Posted on 04/02/2015 7:39:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Liberals believe that social engineering can bring about universal success; conservatives want to foster individual responsibility and initiative. For liberals, the failure of an individual is a failure of society; for conservatives, individuals should be allowed to succeed or fail on their own merits. There are degrees, of course; most conservatives eschew Social Darwinism or Ayn Rand’s egotism, and most liberals do not believe in the strict application of the Communist maxim, “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” But that is the bright line that divides us conservatives from the liberals.
Why are (most) Jews liberals? That is a trickier question than it might seem. The usual explanation is that Napoleon freed the Jews from the ghetto, and Jews ever since have looked to the secular enlightenment as the source of their welfare rather than the often oppressive attitudes of traditional society. The European Socialists in general advanced Jewish interests while European conservatives in general impaired them. Without the French socialists (during the brief postwar premiership of Leon Blum), Britain almost certainly would have arranged for a successful Arab invasion of Palestine to crush the State of Israel in the cradle. There is something to that, but not enough.
Judaism, as historian Paul Johnson once observed, balances individual and collective. Christians who observe an Orthodox Jewish service will be struck by apparent lack of cohesion. During the preliminary reading of Psalms, worshipers proceed at their own pace, sometimes singing lines out loud. When the congregation stands, individuals will rise and sit down at their own pace rather than as a group. The recitation of the Eighteen Benedictions, the prayer at the center of each Jewish service, is an individual audience with the Lord, and some congregants will remains standing even after the leader begins the public repetition; latecomers will stand and recite after the service has moved on. A derogatory German expression cites “Geschrei wie in einer Judenschule,” or screaming as in a synagogue, referring to the occasional cacophony. There are to be sure moments when the congregation speaks as one. When the congregation declares the Shmah (“Hear!”), it does so in two parts: the first (Deut. 6:4-9) is written in first person singular, and the second (Deut. 11:13-21) restates the same themes in first person plural.
In that respect Judaism is in inherently conservative. Christians enter the Church together as Gentiles to be inducted into Israel, and although they are adopted as individuals, they worship as a body; Jews are already members of God’s people and go to synagogue for a private audience with Almighty as well as collective functions. Jewish law provides for the poor, but the prophets want every man to sit under his own vine and fig tree — not the vine and fig tree of a collective farm. And the 10th Commandment specifically forbids a Jew to covet anything of his neighbors (as the rabbis observed, it reads “do not covet, covet,” the only one of the Decalogue to use the emphasis of repetition).
That’s the problem: The vulnerability of the conservative model, as de Tocqueville observed in 1835, is that the losers will use their political power to expropriate the winners and vote themselves rich. It is a proud and self-confident people indeed that is composed of individuals willing to accept failure, pick themselves up, and try again, rather than coveting the success of the winners. If popular jealousy erupts against the success of one’s own countrymen, all the more so will it be directed against a minority.
It is a high-class problem, but the Jews must deal with the fact that they are the most successful people in the history of mankind by any measure: longevity, contributions to arts and sciences, Nobel Prizes, business and philanthropy (Olympic medals being the great exception). Their neighbors have envied their success (and attributed it to a global banking conspiracy or other nefarious enterprise). The aspect of Jewish success that other peoples most envy, though, is Jewish longevity, at a moment when most of the peoples of the world feel the cold breath of mortality on the backs of their necks. Antisemitism is the rancor the dying have for the living. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of Iran, a formerly great nation now facing demographic death. The exception that proves the rule is China, among whose 1.5 billion people there is not a single Jew-hater. China is confident of its own longevity, and the principle that has held China together since the founding of its imperial system is a merciless meritocracy which rewards success and disdains failure.
Jews are liberals because they hope that if everyone succeeds, no-one will envy the Jews’ success. It is a Utopian premise, and wrong, but not quite as crazy as it sounds given the alternative: to assert Jewish success and Jewish particularly in a world full of failures is a dangerous thing. One finds some great nations with a natural affinity to the Jews, such as China and India, and many with an inherent antipathy — not just Iran, but most of Western Europe. In my view, there really is no choice, since it is impossible to engineer the success of peoples who are determined to destroy themselves. But the prosperity, strength and happiness of the Eternal People are unbearable insults in the eyes of peoples who have passed their best-used-by-date. For 3,500 years, we have watched other nations ruin themselves, and become dust on the scales and a drop of the bucket. Alone among all the peoples who lived between the Indus River and the Pillars of Hercules, we speak and write a language that was spoken and written more than 3,000 years ago. How could the fragile, extinction-prone peoples of the world in their existential anguish not covet Jewish longevity?
That is true not only globally but among American constituencies. Now that the Democratic Party has become the party of rancorous losers, its traditional support for Israel has diminished. 83% of Republicans support Israel against the Palestinians, but only 48% of Democrats do:
Americans have become “a nation of takers,” in Nicholas Eberstadt’s phrase. We elected Barack Obama twice, and now have an administration that is unabashedly hostile to the State of Israel and its existential interests. There may or may not be a natural majority for the conservative position in the United States, which means that Israel might be abandoned by its principal ally. The impulse to submerge Jewish success in the liberal project for universal success is misguided but entirely understandable. The alternative is no bed of roses, as we are learning at the moment.
Article printed from Spengler: http://pjmedia.com/spengler
Many of those immigrants and their children, grandchildren never lost that allegiance to the Dem Party. For many, Republicans were always identified with the east coast, effete Republicans who denied them jobs and entry into universities.
There was also a radical leftist segment of Jews who were active in European politics who were also shut out from society and sought a new society through Marxism. While many American Jewish Dems were full-bore capitalists, other Jews (Chomsky, Zinn, etal) kept alive the radical leftist tradition.
