Will Asian-Americans keep trending Democratic?

[Ogre Mage]

I am Asian-American and in my experience, Asian-Americans tend to be politically moderate.  They are more likely to be liberal rather than conservative, but it is usually a cautious liberalism (or conservatism).  Extremism is shunned.  Many do not identify with a political party, but they are more likely to identify as Democrats rather than Republicans. 

Specific ethnic subgroups, of course, have particular trends.  Many older Japanese-Americans, for instance, maintain a strong commitment to civil rights due to the internment experience and were horrified at the civil rights abuses of the Bush Administration.

So one might say that the median Asian voter is a slightly left-of-center, Democratic-leaning independent.  However, Asians are difficult to pigenhole politically.

One thing I could see stopping the Asian Dem trend is if the GOP would become more friendly to minorities and embrace more of a Sandra Day O'Connor style conservatism while the Dems go off the Dennis Kucinich deep end.  But this seems very unlikely.

[Ogre Mage]

I think much of the Democratic Asian-American trend can be attributed to Bill Clinton.  He really made an effort to reach out to both the Latino and Asian communities and it paid off.  While I sometimes disagreed with Bill Clinton's centrism, it may have helped him with some Asian voters uncomfortable with traditional Democratic liberalism as embodied by Mondale and Dukakis.  I also think the GOP's sharp movement to the right under Reagan as well as the anti-immigrant policies of then CA Gov. Pete Wilson during the 1990s eventually became too much for many Asians to stomach.

Some Asian voters did respect McCain because of his experience.  However, from what I saw, Asians had a very negative view of Sarah Palin. 

Obama looks to be a strong candidate to hold the Asian vote, so I would be very surprised to see the trend reverse in the near future.

[Ogre Mage]

I think the "conservatism" seen among older Asians is more a preference for tradition, experience, stability, incremental change and a dislike of revolution rather than, say, ideological opposition to abortion and gay rights. 

Data I've seen suggests that Asians in CA were the minority group most opposed to Proposition 8.  Support for it was evenly split, similar to whites.  A majority of Latinos and African-Americans supported Prop 8.

There definitely has been an emergence of evangelical Asians who are more socially conservative based on religion.  However, Asians in general aren't a particularly churchgoing group.