I found an interesting article this morning on Voters for Peace about the role of the Iranian-American vote in the 2008 election. A large number of Iranian-Americans, as is the case with people of many ethnicities in the United States, retain an interest in seeing the positive development of the nation of their ancestors. This isn’t necessarily in conflict with their interest in the welfare of the United States. Rather, there is an interest in finding a path through which the peoples of the USA and Iran alike can benefit.
For that reason, many Iranian-Americans are giving their support to Barack Obama. “Many observers believe the refusal by the other leading Democrat for the presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton, to rule out force against Iran in campaign statements, paired with her strong support of Israel, has substantially weakened her support in the community,” the article notes.
John McCain doesn’t fare any better in the Iranian-American community than Hillary Clinton. The article quotes Trita Parsi, Director of the National Iranian American Council, as saying, “The Republican Party has lost much support in the community, and it doesn’t help that McCain is the likely Republican candidate, mindful of his singing about bombing Iran. This breaks a pattern in which the community has tended to support the Republican Party for fiscal reasons.”
Will the Iranian-American vote carry Barack Obama to victory, either in the Democratic primaries or the general election? It seems unlikely. 330,000 Iranian-Americans live in the United States, most of them in California. The California primaries have already been held – and Hillary Clinton won them. In the general election, California is highly unlikely to go to a Republican, so the Electoral College battle should not be swayed.
The one hope that Iranian-Americans have to make an effective impact on the 2008 presidential election is through the persuasion of Americans of non-Iranian descent living outside of California. The article at Voters for Peace may be one part of such a communications program, but the effort will have to be more extensive and sustained to be effective.
