Posted on 09/30/2004 8:36:26 AM PDT by nypokerface
MERCER ISLAND, Wash -- Two prominent, long-time Democrats have said they will vote in November for President Bush: One is United States Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia; the other is former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
My experience as a lecturer and talk radio host assures me, however, that they will not be alone. Enormous numbers of Jewish voters, all long-time Democrats and more, I believe, than current polling indicates, will also be voting for President Bush. Let me tell you why.
No country has been a more stalwart friend of Israel than the United States. No other society has been more hospitable to its Jewish population. It is hard to think of another nation in which a Jewish community has enjoyed a longer period of tranquility and affluence.
The bond that has always existed between the United States and its Jews is so conspicuous that it has even attracted foreign attention. Hundreds of books have been published in Europe, Asia and many Islamic countries, chronicling the extraordinary prominence that Jews enjoy in the United States.
Many of these popular volumes are not necessarily anti-Semitic, as one might think; they are, rather, the result of a simple observation that would be clear to anyone who was not a recent immigrant from Patagonia: U.S. Jews are disproportionately represented among our country's elite.
There have been instances of anti-Semitic discrimination in the United States, yet it seems churlish to harp on them, given the many Jews who can still remember the terror of the frequent Saturday night pogroms in Eastern Europe -- not to mention what it might have been like to have been a German Jew during the period 1930-45.
Alongside the heart-stopping uncertainty of daily life that most European Jews experienced over the past few hundred years, getting denied admission by a Jewish medical school quota or not being allowed to buy a home in some choice neighborhood hardly ranks as a serious problem. Life has certainly been good for U.S. Jews.
For 2,000 years, in different countries and at different times, the wandering Jew found a resting place for his weary feet, some more hospitable than others.
Many, however, were downright painful but were, thankfully, only temporary. After two world wars left the United States as the mightiest economic and military power in the world, its Jewish community achieved maturity and emerged as the healthiest and wealthiest of all Jewish communities.
The hospitality that Jews have enjoyed in the United States is unparalleled in recent times and perhaps even in all time.
One explanation often advanced to account for the hospitality enjoyed by U.S. Jews has been the size of the American Jewish community along with its economic and political influence. In other words, people in the United States have been good to Jews because Jewish power has allowed them no alternative.
In addition to demonstrating astonishing ingratitude, this argument is as wrong headed as claiming that switching on streetlights causes the sun to set. Even a moment's humble reflection reveals that U.S. Jews have achieved prosperity and political prominence precisely because of the security and tranquility they have enjoyed here for so many years.
A valuable clue in the search for an explanation of the United States' fondness for Judaism, is that it comes most often from precisely those politicians who can hardly be said to preside over major centers of Jewish culture. For example, it is hard to make the case that former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., supported Israel in order to placate the large number of Jewish voters in North Carolina.
No, clearly something more profound lies behind several hundred years of affinity and friendship between the United States and Judaism. The question is, what?
The real answer is that in the history of the world, only two nations were founded on an idea rather than on a land. Judaism was founded on monotheism and the United States on freedom. Furthermore, there are only two peoples that foreigners can join with all subsequent rights.
Just try, for example, to become accepted as a naturalized Englishman, Frenchman, Swiss or Japanese. If one becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States or converts to Judaism, one becomes a full American or a full Jew with all rights, save one: a convert to Judaism cannot become king, and a naturalized American cannot attain the presidency.
Shortly after the founding of both the U.S. people and the Jewish people, each experienced a horrendous civil war. Both the war between the North and the South and the war between Judah and Israel were over moral issues and both wars allowed their respective people to continue to grow and prosper.
Only two countries, the United States and Israel, open their doors to immigrants from around the world who share their ideals. Both countries are unique in that their populations mostly comprise immigrants.
The founders of the United States, the Pilgrims, were called "separatists." Similarly the early Jews, Abraham and his family, were called "Ivrim" -- Hebrews, or in English - "separatists."
Early arrivals in both America and Israel found the lands to be populated by pagans who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; in one case, American Indians and in the other, Canaanites. Both people built their capital cities in a manner designed to guarantee equal access for all.
Neither Washington nor Jerusalem belongs exclusively to any one state or tribe.
The intrinsic similarity between these two great nations was not lost on the early Americans. Neither is it lost on their descendants, so many of whom still share a devotion to the Judeo-Christian principles that fueled our earliest visions. Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright" and John Winthrop's "City on the Hill" are only two of the many examples that reflect awareness of this deep spiritual bond that links Judaism and the American dream.
