Political analysts are united in saying that re-elected US President Barack Obama owes a huge debt of gratitude to the Latino community, without whose overwhelming support he might not have defeated former Governor Mitt Romney so easily.

In state after state where Latinos are a growing political force, they voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney with anywhere from 60-40 to 70-30 margins.

It also goes without saying that the African-American community also voted overwhelmingly—by more than 90 percent—for the incumbent president, who is considered America’s first black chief executive, although in truth he is half-white.

In the postscript to this week’s presidential elections in the US, the consensus is that the Republican Party must now necessarily undergo a period of soul searching. The Grand Old Party dominated by middle-aged and old, white men should reach out to minorities if they are to remain a force to reckon with in the US. Otherwise, there may come a time when the Republicans are relegated to fringe status, replaced by who-knows-what.

One of the minorities that they can approach should be the Filipino-American community, estimated at seven million strong and growing steadily.

Conventional wisdom says that Filipino immigrants and Filipino-Americans are natural allies of the Democratic Party. After all, the bulk of Filipinos in the US are located either in California in the West Coast, or the New York/New Jersey corridor in the East. California and New York are traditionally Democratic territory, and this was proven again this week when the electoral college votes of the two states easily went to Obama.

This, however, is the short-sighted view. It should come as a surprise to no one that Filipinos are attracted to many of the ideals of the Republican Party by virtue of their culture. Conservative religious and social values are inherent in the Filipino.

Filipinos are family-centered by nature, and may not be wholly supportive of such causes as same sex marriage and easy access to abortion as espoused by the Democrats.

But whether leaning towards the Democrats or the Republicans, one sad fact remains: the Fil-Am community has yet to find its voice in US politics. Yes, an American of Filipino descent, Ben Cayetano, was elected governor of Hawaii. But that is as far as any Fil-Am has gone in US politics. And it must be noted that Hawaii is quite detached from mainland USA. Incidentally, Cayetano lost in his bid to become mayor of Honolulu.

It’s not all bad news for Fil-Ams seeking elective positions in the US, however, as 15 of them won this week. This figure represents about half of all Fil-Ams who were candidates for either party.

Not surprisingly, close to half of the winning Fil-Ams are from the Aloha state.

A small number of Fil-Ams also ran in California, host to the biggest Fil-Am community in the US. Some were Democrats and some were Republicans. Some won and some lost. Such is the way of politics.
 
At the frontlines
The politically active Fil-Ams can be considered as the vanguard of a loose movement that would empower this segment of the US population. Their numbers may be small, but they carry on their shoulders the promise of a potentially powerful force in American politics.

Just like today’s Latinos, and yesterday’s African-Americans, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans, Filipino-Americans only need to speak with one voice on key issues affecting them such as immigration, employment and health care, and the Democrats and Republicans will seek them out.

The Fil-Am community need not even stand alone. Linkages can be formed with other Asian-American communities, such as the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese, among others. This is the most practical step to take since the Asian-American community is one of the fastest growing sectors in the US, next only to the Latinos.

Almost as soon as it was clear that he had won, President Obama was being reminded by the Latino community that he owed them bigtime. As such, Mr. Obama is expected to push even harder for Congress to pass the Dream Act in the next four years, which would pave the way for legalized status of countless undocumented immigrants in the US, the majority of whom are Latinos.

If only Fil-Ams had such clout.

In general, Asian-American families have a higher income than the average American family, and achieve more in terms of education. Since they are already economically empowered, there is no reason why they should not be politically empowered as well.