Poll: 75% of US Jews favor Kerry over Bush

Jpost ^ | 17 aug 04 | Janine Zacharia

[white trash redneck]

A new poll commissioned by the National Jewish Democratic Council says American Jews will still vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, despite US President George W. Bush's policies toward Israel, which have been widely praised by the Jewish community.

The poll, released on Monday, said American Jews preferred Kerry to Bush by a 75 to 22 percent margin. The survey of 817 likely Jewish voters was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research between July 26 and 28, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

Respondents said in 2000 they had voted for Vice President Al Gore over Bush by a similar margin of 76 to 21 percent.

Exit polls in 2000 showed Gore won 79 percent of the Jewish vote, and Bush 19 percent.

"The White House and (President Bush's political adviser) Karl Rove in particular have expended a lot of resources on this Jewish vote. Just like with Hispanics, they've come up with zero," said Ira Forman, executive director of NJDC.

Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, a rival group, discounted the survey's results since the poll was taken during the Democratic Convention in Boston.

"I discount these findings because this poll was taken right in the middle of the Democratic Convention, right in the middle of a massive deluge of Kerry press coverage," Brooks said.

"We stand firmly committed to the notion that President Bush will do substantially better among Jewish voters than he did in 2000," Brooks added.

Another survey of American Jewish opinion in January found that 31 percent of Jews would support Bush when matched with Kerry, who was not yet the nominee at the time.

The new NJDC survey said 66 percent found Kerry to be better on the issue of Israel, while 34 percent found Bush to be. Only 23 percent of respondents felt the country was moving in the right direction, while 77 percent said it was on the wrong track. Twenty-five percent approved strongly or somewhat of the way Bush is handling his job as president, while 75 percent disapproved strongly or somewhat.

A new national Zogby survey released Monday showed Kerry ahead of Bush 47 to 43 percent. Without Independent Ralph Nader and other candidates the lead stretched to 50 to 43 percent.

[Brian Allen]

White Castle: -- What you crave.

Now to wean all y'all on to Republicanism!

[veronica]

I don't know what issues swirl around in the Jewish community but I do know that the deaf community don't care a bit about their huge unemployment rates, low education, or horrible English literacy rates. They instead focus on silly things like getting more shows to be federally closed-captioned. I think this is the same with all "minority" groups including Judiasm, and of American voters at large. Immediate benefits, not long-term solutions.

So Jews vote Democrat so they can "get stuff?" But I thought all Jews cared about was money?? They can buy their own stuff, therefore.

BTW - most of the GOP Jews I know are middle-aged, and have been Republican since Reagan or before.

Plus, I remind some of the not-so-brights on this thread, that Charles Krauthammer, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Bill Kristol, and a whole list of others are not only Republican Jews, but are among the most respected and influential of Republican Jews.

[veronica]

I think Reagan got 40% of the Jewish votes mainly because of Carter.

The Jews I know care about Israel, but about the US first and foremost. Poppy Bush was not too great on Israel, but I voted for him anyway, because he was better for the US.

Apparently you people refuse to give American Jews credit for caring about America.

[Nataku X]

If I came across as singling Jewish people out as people who are out to "get stuff", I am sincerely sorry and please accept my apologies. I was trying to illustrate the point that minority groups, and American voters as a whole, are more focused on immediate benefits, not on long-term solutions to the problems that plague them. Again, I don't know if this is true of Judiasm because I don't know what issues affect them other than Israel.

I speak as a deaf person in a deaf community who doesn't care about the fact that the average deaf school graduate has a 4th grade reading level or that 85% are unemployed. They hate Bush for a passion because he shifted closed-captioning funding from some entertaining programs to educational/news programs.

[Nataku X]

Oops, didn't pass Grammar 101. That should have read that the deaf community THAT does not care about unemployment, illiteracy, etc.

[Radioactive]

You said..."How could such an educated and responsible group of people be so politically stupid for so long?"

I say...."They are going to vote for him because he is Jewish."

His grand parents were jews and he is living a lie. He should be proud of who he is and admit he is jewish.

His grandparents last name is Cohen. His grandfather committed suicide.

[Wallace T.]

