Soulsearching: Democrats taking desis for granted?

Is the Democratic Party taking the Indian-American community for granted? That was one of the issues that came up during the interactive sessions at the Indian-American Leadership Initiative convention, especially considering how much the likes of Jay Goyal, Ashwin Madia, Manan Trivedi and others had to fight to secure Democratic nominations in the primary over the favorites of party insiders, in contrast to what some argued was the embrace of the GOP of the likes of Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.

Longtime political and community activist Subodh Chandra, former Cleveland, Ohio law director who made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nod in the primary a few years ago to run for Ohio attorney general, said, "My experience… was the Democratic primary electorate, from labor unions to African Americans to constituencies in rural areas, was actually incredibly open and receptive to my candidacy. And you could quickly defuse issues of race, ethnicity or the name with a quick joke or demonstrating your common values."

The issue actually, he added, "was the leadership of the party that was actually more skeptical if not hostile towards candidates that don't fit the traditional Democratic Party black/white paradigm." He claimed that the subtle and not so subtle message was that "blacks should run for black seats, whites should run for white seats, and Asians should just write checks and shut up."

He acknowledged that "it's different in places like California, where there are significant Asian-American constituencies, or Hispanic constituencies and other people can have

There is a significant part within the Democratic Party in some places, he added, "not really living up to the promise of equal opportunity that our party stands for because so much of the party is really a coalition of constituencies and they are not able to recognize individual talent." He said he believed "that was one reason why the Ohio political leadership was uniformly hostile to the Barack Obama candidacy — because they just couldn't process it. It made no sense to them. How could he be running for a — quote, unquote — white seat!"

Frank Sesno, former CNN Washington Bureau chief and currently professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, said that when Bill Clinton first ran, "the party leadership couldn't stand the guy and it wasn't because of anything that had happened at that point, (but because he was from) a small state, didn't carry reputations to the table, tough economic times. The same with Jimmy Carter when he ran as an outsider. And when precisely this was what the public wanted — an outsider, people who didn't carry the Washington baggage. So, this is where the parties get in the way."

Neera Tanden, former senior Obama administration official and currently chief operating officer, Center for American Progress, defended the Democratic Party.

"My experience with the party," he said, "is that parties generally just use whatever they think works… That's why I think it's very important that this organization (IALI) exists, because over time parties react to success. They view success and that success breeds success. So, it's important for organizations, people, media, to question the party and seek candidates and propose candidates."