The Minority Retort: A MAGAfesto Dissecting "Woke" America

By Marc Ang

"In his MAGAfesto, "Minority Retort," Marc Ang fearlessly and humorously exposes the underlying racism and condescension of liberal ideologies that invoke race warfare while denying the most basic American principle: that every American citizen is a unique individual whose inalienable rights come from God, not from we

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Nov 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798887381442

Marc Ang

Marc Ang is a Southern California-based community organizer, president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance in Orange County, and founder of Asian Industry B2B. By profession, he is a financial planner. After many years in metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles, he settled down in a rural lifestyle as a rancher/farmer. He spends his free time as a freelance journalist who is regularly featured in publications like The Published Reporter, RedState, Washington Examiner, Newsweek, CityWatch Los Angeles, Asian Journal, and more.He has made front page news in Los Angeles Times and New York Times for his activism and leadership in the Asian community.

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The

MINORITY RETORT:

An Asian-Flavored MAGAFesto Dissecting Woke America

BY MARC ANG

The Minority Retort

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2022 by Marc Ang

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Cover design by: Blair Cruz

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-143-5

E-ISBN: 979-8-88738-144-2

This book is dedicated to my parents and great loving providers, Albert and Ann, and my other mother, Luz, who successfully imparted the right values to me, despite my years of rebellion. And to Scott, for getting me politically awake, not woke. All of whom gave me unconditional love throughout the journey to this point.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Betty Tom Chu

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

How the Culture Got Here

Chapter 2

Feelings over Facts…This Woke Generation’s Slippery Slope

Chapter 3

Ambitions & Career Achievements—Shallow Resumes, Everyone’s a CEO

Chapter 4

Second Amendment & Private Ownership

Chapter 5

Welfare in Suburbia—Race Obsessions, Failed Schools & CRT

Chapter 6

The Fleeting but Important #StopAsianHate Moment in 2021

Chapter 7

The Lost Art of a Conversation

Chapter 8

Sex, Drugs, the Hookup Culture & Emptiness

Chapter 9

Health Should Not Only Be Addressed When You’re Sick, It

Chapter 10

Hollyweird & the Pop Culture

Chapter 11

Tiger King—My Involvement & My Cancellation

Chapter 12

California Public Policy Affects Our Lives, Businesses & Society

Chapter 13

Foreign Policy & the World

Chapter 14

The Unashamed Ugliness of Politics and the Consultant Class 191

Chapter 15

Final Words—Context Matters, Be Discerning, Be Action-Oriented

Endnotes

Foreword by

Betty Tom Chu

Minority Retort tells the story of how and why a liberal Asian young man (younger than my youngest child) became a conservative community organizer activist to empower Asian business owners and communities through pro-business and pro-family activities, education, and initiatives. Over the last five years, I have observed how these activities, education, and initiatives have had a positive influence on the Asian business, religious, educational, and political communities resulting in their collective interactions.

Contacts Marc made from these events opened up journalism opportunities for him. Minority Retort includes some of Marc’s articles on politics, education, business, entertainment, racism, pop culture, health, sex, drugs, and foreign and California public policies.

This is an unusual book. Many conservative Asians fit the stereotype of the model minority and are not outspoken. Much less outspoken in print. Not only does Minority Retort tell the how and why he became conservative, but Minority Retort discloses Marc’s religious beliefs, thoughts, experiences, and reasoning that influence his opinions on various topics.

This is a must-read book to help liberals, progressives, and Democrats understand how some conservatives think and also to help Republicans and conservatives open up their eyes and hearts to the hows and whys of liberals, progressives, wokes, and moderates on the same issues. Some articles contain Marc’s suggestions on how to disagree without being disagreeable and how to meet partway to achieve a result. From his perspective, remediating differences in the hope for change may end up with a positive result.

However, as an octogenarian who has engaged in various activities to open up opportunities for and to lessen racism against the Chinese community for over half of a century, I am dismayed that, despite advances in these areas, anti-Asian crimes, anti-Asian school admission policies, and anti-Asian education have increased during the recent woke years to levels substantially beyond those of years ago. I hope more readers, particularly Asians, will be positively influenced by this book. Thus, change can and must result from this hope.

Thank you, Marc, for writing this book that accents a youth’s return to the moral and ethical principles of the pre-communist Chinese culture. Too many of those in the generation before, during, and after yours are woke. If Minority Retort is used by some, regardless of ethnicity and race diversity, as a roadmap going forward, the hope for change will result in a better united America with life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for more.

