Posted on 02/13/2007 10:00:19 PM PST by Mount Athos
It is no secret that Jews in America have historically not favored the Republican Party. Several polls estimated that only 25 percent of Jews voted for Bush in 2004. Although disputed for of its small sample size, the National Jewish Democratic Council's 2006 poll showed only 12 percent of Jews voted for the GOP. The Jewish Community Relations Council estimated that Bush got just 19 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000.
Commentators in the Jewish community and party pollsters debate endlessly why Jews are not more favorably disposed toward the GOP. Jews are wealthier and more educated than the average American, generally oppose affirmative action and favor strong support of Israel. On these counts the GOP should, many say, have greater appeal.
Is it because Jews have an historical affinity for FDR and the party of immigrants and the "little guy"? Is it because of Jews' religious devotion to "tikkun olam" — repair of the world — which they translate to support for governmental social services? Maybe some of each but perhaps something else is at work
The dustup over the location of Mitt Romney's presidential announcement — the Henry Ford Museum — may be revealing. For Jews over the age of 40 or so, the name Ford means more than Mustangs and American innovation. Ford, of course, was a notorious anti-Semite, publisher of the International Jew (an update of the Protocols of Zion), and an apologist for Hitler who received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Hitler's Nazi government in July 1938. In many Jewish homes, owning a Ford was verboten.
He was no cultural icon.
Fast forward to today. As soon as Romney announced that he would make his presidential announcement at the Ford Museum, the accusations and statements started to fly. The National Jewish Democratic Council came out first, chastising Romney for making a pilgrimage to the site of this famous anti-Semite. Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks fired back in a press release today, saying, "I'm saddened and disappointed by the attack today by the NJDC against Gov. Romney."
Pointing out that former President Clinton had once said nice things about Ford, the RJC said that "The RJC believes that the NJDC does a disservice to Gov. Romney's strong record of support for the Jewish community and to their own reputation by their actions."
The NJDC responded, ""Presidential campaign announcements are as much about symbolism of the location as the substance of the speech. Mitt Romney went to a museum named after the most premier anti-Semite and xenophobe in American history. But his choice of location suggests that he should do his homework on basic American history."
It is doubtful either of these groups believe Romney is really an anti-Semite. Democratic consultant Dan Gerstein perhaps said it best: "I don't think Romney is guilty of anything other than obliviousness.
But you could argue that obliviousness is indicative of a broader problem with the social conservatives Romney is trying to court, which is a lack of sensitivity to the concerns many Jews have about their place in American society."
Indeed, the incident may say something not only about Romney but about the GOP's problem with Jews. In his boatload of advisers, Romney apparently did not have anyone to say, "You know, a lot of Jews really hate Ford, and it might mess up your message. Let's try Edison's lab to make a point about American innovation."
The GOP has become a rural, overwhelmingly Christian and Southern party. It is not populated by urban ethnics who, even if they aren't Jewish, understand Jews' cultural references and sensibilities. Ask an Italian New Yorker in October why the restaurants are empty, and he'll say "It's Yom Kippur, silly." You would never catch a Greek from Chicago saying, as a Republican from southern Virginia just did, that asking the state to apologize for slavery was like "asking the Jews to apologize for killing Christ."
In short, the Republicans are not just our kind of people, many Jews say. They don't sound like us, they don't talk like us and they don't understand us. Unless and until that changes, Jews likely will likely be voting overwhelmingly Democratic for years to come.
No doubt, but I believe that history and culture have a lot more to do with it.
"But his choice of location suggests that he should do his homework on basic American history."
Honestly this is the root of the problem.
Basic American history is not about Jews.
I grew up in Detroit, like Romney did. Loved the Henry Ford Museum growing up, still do. Learned all about Henry Ford and the Model-T, mass production, all that.
That Henry Ford got some sort of medal or other from Adolph Hitler I didn't know until this very morning on this thread.
Never heard it before, and I was a history major from Annapolis, not an uneducated idiot.
Jews see the world through the prism of Jewish history, which is perfectly fine. I tend to see the world through the perspective of military history and French history. But tidbits about so-and-so's anti-Semitism are not "basic American history". They are tidbits that nobody knew, or could know, and about which nobody cares either, except Jews.
