Most of the desis (and there are many!)in this district are apolitical, and rarely take interest in local politics. Hopefully, Manan’s candidacy will change this.

I, for one, am dancing a jig and plan to do everything I can to ensure that Goyle and Trivedi (and Yalamanchili as he proves viability for the general election) win. We owe it to our kids to show them that the sky is the limit for them in this country and that they owe this country their talents in public service. Who you callin’ “macaca,” indeed?

Abhi, congratulations and hugs to all of your family.

To celebrate Manan’s win properly, I am putting a challenge grant on the table. For every Mutineer who confirms and sends me via email to Subodh DOT Chandra AT StanfordAlumni.org a new receipt for a contribution of at least $25 to Trivedi’s campaign, I will contribute, dollar-for-dollar, the same amount: http://www.trivediforcongress.com/

Obviously subject to the federal contribution limit. And try to do more: $50, $100, $150, $200–whatever you can afford.

Iraq War vet, doctor, policy wonk, father, brings a diverse background. What more can you ask for in a new leader and legislator for this century?

Cheering on your cousin doesn’t seem like a big deal to me in a country of 300M people and a sort of light “yeah for Desis!” is okay too but the fact is that the whole country has gone nuts over the past few years into an insane level of balkanization that seriously threatens the unity of our people and this post unfortunately read as though it was taken as a given that South Asians should support south Asians and therefore…the various things that the post mentioned.

In my own experience I’ve found that Indians tend to be less into identity politics on a philosophical level (if not always a practical one) and therefore I found this post and it’s unstated assumptions depressing.

I think if you look at earlier posts related Manan Trivedi and other South Asian candidates we’ve written about, we’ve been careful to avoid that.

There was a lot of ambivalence in our various posts about Bobby Jindal, for instance, even though his was a very high profile race and a breakthrough for Indian Americans in elected office. And as Pagal Aadmi hints, I doubt you’ll see much enthusiasm around here for Nikki Haley (except perhaps from Vinod).

I’m not saying there isn’t some level of co-ethnic cheerleading in some of our coverage of these candidates, but it’s no different from Greek-Americans supporting candidates with Greek names, etc. The Indian American community is simply one of many ethnic constituencies in the American political landscape now, and successful politicians generally learn how to work both within and across community lines.

Come back when Abhi is cheering Haley in South Carolina with the same fervor.

I’ll note briefly that India at least seems to have been moving away from the tribalism that we’re moving INTO.

Great times ahead.