INDIA-WEST, OCT. 31, 2008 Why We Should Vote For Barack Obama By RAJEN ANAND and JOYDEB ROY Special to India-West After eight years of Republican rule, Americans are yearning for change. A wrongly justified pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, which has claimed the lives of over 4,000 young Americans and thousands of innocent Iraqi people; a crumbling economy with a frightfully high number of foreclosures, plunging stocks, rising prices of gas and groceries, increasing cost of healthcare and the highest budget deficit in history have all taken a big toll on Americans. On Nov. 4, 2008, we will have the opportunity to help bring that change in the country. By casting our ballot for the right candidate, we can become part of the change. We strongly urge our fellow Indian Americans to vote for the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, for the reasons described here. Most of us are first-generation immigrants who landed on these shores for higher education and economic prosperity. We can all identify with the life of Obama, whose father also came from Kenya to this country for higher studies. Just as many of us were subjected to many hardships, his father too struggled as a student. Our kids born here, just as Obama was, can be inspired by his life story. This election will be an historic moment when we will elect for the first time a man of color as president of the United States and we can be part of that history. Being an offspring of a biracial couple, Obama has had the best of two cultures. He is intelligent, charismatic, and a visionary full of ideas. He will make an impressive and effective president. We should vote for Obama because he will bring much needed change in this country and will place it on the path to peace and prosperity. He was against the war in Iraq from the very beginning. Obama has said he would immediately start the withdrawal of troops from Iraq in a responsible fashion, so as not to put the American troops at risk. Indian Americans are among the highest educated ethnic groups in the country. Our kids’ academic achievements are significant. Obama will bring great educational reform. He is committed to strengthening our public schools to
maximize our country’s greatest natural resource — the American people. He would provide in-state-college tuition to students who grew up in the U.S., irrespective of their immigration status. Most of us are first-generation immigrants and are greatly concerned with immigration policies. We believe America is a country of immigrants who have enriched its social, economic and cultural heritage. We want the immigration policies of the U.S. to be fair, legal and welcoming. Obama has been a leading voice to comprehensively reform our immigration system by providing a path to citizenship for undocumented residents, securing our borders and fixing the broken immigration bureaucracy, keeping the family reunification provisions, and improving the H-1B visa program. We are also interested in the healthcare system of the country. Obama is committed to signing legislation by the end of his first term in office to ensure that all Americans have affordable healthcare coverage. Obama’s plan will save a typical American family up to $2,500 every year. Our people have been subjected to racial profiling and have faced racial discrimination. Obama has been fighting to end discrimination. He will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice. With gas prices going through the roof, we are deeply concerned about the energy situation. Obama has been a leader in the Senate in pushing for a comprehensive national energy policy and has introduced a number of bills to get us closer to the goal of energy independence. He will invest in many alternative forms of energy that will be environmentally friendly. We will be voting for Obama because we believe he is the right candidate for president at this time. He is right in his plan to end the war in Iraq by safely bringing troops home. He is right for the Indian American community and fully supports closer cooperation between the United States and India. He recently voted for the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement and he is right on immigration policies. Above all, we are voting for Obama because he is a breath of fresh air in this poisonous political environment, and will bring much needed change to the country. Please join us on Nov. 4 to vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. (Rajen Anand is the former executive director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and currently
chair of the National Federation of Indian American Associations; Joydeb Roy is the executive director of NFIA.) McCain-Palin Ticket Best For Indian Americans By DIPKA BHAMBHANI Special to India-West Indian Americans are the fastest growing group of immigrants in the country. In large part, Indians populate some of the most important "swing" states, places like Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, which could decide the presidential election. I have heard Indian Americans in my various professional and social networks go on and on about having a black president for the first time, how it would break barriers and impose much needed change. But the change could be to the detriment of many Indian Americans and their communities. The kind of change Barack Obama promises would most certainly benefit the fiscally irresponsible, and possibly the culturally liberal. That is not the kind of change that would benefit Indian Americans, most of whom are fiscally organized and relatively conservative. Many of those Indian friends, colleagues, and associates seem to think that anything is better than the Bush administration and Republicans. But that's not true. Indians live in a culture rooted in reflection and clear balance. Acting under the Obama influence, as many have for the sake of the trend, or just because he is the Democratic nominee, could be a decision with horrible consequences for Indian Americans or anyone with an entrepreneurial or spirit of self-sufficiency. President Bush's approval rating is well below 50 percent. There are the occasional Indian American voters who justify voting for Obama, despite any real affection for his policies, simply because they do not want another Bush. This, of course, is a microcosm of the situation that existed before World War II when the Germans embraced Adolf Hitler as their social and economic savior. Several scholars have made the comparison between the mania preWWII and the Obama worshipping.
Indians should be careful not to fall into the "trendy candidate trap." Obama is eloquent, has some good ideas, but wants to emulate Europe. We are not Europe. The U.S. gross domestic product far exceeds any European country. The American entrepreneurial spirit, hospitality, innovation and work ethic are unmatched by any country. John McCain is the only candidate that has praised the American spirit and has not said he wants to fashion the policies of the United States on those of socialist countries. Obama has. McCain's plan to freeze spending and fix the economy seems a prudent path that would benefit Indian Americans in the short and long term. It's a plan that would benefit all Americans, especially those planning to start a business or practice medicine, for example. Obama's socialized society, socialized healthcare runs counter to what would benefit the Indian community. Socialized medicine will create long lines in hospitals and pharmacies. If you think the ER line is long now, ask a Canadian what it's like when healthcare is administered as a government program. Indians need to remember where they fit into this country demographically and that while a vote for Obama may be symbolic for nonwhites, it's a vote against their own procession, against their own fiscal and social security. The growth rate of Indian Americans is 10 percent, making it the fastest growing ethnic group in the country. The median income of Indian Americans is $70,000 per household, nearly double that of the national median income. Most Indians living in this country work in professional or management positions. That means they would be classified as "rich" under the Obama structure. That means they will be taxed the heaviest. Many Indians own businesses. Under Obama's plan, Indian American business owners would be taxed up to 30 percent and would be required to provide health insurance for their employees. Many Indian American Obama supporters have said they feel they are embraced by Democrats and alienated from the Republican party, so they don't feel like voting for McCain. Many Indian Americans were Hillary Clinton supporters that remember the heyday of the original Clinton
administration when hundreds of Indians earned their millions building businesses in the dot-com boom. In fact, 15 percent of the Silicon Valley firms were founded by Indian Americans and the country began seeing the growth of Indian millionaires. Currently, there are more then 200,000 millionaires in the community, millionaires that Obama wants to overtax so he can begin his wealth distribution plan. For fiscal reasons, for social reasons and for democratic reasons, Indian Americans should vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin on Nov. 4. Of the entire 300 million Americans, 2.5 million are Indian Americans, many of whom are prevalent in swing states where they can make the difference. (The author is an editor in Washington, D.C.)