If the United States' support for Israel were based entirely on political expediency, that support would originate from the State Department. It does not. Instead. it springs from the heartland of the United States as a reflection of the deep commitment to Judeo-Christian values felt by so many people in the United States. President Bush personifies that commitment which is starting to make so many Jews feel comfortable with his party.
Not expecting the Jewish vote to go to Bush either, but I imagine he will get more than he did 4 years ago.
Had dinner with an intermarried couple like my wife and I last night, only they are liberals. Very nice people, though, and good friends.
I was shocked and appalled to find out that the (Jewish) lady's favorite Democrat is Hillary, who is seemingly an anti semite. I mean it's one thing to think you are a "liberal," but wanting to vote for a commie as president of the US is way over the top.
OTOH, the 4 of us aren't young anymore, and I think it is the younger generation of Jews that has a chance of leaving the traditional leftist fold.
What does she think of that photograph of HELLARY giving Arafat's wife on the cheek?
I'm sure she has a way to rationalize or overlook it, if she is aware of that picture. It may not have gotten as much play in the mainstream press as here on FR?
Left leaning Jews have so far been able to overlook the rising tide of leftist anti semitism.
And, in my experience, although they love Israel, they tend to side with Israel's Left and favor things like the Stockholm Accord or whatever it was called.
That's unfortunate. Here in the Bay Area, seeing the blatantly anti-Semitic demonstrations at campuses like San Francisco State chills my blood. I would like to see the threads between terrorist Islam and the Nazis more clearly drawn ... I don't recall the name, but Hitler had a Muslim cleric as one of his liaisons to the Middle East, and it was brutal.
Right now, holding off the Islamofascists is very important in preventing another Holocaust. These guys don't think that Hitler went far enough.
In honor of Sukkot!
I think the Islamic strain of anti Semitism is showing up more and more clearly on the Jewish radar and is one of the reasons why Bush will get a larger share of the Jewish vote this time around, assuming that I am right about him getting that.
We celebrated the Yom Kippur feast with different friends the other night, I think at least half (maybe more) of the people there were planning on voting for Bush. It wouldn't have been that way 10 years ago.
A nice essay but not a very well made argument.
Ech...! :)
Sorry Rabbi. Jews will vote the same as Arab Americans. That's sad but true.
Sure, you've been here long enough to know that all Democrats are disloyal. How it is I know more combat vets that vote D to R escapes me.
It's... it's... it's almost as if they were voting in favor of their own EXECUTIONERS -- ! :)
You are exactly right. Nope, ain't gonna happen. As a group they vote for their persecutors. I still can't figure out how any good American could vote for Kerry given his Senate track record alone, much less all the other garbage.
RB
Okay. Just so you won''t feel I misled you, later on down the road: you DO know my comment was in response to SJackson's, re: combat vets, right...? :)
That's a hopeful sign ...
David Horowitz is a child of these same communist parents and he has realized the perfidy of communism. Today he is certainly one of the most prominent anti-communists and pro-Republicans in the country.
There are quite a few just like him. They are just not as visible as the Barbra Streisands.
Older Jews remember the anti-Semitism of pre-World War Two in the U. S. (Remember Henry Ford and Charles Limburgh, as two examples). They loved FDR and have never forgotten him and have voted Democrat ever since.
Younger Jews don't have those memories or those loyalties. They are not locked in to the Democrat Party and more will be voting Republican in this election and in future elections.
I read all these threads and everyone is so concerned about what a spare 2% of the population will do. It defies reason. Jews are only enough of a voting block in New York and Florida to have much effect on the national election.
Why is everyone so concerned about where the Jewish vote goes?
It must be for reasons of moral validation.
For some strange reason, it seems to matter to some whether Jews support particular positions, programs or political causes. It seems somehow to lend moral stature to these efforts.
After reading some of these threads and the comments of various posters, I would keep my vote private and privileged information. I desire neither the anti-Semitic sneers of some, the ignorance of the few, or the fawning and pandering of others.
Some of the posters have no idea how offensive their comments are both to Jews and to blacks.
Blacks, by the way, are beginning to break away from the Democrat Party too. Middle class blacks are finding more in common with the moral principles of the Republican Party than with the Democrat Party. It is a trickle now, but within a few more elections it will be a flood. Unless, of course, they were to read some of the unflattering and racist comments of some of the posters here.
Jewish people are often "over achievers" and usually exert influence out of all proportion to the their numbers. Even Mark Twain remarked on this. So while their votes are not many, their influence is noticable.
Yes, I agree with you that there are offensive comments and that they have a negative effect.
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