***

Betty Tom Chu was the first Chinese female attorney to pass the California State Bar in Southern California, the principal co-founder of East West Bank, the nation’s first financial institution specializing in home mortgage loans for Chinese borrowers who were at that time usually denied such opportunities, the nation’s first Chinese female founding director, president, and chief executive officer of a savings bank, Trust Savings Bank, and a former Mayor of the City of Monterey Park.

Preface

The Why

Why did this book need to get written and published? Honestly, it comes at a time when I’ve come to peace with living a quiet hermit life. This may be more like a swan song, or I’m just trying to condense all I feel I need to say in one manuscript before I permanently shut up. I always have to get the last word, so this is it. Then rant off, I’ll exit the stage. This book should be comprehensive on a unique life and experiences I have been blessed with, seeing various industries, the seven mountains, so to speak, from politics to entertainment to business. All that time, I had to reconcile a messed-up world with strong values that my elders had imprinted on me, rebelling and coming back to wisdom like the prodigal son.

I never thought my perspective would be important for others to hear. Sure, I like to inject my opinions into things, but not on a wider scale. But after watching the world around me for about four decades and seeing those younger than me starting to attain positions of power, whether in entertainment, business or politics, I guess I do have a lot to say in hopes that the world could become a better place if I influence a few minds.

My local activism seems to have inspired many people to want me to keep doing events (I’m tired, but thanks to my board for continuing my nonprofit work organizing the community and issues-based activism) and to stay involved. There seems to be no roadmap to leading America back to sanity, so I’ll try my best to lay one out. At the very least, it may give you some pointers. But this involves a deep soul searching of what got us here in the first place, on the reader’s part. Otherwise, you will only keep spinning your wheels in frustration, working harder but not smarter. Please open up your hearts and minds as you read this manuscript.

The Who

Becoming an author was probably the last of my ambitions. In fact, I’m not even really an avid reader. As a millennial, everything for me needed to be bite-sized. Why read the book when you can watch the movie? Or if I really have to, Cliff Notes will do the trick. Nonfiction, on the other hand? To me, that’s where the gold is at. A how to manual? Priceless. So I hope this book will appeal to those like me, anyone seeking to make an impact in conservative activism, or anyone who’s honestly searching for truth.

I fell in love with reading through AOL News. As I navigated the world as a young adult, I found out how much I enjoyed reading relevant content that depicted the world. Not classical English literature and fictional stories made up by people with overactive imaginations on frivolous topics. But it was the stories of people doing stuff in real life that compelled me: business leaders, inventors, innovators.

So my goal here is not to bore the audience, but to present a manuscript of bite-size wisdom nuggets, so to speak, that will hopefully connect with the everyday man. This book will also simultaneously take you through a journey of a unique life as I came of age as a young adult in the two biggest metropolises of America: Los Angeles and New York, as a millennial on the cusp of Gen X, with values more aligned with Gen X. And most importantly, one who experienced life in different socioeconomic strata, from a normal affluent suburban childhood (albeit one with constant moving and different schools) to extreme poverty to rebuilding from that.

The When

Through the backdrop to that journey, I will take you on the mental and emotional journey that evolved me from a liberal to a conservative, but more importantly, from an elitist upbringing (which I rebelled against) to becoming a populist. But also a person who has come to God in a truthful way. Growing up a Catholic, I was strapped by dogma. I rebelled against it and found my direct connection to God, and as a long-time Christian, I am still learning every day. I have become much more forgiving of the days I rebelled. I realized I was a lemming, part of a cultural moment that needed to take me to the dark side but showed me those pesky problems within the way the secular around me processed Christianity. Without the shackles of Catholic dogma, I was able to gather my thoughts and learn. As a culture, we are navigating this awkward space, where for fifty years, Roe v. Wade was the norm but now has been overturned. This is a true revival, where the enlightened need to become teachers with a heart to evangelize. It doesn’t mean it will be easy. There will be conflict, and there will be those in denial, but that effort must never terminate. Evangelists need to understand what many young people and minorities are going through so they can address issues like church attendance plummeting and strained relationships between Christian parents and secular children and what has shaped many institutions around us.