I didn't know that about Henry Ford until this morning. Do I now think less of the man? No, not really. I simply do not CARE. My world, and Mitt Romney's world, does not rotate around Jewish sensitivities. If Jews are going to come out of the woodwork and scream at a boy raised in Michigan for declaring his candidacy at the absolute favorite musemum of any boy raised in Michigan doesn't make me rethink my whole ethos, my love for the Henry Ford Museum, or my respect for Henry Ford as the father of American Mass Production. It doesn't make me think Romney should have spent ANY time worrying about this sort of hyper-sensitivity by modern Jews over a museum named after a man who died, what? Over a half-century ago?
The world does not revolve around Jews.
The American political world does not revolve around Jews.
That Henry Ford was an anti-Semite is an interesting tidbit, but it is not "basic American history". It's not even tertiary American history. Hillary Clinton screamed "f--ing Jew!" at somebody while she was married to the top political in the world. That is on a par with Henry Ford's anti-Semitism of 75 years ago, and SHE'S alive and running for President.
Romney has nothing to apologize for, and shouldn't. Henry Ford Museum is the PERFECT place for a Michigan boy to declare his candidacy. If Jews are hypersensitive about it, tough. Nobody cares but the Jews, and they're going to vote for the woman who screamed "f--ing Jew" anyway.
Jewish complaints about Romney at the Henry Ford Museum sounds to me like the whining of people with an exaggerated sense of their own self-importance in this country. That Henry Ford was an anti-Semite is an irrelevant detail of history. He was a great American who put the world on wheels and made America the first industrial power. That is what matters, especially in Michigan. The whining about him and his museum doesn't reflect badly on Romney, it reflects badly on Jews.
I saw those posts, though thank you for pointing them out. I am heartened by them, and pleased that Ford employs Jews, without prejudice I am sure, though my expectation was nothing less. I am quite sure that many Jews drive Ford products, also.
Still, I have been part of the Jewish community since my marriage 34 years ago, and have raised Jewish children. Although Henry Ford's antisemitism is hardly the staple of everday conversation in the Jewish community, I've heard his name come up in a negative light often enough over the years to understand that there is resentment among many Jews toward both the man and the corporation. In the corporation's case, it is almost certainly not justified. And it may not be a majority of Jews who are resentful of Ford, but the awareness of Henry's antisemitism is pretty strong, IMO.
I've known Jews, and this includes, but is not limited to, every member of my wife's family, who have alway refused to buy a Ford.
Growing up Baptist in the south, I often heard sermons on how the US was Biblically obligated to support Israel and how woe would fall upon the countries that rejected God's chosen. I told a Jewish friend of mine this one day and her jaw dropped and she didn't believe me. My dad has some old sermons on tapes so I had him look through and send me one on this subject. She listened and was stunned.
For historical reference, the preacher was Dr. Curtis Hutson, pastor of the Forrest Hills Baptist Church, a 5,000 member church outside of Atlanta. Dr. Hutson later became the editor of the Sword of the Lord newspaper.
To the extent that it is whining, you are right, but IMO the attack on Romney is simply a political ploy, an attempted attack more than it is an example of whining.
As to the exaggerated sense of self importance, one notes that there is a little truth in that perception, since Jewish influence on society, as Mark Twain once famously noted, is always out of proportion to the numbers of Jews, due to their tendency to "overachieve."
It is illegal in any Church or Synagogue for there to be overt political speech by the Priest, Minister, Rabbi or Pastor.
Religious congregations are tax exempt and part of that "deal" - is that overt political activity is against the law.
You should remind your Rabbi (or any other religious leader) of this fact.
The Rabbi in my Reform Temple is definitely a liberal - but he is quite careful about overt political statements.
Notice I didn't include "mosques" in the above listing - that's because they are busy advocating hatred against everyone - not just politics.
In both congregations, the response of the congregants is 'amen.'"
I thought Jews were adamant about "separation of church and state" and yet it appears they use their pulpits not for religion but for politics. Hypocrisy?
My dear friend is Jewish and conservative with respect to her own life and family, yet off the wall left of left politically. Another Jewish associate always emphasizes when speaking of Jews, "We want to help people." Sometimes I wonder if Jews think non-Jews are too stupid to do their own thinking and so the Jews must do it for us through their big-government, nanny state, ACLU mentality.
I think refusing to buy a Ford because Henry was an anti-Semite is one of the stupidest things I ever heard of.
