Thread by @bansisharma

1. Trump Heard A Memorable Speech

President of the United States and the Prime Minister of India made history in Houston today. The two men were unabashed and unequivocal in their admiration for each other and the alliance they are forging.

2. This Will Move the Needle ... Some

This is likely to win Trump some incremental support in the Indian American community, as Prime Minister Modi is incredibly popular among the Indian diaspora (the largest diaspora in the world at 17.5 million strong).

3. There are stunning similarities (there are differences too) between Trump and Modi as political leaders of the two largest democracies in the world. Still, Indian Americans have a certain amount of cognitive dissonance about Trump and Modi.

4. The rest of this thread consists of some very broad generalizations about the Indian American community in the U.S. And because of that, consider it directionally accurate but also quite imprecise when applied to individuals. There are significant variations.

5. Indian Americans love Modi for his passionate pursuance of prosperity and excellence for India, using tactics which are often similar to those used by Trump in the U.S. But Indian Americans don't like Trump much. By one estimate, 80% of Indian Americans voted for Hillary.

6. One reason for Indian Americans' support for Democrats is quite mundane -- vast majority of them live in blue states, predominantly on the coasts. But that is not the whole story. Truth be told, Indian Americans historically vote for Democrats, long before Trump came along.

7. The reasons for why Indian Americans vote for Democrats are rather complicated. Indians are temperamentally cerebral. They place a great premium on "smartness" and hate to side with "dumb" people.

8. Media, academia, and Hollywood have been extremely successful in portraying Republicans as "racist" and "dumb." Far too many Indian Americans, who are otherwise extremely intelligent and accomplished, fall prey to MSM's stereotyping of Republicans and the Republican Party.

9. Historically, Indians (I guess like most other people) implicitly trusted what they used to read in Time, Newsweek, etc. and also what they saw presented on TV, especially on channels like PBS. Only recently is it becoming clearer how liberal these media sources always were.

10. So the liberal worldview has taken deep roots in the psyche of many Indians, and once that happens, it takes a very long time and repeat disappointments and shocks to jolt one out of that stupor. For many people, it never happens in their lifetime. So this is a tough issue.

11. There is not a whole lot that can be done about people who are doggedly entrenched in their party affiliations. More worrisome are the impressionable young minds in the throes of leftist liberalism that has so pervasively taken over schools and college campuses everywhere.

12. Putting aside the parochial concerns of the political parties, for the future of our great nation, it's essential that we find a way to expunge our educational institutions of crass politics and restore the ideals of critical thinking and a truly liberal education.

The End