Posted on 11/13/2014 12:24:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In this year's midterms, Jews voted for Republican candidates more than they have in any election in the last decade.
First, some raw facts. In the 2006 midterm elections, 87 percent of Jews voted for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives. Last week, in the 2014 midterm elections, 66 percent cast ballots for Democrats. That's a 21-point drop in eight years—and, it might seem, a major cause for celebration among the likes of the Republican Jewish Coalition and philo-Semitic political strategists everywhere.
But while Jewish support for Democrats has definitely declined over the last decade, the context is important. Poll numbers show how people are voting, but it's more difficult to figure out what they mean for the role of Jews in American politics.
And for such a small group, that's a big question.
Here are some of the other constituencies that make up 2 percent of the American electorate: customer-service representatives. People who participate in archery and bowhunting. AOL users. Residents of Indiana. So why all the attention?
"The importance of the Jews isn't their votes," said Benjamin Ginsberg, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. "They account for a huge share of the activist base of the Democratic Party and account for much of the money available to Democratic candidates. If you are a Republican strategist, it seems fairly obviously that if you can shift Jewish support even a little bit away from the Democrats, it makes the Democratic Party less competitive."(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Really? When some 75% of American Jews voted for obozo both times???
Because War, War Never Changes.
Hard to understand that. I don't think that the Nazis did much of an outreach to the communists and socialists, but rather treated them as enemies in Germany, even though the Nazis themselves had "socialist" in the party name. For example, the infamous Reichstag fire in 1933 was blamed on a Dutch communist, and socialists and communists (as well as others who didn't follow the Nazi line) were forced out of the Reichstag (parliament) soon after Hitler was named chancellor.
I know that for a two year period between 1939-41 when the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact was intact, communists around the world, including in the US, were silent as Hitler started WWII and Germany invaded and occupied quite a number of European nations. Then the communists worldwide reversed themselves again in June 1941 when the Germans launched their surprise attack on the Soviets.
From this Jewish conservative perspective, I couldn't have put it much better. Voting for the party of Obama is masochistic for American Jews, and for many others as well.
Of course voting Republican for Senate and/or House isn't any guarantee of all that much change in the climate in Washington over the next few years, but at least it's a first step for pushback against the 'Rats' dictatorship.
Agreed.
My Dad always said a nation gets the politicians it deserves, but he didn’t live to see O. Fortunately for him.
He would have had a heart attack to see just how far USA has been subverted, pushed downhill, and so fast too (he’s only been in office 6 years!?)
The Republican Jewish vote in NY was suppressed by redistricting in 2012. In 2011, NY-9, then the most Jewish district in the country, went Republican-Conservative as did most of the Jewish vote. In 2012, the state Democrats punished the increasingly Orthodox and Russian district by destroying it, splitting it into other heavily Democrat districts. This year, with Democrat incumbents guaranteed to win in Congress and teh governorship, many right-leaning Jews stayed home.
Interesting story came out a few days after the election: “Friends of the IDF” raised a record $33M in a gala in Beverly Hills this week. This year they refused anonymous gifts, saying it was important for people to stand publicly with Israel. The biggest donors to the FIDF were, of course, the biggest donors to the Dems. Ironic, to me anyway.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hollywood-gala-raises-a-record-33-million-for-idf/
“The Jews”
All if them? So the hundreds of conservative Jewish Freepers live socialism? Seriously, you are an idiot.
Please explain exactly what you are referring to there.
If what you mean is a majority of American Jews supporting 'Rats, then I, as a Jewish conservative, would call it more like an addiction than a tradition.
My guess is that if you subdivided American Jews into those who have been to Israel and those who have not, you would see a distinct difference in attitude and a distinct difference in voting patterns.
It has been reported, for example, that in the last presidential election, about 85% of Americans abroad in Israel voted for Romney vs. Obama. Of course, this is a relatively small vote and is spread out among a bunch of states so it hardly ever gets mentioned.
34% of the Jews apparently already reject the Democrats, and the number is growing each election.
I doubt the current spread is much different than, say, Irish or Italian Catholics that live in the same large NE cities.
Do you also eagerly condemn Catholics to the gas chambers?
Or just my tribe?
Not entirely a joke. There is a historical connection between the small-town/rural Jews of the Czarist Empire, which is the basis for the musical/film "Fiddler on the Roof," and the adoption of leftist/socialist politics which were transplanted to the US by Jewish immigrants from that time frame and that part of the world. The irrational part of it is that a lot of that mentality still persists today, even though leftist ideology and policy has run counter to Jewish well-being and even survival in the US, Israel, and around the world for decades.
Or just my tribe?
Easy, brother. I admire the Jews and admire Israel. I am simply perplexed that any Jewish person could have voted for muslim sympathizer Obama. Self loathing, suicidal behavior?
I share your frustration with liberal people, and, in particular, liberal Jewish people. They’re idiots.
But I can look at a chart of my family tree, and a full 5/8 were murdered by the Nazis, not counting the endless cousins, uncles, and aunts also dead. 3/8 barely made it out alive, 2/8 being in work camps and 1/8 basically walking across Europe and the ME to Israel.
So, while I despise Democrats, they are not Nazis. At least not yet.
Lots and lots of Jewish people in this world are conservative, and we are slowly (as witnessed by this article) persuading the remnants of my little scattered tribe to join us.
No sense in discouraging us or painting us with the same brush.
Blanket comments like yours are routinely cut and pasted onto Jewish message boards (admittedly out of context) and used to paint conservatives as a hateful, racist, and anti-Semitic.
In fact, there are entire blogs dedicated to quoting Freepers out of context, where you can probably find yourself. For example, the first Google hit of your screen name outside of FR:
http://vikingkitties.blogspot.com/2013/11/fascists-loving-fascists.html
I don’t ask for you to not share your frustration. I share it.
I ask for you to understand how your statements can be taken out of context and used to harm the conservative cause, in particular among the Jewish people, which is my focus.
So, think about this a bit before you post a broad-brush statement.
Also, ease up on the Shoa references. That’s not abstract history to many. That is my family and many others.
Thank you.
Yep.
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