American Jews are not quite as uniform in their voting as Blacks. In 1980 40% of Jews voted for Reagan. That's a sizable amount for a candidate who was so openly conservative. That means there's hope that American Jews can again see the light and give up on the destructive Democrat Party.
Later
“Jews have given up on God and worship the state.”
Speak for yourself.
Here’s my analysis. And since I am a Jew I can say this and not be called an anti-semite.
There are Jews and there are Jewish people. All Jews are Jewish by not all Jewish people are Jews. A Jew is a Zionist that practices Judaism. A Jewish person is a secular statist who pretends to be a Jew.
Hitler wanted to kill Jewish people. Without a state, Jews were collateral damage. A Jew will vote for a Republican. A Jewish person would vote for Hitler if he had a “D” next to his name.If you want to know which Jewish people Hitler wanted dead, look no further than Obama’s czars.
> “Why Are Jews Liberal?”
Not all are liberal but the majority are for a simple reason.
Jews are a minority. Republicans are predominately White Christian. Jews therefore go to the party that they think gives them more leverage.
But that ignores the fact there are many fine prominent Jewish Conservatives. But such Jews are a minority inside a minority.
So it’s the underlying leftist tendency to see any majority population/demographic as inherently evil and oppressive.
Altruism with other people’s (confiscated) money… is NOT altruism, but theft!
“From each according to his abilities (YOU DON’T OWN what you earn), to each according to his needs.” (who gets to make THAT decision?... hint NOT YOU!)
And crucifixion was not a Jewish method of execution.
I need a Not This Sh** Again Guy wearing a yarmulke.
I can tell you that not one of my liberal Jewish family or acquaintances thinks about Napoleon when he or she votes. Lovely historical essay, but it’s far more psychological and simple:
NON ORTHODOX JEWS ARE COWED BY MOCKING AND LOSING PERSONAL CONNECTIONS when they go conservative. Most of them, like most of humans, want to be accepted in their own tribe. So they won’t stick their heads up for ridicule.
How do I know this??? BECAUSE I STUCK MY HEAD UP. I had to endure things at large groups like “you aren’t a member of the [disgusting look comes across face] Tea Party, now, are you?” We got the same Chanukah gift at the big party for two straight years way back when: Bob Dole’s Book of Wit. Because Conservative. We got dissed, we got avoided. We got their best arguments, in a family setting where you need to be respectful. It’s hard to endure and most don’t want to.
However, since Coming Out as a Conservative (if I’d come out as a lesbian I’d have been the VIP of every fsmily event I am sure, with people dying to be “close to me” to show how cool they were to have a gay niece or cousin etc), other people who are still closeted have sidled up and privately told me they were voting Romney etc. That is the best they can do. Put that cool Obama sticker on the Benz but secretly vote against him.
They are cowed. THAT IS WHY. They want to be cool and accepted. And black friends have told me it is the same thing in their culture.
I know you’re in the trenches in Hollywood and you hate libs. I had a lot of respect for you. Just lost it now to see you so virulently anti-Semitic.
Don’t do that because... well, because everyone says not to do that.
Interesting question. Many “highly” educated people are more liberal and tend to be less religious. Many, not all. As a culture Jewish people tend to be well educated. Since 1901, the year it was first awarded, 193 of 855 Nobel Prizes were awarded to Jews. That’s 23%. Jews make up .2% of the world’s population. Almost all the Jewish people I know are atheists. Granted its a small sample, but it is what it is. I also acknowledge that I live in a predominantly liberal area ( Boston, MA)
Seems right to me.
Jews are mostly Dems because they already have a seat at the Democrat table. There are very few Jews at the Republican table. What they believe is almost irrelevant. Why do conservatives stay in Massachusetts or Minnesota? It’s comfort; family, friends, familiar job, familiar climate.
Jews! Go back to Temple! If you are not a temple going Jew—you are a shame to God—Liberal, Conservative, Orthodox or Reform—go to Temple! Christians—go to church too—Don’t use the moniker of Christ if you don’t belong to his fellowship! You don’t like your church—find another you do like! God Bless you all!
All that history nonsense doesn’t explain the Jewish vote, not then, and not now.
Jews vote as they wish, for the politics that they support, they are not voting because of distant history and Ellis Island, etc., blah, blah, blah.
They pick up the newspaper, watch the news, watch the candidates, look at their positions, and then pull the lever for the politics that suit them.
Of course in the voting booth, no one knows which lever you pull.
If one isn’t a true liberal but is so timid that he doesn’t want anyone to know that he isn’t, he can still vote as he wishes, it is a secret how he votes.
Really? a perfect record for 150 years and you offer an explanation that is only possible in fairly recent times?
When blacks and women were voting republican, the Jews were still voting against the GOP, and for even the Socialist party when they could, and the democrats didn't become anti-Christian until very modern times.
Explain to me how it doesn't. Many people, like my socially conservative Cathlic parents, voted for Dems for decades up to their deaths in their old age. Because Dems were the party of the poor and Republicans were for the rich.
Or so said my parents who grew up poor during the Great Depression. Many people vote the way their parents or ancestors voted. To deny historic reasons is ridiculous.
May be you didn’t read my post right, but of course i don’t give a shiite.. Darn it, Freepers are so slow’ to comprehend that not adding a sarc tag will always be in the interest for everyone who is offended easily.
You really think that Jews are just stupid people that don’t keep up with the news and politics, so they just keep voting like it is 1900?
Blacks switched parties in the 1936 election, from republican to democrat in a single election, are they smarter than 30 year old Jews?
Hispanics tend to switch party voting when they become Protestant Christians from catholic, this idea that Jews who are a sophisticated people in general are getting out of their Southern Californian hot tub to vote against the politics that they really want, because they think it is 1890, is silly.
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