Perfect Comparison of US and Sri Lankan Ethnic Composition and Presidential Election Voting Pattern
Posted on November 11th, 2016

Dilrook Kannangara

There are eerie similarities between US ethnic composition and that of Sri Lanka. Without a doubt demographics, importantly, ethnic divisions, play the most important role in elections in all multiethnic democracies. Minorities in particular tend to caste their vote as a block which gives them a voting power above their percentage weight. This is the same in USA as well as Sri Lanka. There is near perfect comparison of US ethnicities (however they may be called) and that of Sri Lanka.

The only similarity of these groups is their percentage and nothing else.

Whites (Buddhists) 70%

Blacks (Hindus) 13%

Hispanics (Muslims) 10%

Asians (Sinhala Christians) 5%

Others (Tamil Christians) 2%

What is more striking is the minority voting pattern. At the January 2015 election, on average 80% of all minorities (including Christians) voted for Sirisena and in November 2016, 74% of minority voters voted for Hillary. Trump received 58% of White majority’s vote and so did Mahinda winning 58% of the Buddhist vote.

Just like in Sri Lanka, the pro-minority candidate had a massive media advantage.

Surely there are dissimilarities as well. US electoral college system awarded Trump the victory whereas Hillary won slightly more votes than him despite coming below 50%. Election funding also differed. Foreign sponsors supported both US candidates unlike Sri Lanka where only one party was supported by foreign elements.

However, there is a bigger message hidden in the US election and how it compares with Sri Lanka. The silent Buddhist majority can be invoked with the right synchronisation. A candidate standing boldly for national interests and particularly Buddhist interests can have it all irrespective of what foreign powers, media manipulation and minority communal gimmicks present. It also opens up a fresh avenue to look at what is called the ethnic problem. Equal individual rights and a single official language without ethnicity centred power devolution surely works in a very similar setting. Then again it is USA!

19 Responses to “Perfect Comparison of US and Sri Lankan Ethnic Composition and Presidential Election Voting Pattern”

  1. Ananda-USA Says:

    Dilrook, I largely agree with your statistical comparison, but there are a few important things you should note:

    1. Donald Trump’s election gives hope to Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka that WE can WREST our country back at the BALLOT BOX from the REGIME CHANGE PUPPET Yamapalanaya government OF the minorities, BY the minorities, FOR the minorities, if only we UNITE and ACT!

    2. Donald Trump was not supported by any foreign funds, whereas Hillary Clinton was. The Democrats outspent the Trump campaign 5 to 1.

    3. Despite the massive spending and rock solid political organization of the Democrats, they failed because their message did not address the disaffection among the majority population about the slow decling of their economic condition, loss of control of their country to the vociferous Minorities and liberal media, and the seeming inability to stop the illegal immigrant invasion while claiming to be a Sovereign nation. Likewise in Sri Lanka, the established political parties are not ADDRESSING THE CONCERNS of the Sinhala majority about the security of their country, the rising power of anti-national minorities and foreign powers, and economic growth.

    4. Donald Trump’s supporters were MORE that just the whites; they were the entire working-economic-class cutting across Republican/Democratic party lines and the White/Black/Asian color lines.

    ONLY the Hispanics voted as a block overwhelmingly against Trump because of their fear that the illegals among them would be deported. Why LEGAL Hispanic citizens support ILLEGAL Hispanic immigrants is a problem of RACISM that Hispanics have to come to grips with as citizens of the USA, just as the larger Tamil community in Sri Lanka has to confront and defeat the EELAMIST Tamils who are pushing them towards anti-national separatist goals. Both the Hispanics in the USA and Tamil community in SL wrongly believe they can have the HISPANIC/EELAMIST separatist cake solely to themselves, and share in the US/SL national cake too. That anti-national behavior is alienating the majority population in both countries.

    5. The working-class supporters of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic party, disappointed that their candidate could not get the party nomination, mostly voted for the Republican champion of the working-class Donald Trump generating the Tsunami that swamped Hillary Clinton’s Democratic war machine.

    IN MY VIEW, this was the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT REASON for Donald Trump’s victory that has confounded and escaped all the Pundit Pollsters! Bernie Sander’s supporters among the Democrats had the same working-class issues as Donald Trump’s supporters among the Republicans. They joined forces to attain their shared working-class goals. Donald Trump fully recognized this but didn’t broadcast it and thereby won the election confounding all the elite established Pundits.

  2. S.Gonsal Says:

    It is Dilrook who completely ignored this possiblily of Trump winning.

    Now he is making the comparison but it is corrent.

    “However, there is a bigger message hidden in the US election and how it compares with Sri Lanka. The silent Buddhist majority can be invoked with the right synchronisation.”

