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My grandfather came to NYC from somewhere in Russia in the early 1900’s. He was probably met on the dock by a political hack from the Democrat party who gave him a meal, a coat and finding out what he did for a living, a job. He became a Democrat.

My father was born in NY. The family lived in Brownsville, Brooklyn. With all their neighbors and the community all experiencing what my grandfather experienced, they were all Democrat. This meant my father was a Democrat. Like every other young man in the neighborhood, my father went to Korea, won a couple of medals, came home and found a job in Manhattan. As did most of his friends.

Like everyone else at that time, my father met a nice Jewish girl, got married and sometime during the next 13 months, I was born. I grew up listening to my father and his friends talk. I became a Democrat. I was the kid, told to lay in the street when the local teens protested Kent State. My school was integrated and black kids were bussed in. Older kids I knew who one day were teaching me to play ball, suddenly vanished. A few came back. A few didn’t. I became a Democrat.

Then one morning, I woke up, heard that Russia went into Afghanistan. I also heard about Iran taking Americans hostage. But most importantly, some idiot from Plains Georgia, instead of doing something meaningful, was hitting imaginary rabbits with an oar. Also, my parents started complaining more and more about how their hard earned money is being taken from them by the “schmucks in Washington.”

My parents became Republicans. Not long after that, I went into the military and my first vote in any election was for Ronald Reagan. I was now a Republican.

Here is the difference. Wealthy liberal Jews stayed in a circle of friends, working the system to their benefit. Their involvement in their employment,lifestyle and political aspirations kept them in the Democrat fold. My father and his friends and co-workers could no longer afford to be Democrats.

For the wealth Jew, that elitism over his fellow Jews was the downfall. They became “Jewish.” My father remained a “Jew.”