all, not at the campaign level. After dumping some of her strategists, Hillary the underdog is gaining on Barack the overdog, using techniques that really make people vote: fear and emotion.
Our Role in PA and ‘Yellow Peril’
We still don’t show up in the general exit polls in Pennsylvania. That’s because, racially, Pennsylvania is “old school” all the way. The voting demographics in this week’s primary were 80 percent white and 14 percent black. Latinos were just four percent, and APAs are like glow bugs in the night.
It could be the 1940s again. We’re practically invisible. But we did make a difference this week.
Just as in the 1940s, some people are still scared of anything Asian. With her use of headlines that screamed “U.S.-Japan at War” and “Pearl Harbor, Manila, Bombed in Air Raid,” Hillary exposed how far America has come since the “yellow peril.”
Not very far.
Hillary wouldn’t dare run that ad in California. Sure, it was just a blip in a 30 second ad intended to show all the heat that has come up historically for presidents. And then it closed with Truman saying, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” The implication? Hillary can; Obama cannot.
But seeing the war headlines in that context was a powerful reminder of just how deep anti-Asian sentiment still remains among people ages 55 and older. Even if the headline was on for a subliminal flash, it was on long enough to evoke a real feeling that’s still inside many Americans.
The ad is like the classic piece used by Lyndon Johnson to cast Republican Barry Goldwater as a trigger-happy warmonger. That ad interspersed a countdown with a girl pulling petals off a daisy and a detonating mushroom cloud. It doesn’t take much to communicate fear and emotion with voters.
This week’s Clinton ads used a similar technique to strike a chord of doubt inside voters about Obama. Exit polls showed that half the voters said the campaign ads were important in their decision. That may also explain a last minute surge to Clinton with 17 percent of voters saying they made their choice within four days of the election. Of those latecomers, Clinton had 60 percent of them. Obama had just 40 percent.
The tactic also worked with older voters. Clinton won over the majority of voters 45 and up, which was 73 percent of the Pennsylvania electorate.
All Clinton did was show a headline for a second. But history doesn’t make people vote, emotion does. And the emotion behind those WWII headlines is not good for us. It’s probably fair to say that the residual of that attack has been used to justify what was the largest amount of anti-Asian and anti-Asian American sentiment and discrimination in U.S. history.
That shouldn’t make you run away from Hillary. If you like her, you’re proud she’s fighting hard and not quitting for the superdelegates. If you hate her, this won’t endear her to you.
But by her invoking Pearl Harbor, we should all think what that still means to us as present day Asian Americans. If you are wondering if our country’s new diversity as well as the passing of time has somehow eradicated the hate of the past, this is pause to take note: The strong emotion is still deep within many of our fellow Americans.