How can any self-respecting Indian American vote for Trump? 

“If [Vice President Kamala Harris] wins, the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand,” Laura Loomer, a rightwing influencer posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on September 8.

She was responding to a post by Harris on Grandparents Day paying tribute to her Indian grandparents. The Democratic presidential nominee wrote: “As a young girl visiting my grandparents in India, my grandfather took me on his morning walks, where he would discuss the importance of fighting for equality and fighting corruption. He was a retired civil servant who had been part of the movement to win India’s independence. My grandmother traveled across India—bullhorn in hand—to speak with women about accessing birth control.”

https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/1832805919781974438

Loomer, a provocateur who identifies herself as an “investigative journalist,” is an ally and close confidante of Donald Trump and has traveled with the former president.  The despicably racist sentiment that she voiced is not an isolated one in today’s Republican Party, now owned lock, stock and barrel by Trump.

Shekar Narasimhan: Why I’m supporting Kamala Harris (July 23, 2024)

Loomer’s post was so racist that even one of the most right-wing members of Congress, Marjorie Taylor-Greene — hardly known for her sensitivity to race relations — criticized her.

“This is appalling and extremely racist. It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. This does not represent President Trump,” the Georgia congresswoman responded to Loomer in an X post.

Loomer’s post is vile and racist, but par for the course. She seems to have forgotten that Trump’s running mate JD Vance is married to Usha, who is also Indian American and apparently cooks Indian vegetarian food at home. (Vance says he has learned to cook Indian food from his mother-in-law, who I am sure has an Indian accent). So, do Trump and his cohorts want us to be concerned about smelling up the Vice President’s residence and the funny accents there if we elect the Trump-Vance ticket?

Shekar Narasimhan: Trump indictment was inevitable but still sad for America (April 3, 2023)

I am waiting for the repudiation of Loomer by Donald Trump and JD Vance and an apology to all those who cook differently or speak with an accent. It will only come if the mass media reports this and demands it — unfortunately, not because it’s the right thing to do. By the way guys, different food smells and accents are represented by more than half of Americans already. This is a world most of us want. (I love Chinese, Thai, Afghani and Lebanese food in addition to Indian). So, we choose to pretend we don’t want, but we already live in it.

Not only Trump and Vance are not going to denounce Loomer’s post, but so far not many Indian American supporters of the former president have come to repudiate it.

There are 400,000 registered Indian American voters in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin. In addition, there are another 300,000 who are eligible to vote as they recently got citizenship or turned 18 years of age.

The 2020 election was won in six to seven states by Joe Biden with a margin of 385,000 votes and in three of them only by 45,000. So, Indian American voters could be decisive in a razor-thin election. And the vast majority of Indian Americans who I speak to understand why their vote matters and know they can help make history in 2024.

Shekar Narasimhan: Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy: Pride and shame? The Indian (October 13, 2023)

There is one way for us to repudiate this bigotry and that is for EVERYONE who is eligible to vote to register and then come out and vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The only way to remove poison from our body politic is to extract it. I look forward eagerly to the answer to my question which is how any self-respecting Indian American can vote for Trump-Vance knowing the company they keep and the views they may very well share.