Franklin Roosevelt may have been somewhat snobbish towards Jews on a social level. However, his administration had several Jews in prominent positions, including Henry Morgenthau and Felix Frankfurter, something no Administration had had previously (with the exception of the Confederate Cabinet of Jefferson Davis). As did his predecessor as governor of New York, Alfred Smith, Roosevelt assidously courted Jewish voters away from both the Socialist and Republican Parties. His successor as governor of the Empire State, Herbert Lehman, was the first Jew to serve in said position.

You must remember that FDR developed a vocal rightist opposition. Antisemitism was widespread in the Army's officer corps, especially the intelligence services. Many intelligence officers believed Communism to be a Jewish-run conspiracy. That many Jews held leftist political views helped foster the conspiracy mentality. Their views were widely spread into conservative and especially populist ranks. Father Charles Coughlin, a populist orator, spread these views in his popular radio show, particularly among German-Americans (both Lutheran and Catholic) and his fellow Irish Catholics. (Coughlin does not seem to have been popular among Italian-Americans.) The automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, like Coughlin a Michigander, widely spread anti-Semitic literature through his dealerships in the 1920s. There were gangs of rightist militants, such as the German American Bund, that assaulted Jews in cities like New York and Chicago.

In the more genteel circles of the Northeastern Establishment, Jews were barred or subject to strict quotas at the prestigious private academies and Ivy League colleges, country clubs, resorts, commercial banks, and old line investment firms. German Jews whose fortunes dated back to the Robber Baron era, and even Sephardic Jews whose forbears came to America in colonial times, were subject to the same barriers that the son of someone who left Minsk in 1912 was. This fact helped solidify the Jewish community, leveling the differences of nationality and class.

When Jews looked at the Republican and rightist opposition to Roosevelt, they saw both the "country club" snobs and people who believed that the Jews were the hidden force behind Communism. There is nothing to suggest that Wendell Willkie, Arthur Vanderberg, Thomas Dewey, or Robert Taft had any ill feelings towards Jews. There were many principled advocates of the free market and limited government in that era as well. However, most Jews did not look at the message of the GOP and the anti-FDR opposition. They saw J.P. Morgan and Charles Lindbergh. Sixty years later, many Jews still see the forces opposed to liberalism as stealth anti-Semites even if those forces strongly support Israel. Whether or not their position is reasonable, it remains a formidable, perhaps insuperable, obstacle for the Republican Party.

[malakhi]

Why shouldn't I expect them to be?

Christians aren't the same as they were 1900 years ago, either.

This is a not uncommon misperception among evangelical Christians. If the only (or primary) information you have about Jews is from reading the bible, you are missing 2,000 to 3,000 years of intervening history. Judaism is not sola scriptura. There is a vast body of interpretation and commentary, which continues up to this day.

[malakhi]

I say...."They are going to vote for him because he is Jewish." His grand parents were jews and he is living a lie. He should be proud of who he is and admit he is jewish. His grandparents last name is Cohen. His grandfather committed suicide.

His father was Jewish, but Kerry himself is not. Jewishness is passed matrilineally. Kerry's brother is Jewish, because he converted.

[biblewonk]

Christians aren't the same as they were 1900 years ago, either.

There are only about an infinite number of ways for them to be "the same" or not. In a great many ways they are exactly the same.

[SJackson]

I say...."They are going to vote for him because he is Jewish."

His grand parents were jews and he is living a lie. He should be proud of who he is and admit he is jewish.

His grandparents last name is Cohen. His grandfather committed suicide.

Right, that's why Jew'll vote for Kerry, same reason they all voted for Goldwater.

I presume you consider Evangelism a fraud?

[Jim_Curtis]

Yo, Jim, I seem to remember you accusing Jews of having a millenia long hangup, guilty conscience i suppose, about killing Jesus. Thus these Jewish problems.

I guess you better dig it up, remember to include the context. You wouldn't just leave the implication hanging out there without attempting to back it up, would you?

To: SJackson

What a strange concept it is to judge each other based on our fathers' deeds. I have known wonderful people who had horrible fathers and horrible people with wonderful fathers.

Maybe it's a Jewish custom to judge people this way and maybe that explains the anxiety over what some people had a part in 2000 years ago carrying over to their descendents so many generations later.

27 posted on 02/25/2004 6:51:57 PM PST by Jim_Curtis

To: Jim_Curtis

Yeah, it's all a Jewish thing, we're still guilty about the Crucifixion and all. Thanks for the intelligent comment.