    Basil, GLP ( greatest patriot of the century awarded by Ananda USA) & Co CANNOT do this. Even if they do it, it is against their conscience and people know that. This mob who stole the country’s wealth do not have TRACK RECORD to prove, unlike Trump. Trump and MR have similar negative track records which is proven to be not much cared by people. In that sense there are more similarities.

    Overall I agree with Dilrook. People must threaten MR and turn him inot a TRUMP,( if MR is the ONLY MAN WE HAVE , which is a myth. We also thought Chandrika was the only leader then until MR came along).

    However, there is opportunity for a NEW person now to become a Paulin Hanson and then a Trump.

  3. Christie Says:

    Comparing and slotting numbers does not make things similar.

    US is a new country where the natives are less than 1%.

    The island nation is an Indian colony with a powerful minority of Indian colonial parasites running the country.

    US has about 62% Anglos, 17% Hispanics-Latinos, 13% Blacks and the rest, Jewish lobby is powerful but it looks like Indian vermin are taking over,

  4. Ananda-USA Says:

    Gonsal,

    When and where did I say that GL is the GREATEST patriot of the century? If you had said MR, I would not disagree. GL is indeed a patriot, but not the GREATEST one.

    You, mimicing your bosom pal Lorenzo twisting of Fran Diaz’s words, is twisting my words.

    I asked PATRIOTIC leaders with the necessary stature, like MR and GL, to reach out to Donald Trump and establish good relations on behalf of the patriotic cause.

    Whatever you might think of GL, he is a WORLD-CLASS DIPLOMAT, with EDUCATION, INTELLIGENCE, EXPERIENCE in foreign relations and EXQUISITE VERBAL SKILLS and the DIGINIFIED PERSONALITY necessary to undertake the task of opening and maintaining a dialogue with Donald Trump.

    We have SO FEW PATRIOTS with those SKILLS, don’t demean our best leaders and shoot us in the foot!

  5. Dilrook Says:

    Yes; I got the forecast completely wrong. To a closed group I said Hillary will win with 323 +/- 8 electoral college votes. It was close to 100 out. Mot polls and media outlets also got it wrong. That teaches me to stick to forecasting Sri Lankan elections which I have accurately predicted in 2005, 2010 (twice) and 2015 (twice) subject to a few decimals and 3 seats variance.

    However, that doesn’t mean the above comparison is out. It is still valid. Ananda’s first comment is noted. There should be a strong slogan to unite Sinhala voters. They will not unite for the sake of unity!

  6. aloy Says:

    Basic difference between the white voter and Sinhala voter: Sinhalas will not unite unless they are mortally scared. That happened in 2009; perhaps same happened during Dutugamunu’s time. When Winston Churchill won the war they defeated him in the next election as they did not want another war. Sinhalas may vote for MR not thinking of another war.

    Best scenario: Make Lemonade out of Lemon (as Fran used to say), get MS to sack RW. All the problems will be solved.

  7. S.Gonsal Says:

    Ananda,
    Please don’t resort to personal attacks, I mimic you also sometimes. It is my style of righting.

    You said ” …the Patriotic Leaders (MR, GL etc) of Sri Lanka ..” you never said “…PATRIOTIC leaders with the necessary stature, like MR and GL….”. So you twist your word. Anyone reading that sentence fully understand that your GREAT examples of patriots are these two gentlemen.

    I don’t need to think of GL’s personality, yes, he is diplomatic to “the core” by calling LTTEer Anton ( Lorenoz’s Guru) “His Excellency”. For the first time I need to withdrw my high regard to you as a “patriot” if this is the case.

    This man drafted the CFA obeying RW. He will draft another “con-institution” obeying MR together with Wigneshwaran. I have no doubt on that. MR loves both of them.

    I prefer Ranil ( the know evil) to this man , who change sides, like Sira. He professorship is as good as the doctorate of Mervyn Silva. Only difference is he is 1000 times more diplomatic, that I agree.

  8. Ananda-USA Says:

    Gonsal,

    Why the sudden antipathy to personal attacks when I take you to task on your snide comments?

    If holding you responsible for your actions, like I hold your pal Lorenzo for his, is a personal attack, then you are joining the LTTE as a wailing victim to avoid blame.

    If the kitchen is too hot for you, then leave it!

  9. aloy Says:

    Gonsal,

    “I prefer Ranil ( the know evil) to this man”.

    I am flabbergasted. How can this guy who stayed as their party leader even after 27 defeats effectively rule our country. MS said he was forced to appoint him as PM even though there was a PM already in January 2015. He has been behaving as the Vice Roy of SL even keeping Mahendran as his financial adviser to date. His powerful backers are no longer there. We are talking about change in US. Trump is a complete contrast of his predecessor. He is of Scottish and German ancestry and doesn’t care about UK too. Teresa May was 8th in his line of calling.

