Only an Asian American can simultaneously be both a perfect conservative and a perfect progressive.

We live in dangerous and divisive times. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 31% of Americans believe that a “Second American Civil War” is likely in the next 5 years. On October 24, 2018, explosives were mailed to the Clintons, the Obamas, George Soros, the CNN HQ, Maxine Waters, and other Democrats. Confrontations between the alt-right and antifa have only been escalating. On June 14, 2017, James Hodgkinson shot several Republican congressmen at a baseball game.

Clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working and our beautiful republic is in decline. Our world is becoming increasingly polarized. In short, America is losing its mind.

We need a leader who can straddle the vast political divide. Who better to do this than an Asian American candidate?

An Asian American candidate would have first-hand empathy for the immigrant experience, making him or her the “perfect progressive”.

An Asian American candidate would also be highly sympathetic to faith, traditional family values, businesses, and hard work, making him or her the “perfect conservative”.

Consider this op-ed by Korean-American attorney and Harvard Law School graduate John Yoo: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-yoo-asian-american-bias-harvard-20180624-story.html.

John may be a controversial figure for his role in the Bush administration’s War on Terror. His op-ed is also heavily biased in favor of conservatives. But nonetheless, the following quotes from his article are all completely truthful observations about Asian American culture:

“They are more likely to run a small business than any other racial group. They are deeply religious, with strong family values and a low divorce rate.”

“According to social science surveys and the census, they are the best-educated Americans…Asian families push their children hard to score at the top of standardized tests and to achieve sterling grade-point averages.”

If you didn’t know that John was talking about Asian-Americans, you’d think the first quote was a dictionary entry for “stereotypical conservative”.

Many Asian Americans are extremely religious too. Why are many teriyaki restaurants closed on Sundays? There are a number of practical reasons stemming from the logistics of running a small business, but the primary reason is Christian faith. In other words, the same reason Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays.

To recall John Yoo’s article: “Asians are among the most fervent of evangelical Christians”.

To quote Lucas Yang’s article about the wonderful Asian American community in LA: “Koreans are fervently religious”.

Jeremy Lin is as unapologetically Christian as Tim Tebow is. Albeit much less obnoxious and much more authentic in how he goes about it.

Hard work, pro-business, traditional family values, faith……in many ways, Asian Americans embody the “perfect conservative”.

At the same time, any Asian American would be highly empathetic to the immigrant experience. After all, his or her firsthand family background is intrinsically rooted in that experience.

In fact, an Asian American candidate would have far more genuine empathy for immigrants than any cookie-cutter Democratic candidate trying to “virtue signal” with identity politics.

I know that some of the conservatives reading this are rolling their eyes thinking “Here we go again, another minority. Will be like Obama 2.0. Probably going to try to take my guns and encourage NFL players to protest the military”.

That’s just nonsense. First off, it’s highly debatable whether the NFL protests were even meant to be about the military (rather than police brutality). Secondly, Asian Americans have always been pro-gun and pro-military. Just to casually hit a few highlights off the top of my head:

James Suh (Korean-American Navy SEAL)-Perished in Operation Red Wings. Friend and teammate of Marcus Luttrell and former governor Eric Greitens. Remembered as “rock-solid” by Greitens.

Jonny Kim (Korean-American Navy SEAL)-Only person in history to be a NASA astronaut and Navy SEAL (w/ over 100 combat missions and Silver Star). Also graduated from Harvard Medical School and has a math degree.

Peter Wang (Chinese-American JROTC cadet)-Died so that others may live during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and buried with full military honors.

Thomas Sy (Vietnamese-American Green Beret)-Better known in the Asian-American community for being a professor and writing about Asian-American workplace experiences for Harvard Business Review, but worth noting that he was an ex-Special Forces soldier.

In more distant history, it’s worth noting that the 442nd Regiment (WWII) is the most decorated unit in all American military history.

Any serious gun enthusiast would be familiar with the “rooftop Koreans” meme (1992 LA Riots).

Chris Cheng (professional sport shooter)-One of the most well-known media personalities within the shooting world.

Il Ling New (NRA spokeswoman and instructor)-Very articulate Yale grad who was recently nominated to the NRA board of trustees for 2018.

Within my home state of Washington, Yong Lee and Andrew Hong are two of the best USPSA grandmasters. For those of you that are competitive tactical shooters, “grandmaster” is an incredible achievement.

There’s so many Chinese-Americans at my local gun club that I always get asked “which one?” after giving my last name of “Feng” at the sign-in desk.

I think I’ve made my point clear: Only an Asian American can simultaneously be both a perfect conservative and a perfect progressive.

I am hoping and praying that a strong candidate emerges in 2020. But if not, then hopefully 2024 won’t be too late to save our country.

We need a leader that can bridge this crazy tribal divide and nobody can do it better than an Asian American candidate like the one I described above. In other words, preferably a church-going veteran who is the first generation of his or her extended family to be born in America. Who also has experience helping his or her parents with their family’s small business and is highly sympathetic to the immigrant experience.