28 posted on 02/25/2004 6:54:08 PM PST by SJackson (Visit http://www.JewPoint.blogspot.com)

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies ]

To: SJackson

Is it "guilt"? I hadn't even considered that. I gotta admit that all this Christian bashing that has been going on lately has given me some guilt about the feelings I'm having about the bashers.

And if I've heard it once I've heard it 20 times in the last couple of weeks from people I know "What the hell is their problem" and "their" is who you think it is...and I don't know any anti-semites.

***

So, it turns out that you falsely attributed one of your statements to me so as to imply that I'm a Jew hater. How low can you go?

[Alouette]

Liberalism has become the primary religion for secular American Jews. I was brought up "Reform." I became Orthodox more than 30 years ago and my parents still haven't come to terms with it.

But what's even worse for them to bear is that I have "converted" to the Republican party. On my last visit (last week) I think we had more arguments about politics than religion.

Fortunately, there is another family member who is a big supporter of the Republican party, as well as sponsoring MEMRI.org and many other pro-Israel organizations and PACs. He has a great deal of influence in the community and is actively urging Jews to vote Republican.

[mench]

To the best of my knowledge there are no such polls. However, there is instinct and common sense. As a Jew I know that a overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews are very pro Bush. I also just can't imagine my fellow Jews being so stupid. Forget about history and drop statistics. This stuff is irrelevant in real life. The world is in a dangerous and weird situation, full of hatred. Jews know good and well that their only friend among todays world leaders is President Bush.

[SJackson]

So, it turns out that you falsely attributed one of your statements to me so as to imply that I'm a Jew hater. How low can you go?

I didn't say you're a Jewhater, though you strike me as a nutcase.

You're right, you didn't say "guilt", you said "anxiety". Thanks for your concern about Jewish "anxiety".

BTW, any facts to post in answer to the questions about your most Jews wish doom upon Christianity assertations?

..............

Maybe it's a Jewish custom to judge people this way and maybe that explains the anxiety over what some people had a part in 2000 years ago carrying over to their descendents so many generations later.

[wardaddy]

Boy, I know the Eugenia Phillips and that awful evil man General Butler story quite well.....it's SEARED in my memory...lol....she was a Belle Heroine!

There is a lot of old Jewish history in the old south....mostly Sephardic. I deer hunt near a sleepy old deep south town of Port Gibson Mississippi which was once a Planter's town and figured in Mark Twain's literature and boasted several old temples back in the old days. They are still there and there has been a movement afoot to preserve them both there and in the Delta region. The members have almost all moved on. That was a rare time when Jews were actually involved in agricultural and pastoral pursuits but now so many years later most have moved on to cities.

Port Gibson is all oaks and magnolias and spanish moss and rolling hills covered in kudzu....it reeks of Old South and a sense of sadness. It's one of my favorite places.

Here's a pic of the Windsor Ruins....Twain used Windsor as a landmark during his steamboat days:(interesting link on that pic btw)

[Bella_Bru]

I guess you didn't get the sarcasm.

[Bella_Bru]

they are not more talented or smarter, but they are ruthless and the Jews help one another go up the ladder

Did you get that straight out of the National Alliance handbook?

[Bella_Bru]

THE ONLY REASON I CAN SEE WHY AMERICAN JEWS VOTE THE WAY THEY DO IS THAT THEY PURSUE MONEY ISSUES ABOVE ALL ELS

Typing in ALL CAPS does not make you appear smarter, moron. You are a liar, and the newest addition to my bitch list. Mazel Tov, I have only added one other so far this year.

If Jews pursued money issues above all, then we would always vote for whomever would give the best tax cuts.

[Jim_Curtis]

I didn't say you're a Jewhater, though you strike me as a nutcase

You're right, you didn't say "guilt", you said "anxiety". Thanks for your concern about Jewish "anxiety".

"And Jews throughout this country know the history of hate and violence that can be sparked by this kind of powerful material," David Gad-Harf, head of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, said Wednesday. "We feel secure and well established here in our country, but we know this history. We know what has happened in the past. That's why we've got such a high level of anxiety."

I can give you many examples of others asking the same thing during that time, are they all nut cases?

Can you go any lower?