Yes, mine. My parents were registered Republicans probably up until Clinton ran for the white house. Koreans love Clinton here in CA. His 8 years were years of prosperity for many Koreans. As you said, politics meet pocketbook. Since then, they've been voting mostly democratic - my mom faithfully, my dad occasionally. This time around, both of them voted for Hillary in the primaries. For general election, my mom will vote for Obama and my dad said he'll abstain altogether from the presidential vote. That is until, Biden and Palin became the vice-presidential nominees. That sealed it for my dad. Now, it's Obama for him too. Palin is just too much for my dad and apparently, Biden is pro-Korea (so he says and I haven't verified). I do have to disclose though, my parents are a rare minority of Korean Americans who are not church-going Christians. That probably makes a difference.

hammee is a korean parent who is an avid support of obama. Does she count?

amyable - what do your parents do? is this LA? i've always been intrigued by the non church-going koreans .. did they ever go and stopped?

and bex - I meant older korean parents not our generation.

jenn

Jenn - my parents are retired and live in Orange County (1 hr south of LA). My mom has always been a Buddhist. My dad claims to be Buddhist but my assessment is that he's just anti-bible-thumping-or-evangelical-Christian (he really didn't have a religion until he married my mom). All three of their kids are atheists or agnostic. I consider myself a devout atheist.

You basically described my mom. My mom's preacher told her to vote for Bush and she did enthusiastically. The same preacher told his congregation to vote not for McCain but for Palin and my mom is once again following her preacher's orders. My dad interestingly has come around. He became disillusioned with Bush years ago, feels McCain is vaguely racist (anti-Asian), and thinks Palin is a fraud. So last week he told me on the phone he would be voting Obama, but he also told me "Don't tell your mother".

My mother is an Obama supporter and registered Democrat. She is also a feminist, was a huge Hillary fan, and goes to church. I definitely know older generation Koreans who are Democrats (NYC/LI) and my mother did say at her church (I don't attend), many of the women liked Hillary. She explained that many of them were thoroughly impressed that a woman could go through the shame of such a publicly adulterous husband and make it to the Senate with her head held high.

My mother won't register to vote, because she said her friends said if she did, then she'd have to serve jury duty. I asked her what the point of becoming a citizen was then. She said she just keeps her head down and stays quiet. It's like a little gaggle of junior high school girls among her friends. If the Queen Bee says, don't register to vote, they all don't do it. I gave up trying to convince her.

My mother won't register to vote, because she said her friends said if she did, then she'd have to serve jury duty. I asked her what the point of becoming a citizen was then. She said she just keeps her head down and stays quiet. It's like a little gaggle of junior high school girls among her friends. If the Queen Bee says, don't register to vote, they all don't do it. I gave up trying to convince her.

My mother won't register to vote, because she said her friends said if she did, then she'd have to serve jury duty. I asked her what the point of becoming a citizen was then. She said she just keeps her head down and stays quiet. It's like a little gaggle of junior high school girls among her friends. If the Queen Bee says, don't register to vote, they all don't do it. I gave up trying to convince her.

i swear your mom and my grandma are some sort of mystic twins.

love this jenn.

dad has been a democrat, steered by his lifetime environmental concerns. thinks obama is a good man. i got both my parents to watch that obama speech you forwarded to us about faith or something, which convinced my mom that he is not a muslim.

for those whose parents don't vote, just register for them. tell them you'll take care of it. request a mail-in-voter card. then tell your parents you're voting for them for their best interests. mark the boxes. show it to them. wait for their preoccupied nod. then mail it in. this is not illegal. this is helping them in their busy immigrant lives. remember when you had to translate for them as an 8 year old?

that same 80 year old aunt in manhattan i mentioned before is an ardent democrat, always has been. She mocks her youngest sister, my mother, who voted for bush both times, a hangover from her love for reagan. (he's the son of reagan's VP, after all). but after the second time my mother was ashamed of herself. this time around i don't know. i suspect mccain but when she visited us and saw the obama sign in our yard, she didn't say a word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wphLKCEQO4U

http://www.cafepress.com/yisoonshin

My parents, though unable to vote (30+ year resident aliens), are ardent Obama supporters. This is no surprise since they have also been longtime (un-registered, but socially declared democrats), Clinton supporters and my dad's favorite website is the Huffington Post (Also HUGE Keith Olbermann fans). They are non-church goers who left the local Korean religious community when a new conservative pastor arrived which clashed with much of their want to question religion.

I think they really believe that religious or not, Korean or not, anyone who is really thoughtful about the economy, is concerned about the environment, truly wants to expand health care benefits to more Americans, and just wants honest leadership in the White House would HAVE to, on the foundation of rationality, support Obama.

Interestingly, their two best friends' families (both non-korean) are both to the far right and when those families say they "can't trust" Obama and cite Ronald Reagan as another great example of Republican politicking that McCain would emulate, my dad whips out the refrain that as soon as Reagan left office he would go make public appearances in Asia asking for 3 million dollars a speech. So much for trickle-down economics...