The How

But yet, this is not a memoir, though I will include many stories about my life. Though this will be unique, as I’m a freelance journalist. Over the last year, I found that people were interested in my hot take on current issues. I didn’t realize that my internal dialogue was actually mainstream, so I started getting published. You will read some of those writings here, which will also give you a link to my business background and my connections in the entertainment industry. People on the ground seemed to take to my brutally honest perspective, perhaps because they were as equally frustrated with the slanted perspectives of the mainstream media. It’s just that the world is silencing many of these perspectives. It’s not because there are fewer of us. What felt so private, unique, and exclusive to me was actually the pulse of my generation. And that’s why we have this book: it somehow felt important to be written and published.

You’ll also get a glimpse of how I learned how to break age-old Asian and American dogma, questioning traditions and the woke movement simultaneously, and hence, that struggle and the ensuing lessons on my journey to find the truth would be my minority retort. Beyond these skin color attributes, where I’m a minority within the majority, I am also a minority within a minority in thought. The ultimate truth doesn’t label, and the full truth cannot be found when we stick to one tribe and believe that they can give us the full picture. God gives us a choice to make mistakes and come back to Him after we learn key lessons. This period of darkness is what helps us reach others in the dark.

The hope is that this book will give you, at the very least, another angle of seeing the world and a unique journey. Certainly, it’s a perspective that is often silenced or ignored by the narrow slice of the world the big established media presents, but it is also a different angle from what the big established church represents. I pray that it will help you get closer to the ultimate, raw truth and inspire positive action.

Introduction

While growing up, politics was never an interest of mine. It was rarely talked about in my household, though my parents were not the biggest fan of Bill Clinton, who made the presidency look like a daily soap opera. My first real exposure to politics was following Pearl Jam on tour. So I actually got a glimpse of the whole Democrat strategy of using celebrities to influence the kids on politics.

They had the whole Rock the Vote effort, which lightly pushed people to sign up as Democrats because, obviously, they were the only party that cared for the people. But yet, Eddie Vedder, the lead singer, was supporting Ralph Nader, an independent third-party candidate, only to release his venom towards George W. Bush later, when Bush won the election.

I felt like I was a liberal. You have limited information, but those values sound exciting and make sense. Women should have the right to choose what they do with their bodies, love is love, etc. But the first overt experience I had in politics was when my uncle from New York, who I hadn’t seen since I was a kid, came to Los Angeles and wanted to see me. I had just graduated college and was excited to catch up. He said he was staying at a hotel near the airport and told me to meet him in a conference room.

I did not realize that I was being misled into an Asian Americans for Howard Dean rally. But I quietly listened and observed a forty-five-minute show in a mostly-empty room, save for my uncle and a few UCLA activists. What I heard was insufferable, awkward, and disjointed. So maybe I’m not a liberal? The part I remember was the pandering. Dean didn’t even come off as he knew much about Asian people, and I certainly didn’t feel that we needed to be lumped in.

Anyways, I researched both parties and found that I kind of agreed with the republican platform even though I had been subject to all this negative messaging about Republicans. I wasn’t crazy about President Bush, but 9-11 happened, and I was concerned about international terrorism on some shallow level. So maybe, I lean more republican? Over the years, despite Bush’s falling popularity, I could not stomach the alternative. I saw how the Democrats, in 2007, torpedoed an immigration bill that was supposed to be bipartisan. So the question is, they say they support immigrants, but their actions prove otherwise? By 2008, I saw the same fakeness in candidate Obama and it was seeing the republican side’s vision, mainly Sarah Palin’s, that got me energized that in the political arena, there was a lone voice that actually represented close to who I am and my value system.

That ticket went to lose, but I had actually listened to the words, arguments, and facts and watched the Obama presidency like a hawk. I saw how things were rapidly changing in the country and questioned the wisdom of big stimulus packages, Obamacare, and other democratic ideas at play. I saw perfectly good roads being repaved through stimulus dollars, and roads that actually needed repair remain unrepaired. I saw Obamacare raise my insurance premiums and co-pays and deductibles when actually implemented, basically punishing me for good health.

Many figured that out too. The world was starting to change in the early 2010s, and by the age of Trump in 2015 and 2016, we had a country so divided and friendships ending (or beginning) based on two different Americas and, of course, a bombastic personality who all the politically correct people couldn’t stand.

After Trump got elected, I had established my career and understanding of the financial industry and felt it was time to leave New York and come back to California, where I started to get back involved in the community. As I got involved with local community efforts, I saw how people were shifting politically on the ground. I knew that there needed to be a balance as the state moved towards a supermajority of Democrats who were ramming through bad policy after bad policy. So I engaged our Republican politicians but saw that many were just as bad. Others became lifelong friends.

