Posted on 08/31/2014 4:37:01 PM PDT by Kaslin
This is a perennial question which has flummoxed Republican strategists for years and continues to defy conventional political logic and planning. While it is impossible – and politically perilous – to attempt to take any American demographic group and treat them as a homogenous block, on the major issues of the day one would think that the GOP would be a natural fit for the majority of American Jews. When you look, in particular, at which party provides the staunchest support for Israel, there really is no comparison. A host of other topics appear to be a good fit as well, as Zev Chafets observes in an editorial for Fox News.
The American Jewish community – white, assimilated and prosperous – is out-of-place in a Democratic Party determined to build a coalition around an appeal to racial gender minorities, unmarried women, the LGBT community, immigrants and the dependent poor. And while the Jewish community is shrinking because of low birthrates and intermarriage, its Orthodox wing – strongly pro-Israel and socially conservative – is gaining in numbers and self-confidence…
All this, according to some conservative pundits, has created a tipping point. In November, they say, Jews could turn out in key congressional elections, especially in Senate contests, and vote for Republicans who have made support for Israel a signature issue. And in 2016, fed up with Obama’s chilly attitude toward the Jewish state and his weakness in the face of Islamic aggression, Jews could abandon their traditional affiliation with the Democrats and give their energy, their contributions and their votes to the Republicans.
Sounds good, right? This is a sunny, optimistic view which has trapped more than a few campaign managers across the country. And to be sure there are a number of highly respected Jewish community leaders, bloggers and business people who are very vocal supporters of the GOP and their support of Israel. So does Zev think that this is finally the year when the rank and file will assemble along the same lines?
I hate to rain on anybody’s inaugural parade, but this is sheer fantasy.
Jews are not simply supporters of the Democratic Party; they are at the heart of everything from union leadership to campaign funding, think-tank policymaking to grass roots organizing…
The fact is, the great majority of American Jewish Democrats see their party and its agenda as their secular religion. Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish denomination, is sometimes jokingly called “the Democratic Party with holidays.” A lot of Jews would sooner convert to Shia Islam than leave the party of their forefathers.
I wish I had all the answers to these questions and could make a case that Zev is wrong, but I can’t. We struggled with the same things in New York during the 2010 campaign, working vigorously with leaders in the Jewish community, reaching out and looking for a foothold. We lost the Jewish vote in a landslide.
I think some of the assumptions which Zev notes as common knowledge in his piece are also somewhat hollow. For example, I believe that it’s true that the lion’s share of American Jewish voters are strong supporters of Israel. But it’s equally true that these are not single issue voters, and that one policy stance alone is not enough to get them hoisting a new flag. Further, Chafets’ characterization of Jews as white, assimilated and prosperous is not only a generalization, but borders on offensive. There are plenty of folks in the Jewish community who are struggling in a tough economy just like everyone else, and policies which benefit the economically successful don’t automatically become a winning, bread basket issue for them.
Still, it always sounds like the Jewish vote would fit far better with a conservative alliance than with the liberals. Why doesn’t it happen? I wish I could tell you. Is it about to change in 2014? I think Zev is probably on the money here, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it.
No....LIBERALISM TRUMPS EVERYTHING!!!
No. Why should they be any less tribal than anyone else? The days of voting one’s political principles are over for the majority of the voting public, the days of voting one’s personal interests, gone, one’s class interests, waning, and all that is left is the tribe. The public is getting and will continue to get the government it deserves - good and hard. Apologies to Mencken.
Nope.
Anti semetism is making a comeback, with roots in the dem party. Some day Jewish dems may be out in the cold.
That’s interesting. I didn’t know that.
So what caused the shift? There were no black “leaders” at the time. I suspect chicanery.
American Liberal Jews (that’s most of ‘em) will vote Republican when pigs fly.
Anybody out there busily investing in pork belly futures against the possibility of flying pigs raising the price of bacon sky high?
I thought not.
I believe that Jews...American Jews,at least,have a basic mindset that’s not very different from that of blacks.That is,victimhood.Or,perhaps,potential victimhood.Of course it’s understandable that black people of even 50-60 years ago could see themselves as victims.Ditto Jews.I suspect that American Jews see their existence,even here,even today,to be quite tenuous despite being comfortable...if not wealthy.We all know that the Rat Party is the party of victim hood and victimizers.
It must have been about an offer from the dems in the New Deal, welfare of some sort, but how did they get out the information instantly to so many voters in so many states?
Until 1936 blacks always voted republican, for instance in 1932 roosevelt got 23% of the black vote, and then in 1936 FDR got 71% of the black vote, and blacks have forever since been the dedicated democrat voters that we all know.
That blows away all these excuses that people offer for things like the Catholic vote and the Jewish vote, that it is “habit” or “traditions”, or a “legacy of the old country”, and so on.
Most American Jews, like most American Christians, no longer practice their religion and are JINOs or CINOs.
End of story.
America was founded, based on the idea that it's citizens were a moral people, as that ceases, so will America.
With lbgt, gay marriage, welfare whores, 50% of the population looking for a hand out, drugs and politicians with no ideals, we are doomed.
It took 500 years for the Roman empire to collapse, America won't make 300 years.
if they have developed brains ?
most of those that I know have not ....still Dems
no matter what .
Simple answer is NO
Orthodox conservative Jews have always supported the GOP or conservative candidate. Those who are red diaper doper babies and self hating liberals will NEVER support a conservative
And even if they did, Jews make up only 1.4% of the U.S. population and they're concentrated in states that are thoroughly blue. I don't think it would do much good.
Again...very interesting. How they got the word out quickly is a very good question.
And the percentages raise an even more interesting question in my mind. How many black people voted in 1936?
I will stand by my statement of “habit”. I have many older relatives, smart folks, that still vote democrat. If you ask them if they know what the party has become...they don’t hear what I am saying.
Party identification is still a very important thing to some people.
I'm not aware of any proof of that, what sources do you have for the voting history of Orthodox Jews?
You seem to be saying that the American people are so uninformed that they vote against their own self-interest. If so, you would be right on the mark.
The average jew is not a political dummy, they vote for the politics that they support, and when given a viable candidate that is to the left of the democrats, for example Eugene Debs of the Socialist party in 1930, they went 38% for him.
When you look at the history of Jewish activism and activity in the Unites States, it has always been fighting for, writing for, financially supporting, and leading the left.
If they do great, but why do we agonize over it, again and again.
Sure, Blacks as well. Maybe we can also count on Hobbits and unicorns.
the GOP will not be the “chosen party”.
Other than folks of that description who have said so....and the voting patterns in certain NY enclaves. Rabbi Lapin and Dennis Prager routinely suggest as much
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