It's an interesting idea. I'd say it applies to older Asians, but not to the current generation of Asian-American youth. While it is absolutely true that Asians who first came to this country during the Gold Rush and subsequent years, things began to change after WWII. And after Vietnam, Asians were being fully integrated into American society. By now, most Asian-Americans have no real memory of those past difficulties.

I'd say that Asians prefer paternal big government for two reasons, both related. The first, as discussed, is their very strong sense of community. The second is the type of government that this sort of respect for community breeds. Historically, Asian governments were always predicated on paternal government and collective rights; the Anglo-Saxon concept of individual rights and scepticism of power that manifested itself within the Magna Carta is genuinely weird to societies based on the teachings of filial piety popularised by Confucius. Asians have historically known and lived with far less constrained forms of government than their Western counterparts and, at least in my experience, tend to have few issues with governments that claim to be acting out of a sense of "fairness" or "responsibility".

I remember having this argument with my parents a few years ago. My stance on government is that it exists purely to protect people from each other, and has no other place whatsoever in their lives. My parents, however, argue that protecting people also means taking care of their basic needs. The difference arises from a fundamental disagreement over the meaning of the term, "security". Libertarians like me believe that this means that one's natural rights are upheld, and nothing else. Liberals, and most Asian Americans fall into this category, believe that it has to do with physical needs and wants as well.

That's interesting and certainly plausible. I have another possible explanation I would like to run by you.

The GOP often talks about restoring "conservative" values and talks a lot about "tradition". The problem with this is that the history of our country includes considerable racism towards non-whites. The racism in the Western states towards East Asian people through out the 1800's and early 1900's, up to the end of WW2, was just as bad as the Jim Crow period in the South was towards blacks. Unfortunately, we have a very sordid history of mal-treatment towards non-white people.

Is it possible that many Asian immigrants view talk of American "tradition" through the prism of past racist injustices towards non-whites? And are, therefor, turned off by such talk and the party, GOP, that espouses it? It is certainly understandable if this is the case.

You might want to ask your father and uncle about this.

My uncle, actually. My father is a bit of a liberal himself (then again, most people are liberals compared to me), but he's every bit as sceptical of government power as I am; he just thinks that government has certain social obligations to its people. I, however, believe that government has precisely one role: to uphold the natural rights of the people.

I think it comes from the Asian sense of community, which is and has always been very strong. Asians have a sense of obligation to their communities- they know that when push comes to shove, the only people they can depend on are from their extended families. That leads them to adopt a very socialistic worldview, in which taking from some to give to others is acceptable as long as it promotes social harmony. Of course, the problem is that it does nothing of the sort- eventually it leads to precisely the kind of social disintegration that Asians fear.

My wife is Japanese. Yet, she very strongly identifies with free-market economic policies, while describing government simply as a form of monopoly with all of the problems attendant to it.

Perhaps you can ask your father why he supports politicians (and political party) that espouses beliefs and actions that are diametrically opposite to his personal life experiences.

His responses will be enlightening to me.