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For Nikki Haley, immigrant ties are a dual-edged sword

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For Nikki Haley, immigrant ties are a dual-edged sword Empty For Nikki Haley, immigrant ties are a dual-edged sword

Post by confuzzled dude Mon Jan 18, 2016 12:26 pm

It’s a story that really isn’t that different from the story of millions of Americans.

And yet. When South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley declared herself the “proud daughter of Indian immigrants” in the Republican response to the State of the Union address last week, her brief personal narrative felt like a departure from the folksy, Kohl’s-shopping, burger-flipping yarns that so many politicians tell about themselves in an election cycle.

Candidates have been laying out politically calculated versions of their origin stories from the stump for as long as we’ve had a popular vote. Haley — a rising GOP star whose name is being bandied about as a possible vice presidential pick — just became the latest ambitious politician to play up not her American rootsiness but her immigrant roots.

On the campaign trail, it seems, being an immigrant’s kid suddenly has cachet.
With last Tuesday’s speech, Haley may not have been shoring up the Indian American vote either, but the larger bloc of immigrants and their children, who may make for a powerful force at the polls. According to data compiled by the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, between 1996 and 2012, the number of immigrants and their American-born children who registered to vote rose by more than 10 million.

Haley’s first-generation upbringing is already resonating in the media and in her party. Since Tuesday, she has been described as the “youthful daughter of Indian immigrants,” and by one slightly confused GOP senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, as simply, “an immigrant.”

“On one level, and I think she meant it sincerely, she’s proud to be a daughter of Indian immigrants,” says Deepa Iyer, a senior fellow with the Center for Social Inclusion and the author of “We Too Sing America,” a book that looks at recent immigration. “She’s said that before, many times, and I think she sincerely wants to claim it. And it is a way to connect to groups of different Americans, given all the demographic shifts we’re seeing in the country.”

But, Iyer says, it’s also a way to show the Republican Party as anything but “xenophobic and divisive.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/for-haley-and-other-pols-theres-cachet-in-being-children-of-immigrants/2016/01/17/5a70c63a-bb05-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

Hmm... she no longer considers herself a white!

confuzzled dude

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For Nikki Haley, immigrant ties are a dual-edged sword Empty Re: For Nikki Haley, immigrant ties are a dual-edged sword

Post by Marathadi-Saamiyaar Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:37 pm

If Hillary becomes the Democratic nominee - in all likelihood she will be - then the Republians seriously need a woman on their ticket. With Trump alienating hispanics, mexicans, all people with double digit IQ and women - especially the ones still menstruating - Nikki is an answer to many of these issues. If Jeb Bush wins - I think he will in the end - Bush-Haley combo will be formidable.

I am not sure when was the last time a non-establishment candidate has been chosen as the nominee by either party. As a New Yorker, Trump will lose the Tea Partyers, Southerners, Mexicans, and women. Ted Cruz will be crucified and Rubio is too messicanish to be voted in these days of anti-immigranism.

Marathadi-Saamiyaar

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