Q: How dare 80-20 claim credit for building a 3 to 1 bloc vote?
There are 3 million Asian Am. voters, you don't have an email list to reach 75% of 3 million voters, do you?
A: Blacks have voted about 9 to 1 for the Democratic presidential nominee for decades. Jewish Ams deliver a 8 to 2 bloc vote. Neither the black nor the Jewish community has large email lists. That is not how a bloc vote is created.
Q: So how did 80-20 create a bloc vote?
A: Have you ever attended large meetings with tens or hundreds of people? At these meetings, if 20% or more of the people speak enthusiastically for a given idea and provide good reasons while the opposition is weak, 80% of the people will end up voting for that idea. So 80-20's email list is used to create that critical mass of enthusiastic supporters and arm them with good reasons in voting for a given candidate. After that, their daily interaction with other Asia Am voters, aided by commercial ads paid for by 80-20, will naturally produce the bloc vote. Hence, most of the Asian Ams. who vote for the candidate endorsed by 80-20 may not even have heard of 80-20. That is how a bloc vote is built.
Q: Why are some Asian Am. against a bloc vote?
A: Most new immigrants don't realize that in America, every racial and/or interest group advocates a bloc vote. They include the Democratic Party, Republican Party, blacks, Jewish Ams, Hispanics, Cuban Ams, women's organizations, gays, labor unions, corporations…, etc. These groups have practiced bloc vote all along. Persuasion for a bloc vote is not necessary for them. In contrast, 80-20 needs to help new Asian immigrants climb a steep learning curve about American politics. Hence 80-20 must explicitly & repeatedly advocate and discuss the need for a bloc vote.
What if we don't? Our children will continue to face a higher admission standard to elite, schools. Our adults will continue to face a higher "admission" standard to good jobs, e.g. managerial positions and Federal judgeships.
Q: Are things improving owing to 80-20's effort?
A: Definitely. Here are facts that you've personally witnessed in recent months:
11/29/07, 80-20 began to pressure Sen. Clinton with a "Call to Action."
12/11, Sen. Clinton replied with all yeses, while suggesting rightful modifications.
12/12, Sen. Edwards signed with all yeses.
12/31, Governor Richardson signed with all yeses.
12/28, 80-20 began to get Sen. Obama on board with a "Call To Action -- Defeat Obama."
1/18/08, 80-20 held a press conference in SF endorsing Sen. Clinton for the Calif. Democratic primary.
1/31, Sen. Obama replied with all yeses, while suggesting modifications to strengthen his commitment to the Asian Am. community.
Q: What about media attention to Asian Americans?
A: Definitely increasing. "Goggle or Yahoo" to see how many articles have been written in the mainstream media about the Asian Am. bloc vote since Super Tuesday. They lack understanding of the Asian Am. community owing to the long "benign neglect" by both media and political parties. Hence, the initial coverage may even be bad. An example is the CNN's Anderson Cooper report. But under 80-20's leadership we've reacted civilly but strongly. See our petition site:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tHYZlyz32wF0OLEZacHNWA_3d_3d
Things will improve. A new article in Time Magazine is coming. Another by a news group called the New America Media is coming Support 80-20 EF financially please.
http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org .
Post your comments at
http://www.80-20educationalfoundation.org/posterboard.html .
Respectfully yours,
S. B. Woo
President, 80-20 Educational Foundation.
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PS: For those who forgot why a bloc vote is so powerful, here is the illustration for the 5th time. :-)
Two candidates run against each other in a political division, which for simplicity is assumed to have two constituent groups only. One group has 1 million votes (8%) and the other has 11 million votes (92%). Candidate A, a novice, courts the larger group, not being aware that the smaller constituent group has the internal political cohesion to deliver a bloc vote in the ratio of 8 to 2 while the larger group does not. When the ballots are open, candidate A wins the larger community by the ratio of 52/48. The margin of difference is 4%. Since the larger group has 11 millions votes, 4% of 11 million votes provides a winning margin of 440,000 votes to candidate A. His opponent, candidate B, is a seasoned politician. She courts the
smaller group and wins that community by a ratio of 80 to 20. The difference between 80% and 20% is 60%. 60% of 1 million votes is 600,000 votes. As a result, candidate B wins the election by (600,000 – 440,000) or 160,000 votes.
8% of the vote is what Asian Ams have in Calif, which has by far the largest impact in a presidential election. 80-20 has designed the above strategy to increase our GROUP political clout since 10 years ago!