    Now is the time to effect the change as in my above comment. All MS has to do is to allow a no confidence motion about the handling of bond issue by RW or a defeat on budget and appoint speaker as a caretaker PM until the UNPers sort out their party leadership hierarchy.

  10. Ananda-USA Says:

    Dear Dilrook,

    You are not the only one who is blindsided sometimes. I predicted a landslide victory for MR in the presidential election that he lost. Sometimes, we lose sight of strong underlying trends and make mistakes. You are also in very good company, as ALL the expert pundits in the USA also called this election wrong.

    Although I voted for Trump and supported his candidacy, and expected the election to be very close, I did not expect him to win either. The more he insulted women and Hispanics, the more pessimistic I became of his chances of winning. If he had not done that, he would have easily won, which he did by stealth anyway by nearly 3:2 margin in electoral votes.

    Neither you nor I are omniscient, but in frankly acknowledging your error, you are proving to be the decent, honorable and honest man I have come to know.

  11. S.Gonsal Says:

    Ananda,
    I leave it to you. You problem is you completely avoid replying a fair argument by resorting to abuse people.
    It is people like GL who are making MT completely useless.

    Aloy,
    RW is known evil.
    GL is a manipulator doing underground evil showing a diplomatic face.

  12. Dilrook Says:

    Dear Ananda,

    The Senate and the House too! Now he has no excuse not to deliver. Although Trump represents an extreme form of capitalism, he accepts whatever economic system exists for the benefit of the people. That should help moderate extreme forms of capitalism (the best available economic system) around the world. When making national economic policy, cost savings for private firms must be netted off against added costs to the state. There is a second example of not going for ECTA for Sri Lanka. If Trump revisits some trade deals with Mexico, India, China and potentially TPP, Sri Lanka gains.

    Thank you and appreciate your consistency.

    @Aloy, it is the same for White Americans and Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Due to rapid erosion of US economic clout and relative global military clout, American Whites felt their values are threatened. Even symbolically they were feeling the decline in US clout abroad. Recently Turkey, the Philippines and China made a mockery of US influence. China considered a red carpet was not needed while the other two clearly went away from the US orbit.

  13. Christie Says:

    Hi Folks.

    Read this from an Indian vermin to see why Indian colonial parasites and vermin voted for Democrats and fund them: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronakdesai/2016/11/07/closing-arguments-why-hillary-clinton-is-the-best-choice-for-indian-and-south-asian-americans/2/#4eebbbe6c8a3

    This is where similarity with us and US begins and ends.

  14. Lorenzo Says:

    Ananda-USA,

    Do you also believe this?

    “The Tsunami carried away P’karan in Dec 2004. This was an Act of God ! Everyone who followed events closely knows that.”

    GLP was a traitor when he called ANTON BALLASINGHAM your excellency when he was with the UNP.
    But now he is on the MR camp. So he is now a PATRIOT.

    kaparakoyya ———-> thalakoyya

  15. Lorenzo Says:

    kabaragoyya ————> thalagoyya

  16. plumblossom Says:

    Your statistics are somewhat wrong. Sinhala people are 74.9% of the population. Sri Lankan Tamils 11.2%, Muslims 9.3%, Indian Tamils 4.1%, Malays, Burghers, Veddhas and others 0.5%.

  17. Dilrook Says:

    There is no mentioning of Sinhalese, Tamils, Indian Tamils, Moors or Malays.

    Buddhists are 70%. Hindus are 13% and Muslims are close to 10% while Sinhala Christians are 5% and Tamil Christians are about 2%. The term ethnic is used in a community sense to suit both countries not in a linguistic grouping sense. Not all Sinhalese vote same. Christians vote different to Buddhists (and Hindus). Malays tend to vote similar to other Muslims.

  18. S.Gonsal Says:

    Main message here is ” Nationalism Can Win without votes of minorities”. Approximate percentages sufficient.
    Unfortunately all the “Great Patriotic Politicinas” are not interested in this. Only Dilrook in publishing this important fatc.
    Why ? Bribed by LTTE in big amounts ?
    I beg Dilrook to write another one to get those “Great Patriotic Politicinas” and their “Loving Supporters” to the right path.
    If someone with better charater who repect women came with trump policies he could have won 70% votes. Surely Sri Lanka could find someone with better character than proven and not proven Pal Horu and Mini Maruwo.

  19. Christie Says:

    Moer Indians in Congress: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/desi-wave-hits-us-record-5-indian-americans-set-to-be-elected-to-us-congress/story-yX2YZ66FxMJMBaAqufEOEM.html

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