Political Polarization and Social Media Discourse of Filipino American Conservatives

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Comparative Conservatism (Table 2)

Abstract

In the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections, roughly two-thirds of Asian Americans voted for Hillary Clinton, while 19% for Donald Trump, according to the Asian American Election Eve Poll. However, in 2020, the same exit survey found that support for Trump increased to 28%. Among the different Asian American subgroups, Filipinos registered the highest support with 38% voting for him. Although majority still voted Democrat, the fact that more than one-fourth of Filipino Americans cast their ballots for a Republican candidate that ran a campaign based on xenophobia, racism, and hostility towards China as well as an agenda to end birthright citizenship and reduce legal immigration remains puzzling. Using critical discourse and social network analyses of 1,900 posts in the public Facebook groups of Filipinos supportive of Trump during the 2020 elections, we show that mis-/disinformation, conspiracy theories, and simplification of complex issues dominate their discourse not only on how Trump is a more favorable compared to Biden, but also on how a vote for Trump is a vote for Filipino, immigrant, and American values and identities. Most importantly, they impute ideological extremity to those who do not share their views. This could lead to people structuring their social networks to avoid contact with out-party members contributing to polarization.

Authors

• Sharon Quinsaat, Grinnell College

• Thomas Carson

• Goeun Han