Politics generally attract the worst type of people who don’t even know when a project is futile because, most times, they are so blinded by their personal ambitions they can’t see the big picture. Every day, the MAGA movement started to make more sense: people were fed up with politicians, period. That is why Trump got elected to start with.

In my analysis, the political industry has been built around an aura of celebrity, which is the root problem. It really goes back to the second commandment, You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God (Exodus 20:4) (paraphrased by the author). Little children, keep yourselves from idols (Colossians 3:5) (paraphrased by the author). When liberals laugh at the real America, they’re laughing at those who reject the notion of deifying other fallible human beings. I realized that the real America, we the people, is the only hope left for this country. A Texas rural farmer’s priorities are way better than a California pothead’s who just wants to chill.

Speaking of chill, I’m not chill. I’ve never been chill. I am direct, and I take pride in my will to fight and speak my truth. Chill is overrated. Chill has led my generation to marijuana addiction, useless lives, useless majors in college, and over-emotionality. I remember when my dad took offense to hippie day at my middle school, and I laughed at him and told him to chill. Now that moment remains one of the most important memories of respect I’ve had for my late father, who dared to stand for something important. Who cares if it wasn’t cool? Or chill? There are more important things in life.

I had a lightbulb moment when I realized those who want you to chill tend to project their own over-emotionality on anyone who challenges the status quo. It has become a generation of telling you how you feel, as if they can climb into your body and process exactly what you think or feel. But mostly, they are just reacting to emotions they can’t process, so they accuse you of being an emotional mess when they’re just projecting their own. Everyone, stop playing psychologist already. Part of adulting is owning your own emotions.

The worst consequence of this is that most people end up being so clouded by their own messy emotions that simple truths cannot be processed. I got an Ivy League business education at Columbia University and was shocked at how much emphasis was placed on emotion. It felt like mental gymnastics that could have been easily simplified. It felt like simple was an ugly term. But truth really is that simple. Truth may not be what you want to hear. But for the most part, there are two genders, not 128. Okay, I get that certain men are more feminine and women are more masculine. That still does not alter your DNA. I am all for that gender expression diversity but not to the extent of denying objective truths. You can go too far on a good thing, and it becomes a bad thing. I’m all for not boxing people in stereotypes, but I am not going to deny two genders and force the world and society to accommodate a minute minority.

As a minority, I also really don’t want to be boxed into the confines of shallow categories, like what others perceive as Asian or as a male. However, the left has taken this too far by actually making you a slave to the box they created. For them to claim to be the tolerant ones and promote choice, they seem to be doing quite the opposite.

Most importantly, love is love doesn’t mean we have to walk on eggshells to satisfy dishonest brokers who want to control your thought and speech to distance you from the ultimate truth, God’s truth. That does exist. Timeless truths do exist. The Bible’s wisdom never grows old. Hollywood celebrities become washed up, and you realize they are just overgrown kids. And yet our society has devolved to the worst and most futile priorities: being more worried about not offending people than discussing important objective truths and then creating institutions around the creation of fictional categories and overall BS.

This book is hopefully going to be an easy read that addresses our woke cultural moment, how we got here, and how to go back to time-old truths, as you hear my opinions on issues du jour through a series of articles I have published and publicized in the media, a bunch of narratives unique to this manuscript and some of the subsequent reactions and journey I went through as a citizen journalist, never getting paid a dime for writing how I feel. An untainted voice, so to speak. I will also include the most important perspective of all: a regular person who grew up on the cusp of Generation X and millennial and watched public policy like Roe v. Wade play out on a generation of people and a lifetime of the left becoming more left, but going through childhood, college, a master’s degree, working on Wall Street, starting my own small businesses and working for big corporations, with my values tested and ultimately coming out intact, thanks to the legacy of my parents and great adults that raised me.

Chapter 1

How the Culture Got Here

We Have Been Functionally Liberal Since 1992 (and Arguably Before)

An era has just ended, and a new era has begun. I never thought I would see Roe v. Wade overturned in my lifetime. But it looks like a generational frustration that I thought only I individually felt is actually a collective experience. And now, people are hungry for a true change.

In 1973, about two generations were shaped by public policy. The landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which simply was the federal government endorsing abortion,