There are other reasons for not buying a Ford, such as, inferior products, although I hope that will turn around. The Fusion and the Escape are high-quality products that have outscored Camry and Accord.
Well, some of us are slowly coming over. As evidenced by a small but vocal contingent on FR.
Re the allegiance of Jews to Dems because of FDR, it was FDR who, in the years before WW II, refused entry of tens of thousands of European Jews to the USA. How many deaths in the camps can be thus attributed to Roosevelt's political expediency?
While we are considering why Jews might vote liberal - we must also consider why so many mainstream churches are also liberal.
Or perhaps we would be better off discussing why Jews also vote conservative - .......
There are a number of us at this board.....
And a large number of Jewish conservatives on the national scene whom we all would recognize and whom we applaud:
David Horowitz
Charles Krauthammer
Mona Charon
Neal Boortz
Podhoretz
William Kristol
Pearlman
Wolfowitz
Kissinger
Ken Mehlman
Josh Bolton (chief of staff)
Michael Medved
Daniel Pipes
Michael Savage
Dennis Prager
Mark R. Levin- Landmark Law Center
Philip Thalmeier –led the effort to save the Mt. Soledad Cross
Scooter Libby – worked for Cheney
Ari Fleischer – press secretary for Pres. Bush
In addition orthodox Jews are overwhelmingly conservative.
Religiously conservative Jews are split.
Religiously reform Jews are liberal - but there are conservatives among them - take my work for it - I am there.
I have no problems with the American GOP. It's when the party starts becoming Christian first and American second that I start getting wary of it.
Nonsense, liberals are Americans. That arguement won't win many over.
"American Jews hate the Christian GOP"
Nonsense.
Why? Presuming you're alluding to FDR's lack of concern for the slaughter of Jews in Europe, more importantly their persecution prior to WWII, that was a nonpartisan issue.
Sure, Jews overachieve in America.
But Henry Ford was a poor kid who came from nothing to build the world's first great mass-production enterprise, put the world on wheels, and gave America an industrial base. He was an overachiever on a scale attained by only a handful of men in all of human history, let alone American history. He no doubt has his personal obsessions and dark ideas - and there are otherwise nice FReepers here who assert that Catholics are thralls of the Whore of Babylon. Just because people have idiot religious beliefs, as, in my opinion, anybody who hates the Catholic Church does, doesn't make them a target for slime.
George Washington had a small personal devotional statue to the Virgin Mary. Does that make him an idolatrous secret thrall of the Whore of Babylon? No. It means that he had some religious views that some people with idiot views of religion would oppose. Does that make the people with the idiot views on religion idiots on everything else? No. Ford was an anti-Semite? So what. Every Southern Founder of note was a slaveholder. Does that mean that we should never make any speeches from Monticello or Mount Vernon? No.
It's ridiculous and absurd.
Some Jews have achieved great things. Most of the great achievements by human kind have not been by Jews. Jews are not the center of history, the center of the world, the center of the universe, and should not be the center of attention of American politicians in 2008 trying to appeal broadly to America at large to be elected, ESPECIALLY since Jews are not going to vote for him even if he announces his candidacy from the Wailing Wall.
There comes a point where self-obsessed Jewish politics becomes boring. Henry Ford was a great man, a great American, who did more to make this country great than anybody else in the history of American business. Of course there have been great Jews, nobody said otherwise. No American Jewish businessman has ever done anything as important for America and the world as Henry Ford did. If Jews want to make it a RACIAL point that Henry Ford's legacy is a bone of contention, then I side with Ford's legacy against the Jews on this one. Ford did more for America than the Jews.
Ford also died decades ago, and he never killed one Jew anywhere. Hillary Clinton screamed "f---ing Jew!" at somebody. She is running for President. The Henry Ford Museum is not a LEGITIMATE criticism by Jews, it is whiny self-obsession. When juxtaposed with Jewish political SILENCE on Hillary "F---ing Jew!" Clinton's candidacy (because Jews overwhelmingly support Democrats), it blows the keel out from any respectability or consistency on the "Jewish" position re: Romney, Ford or anti-Semitism.
To put is succinctly, in this criticism of Romney declaring at the Henry Ford Museum, the Jews are completely full of shit. They have no legitimate point. By making the point they damage their own credibility. If we have to be so sensitive to Jews (who don't vote for us anyway) that we have to start dismissing Henry Ford, then it's time to start ignoring Jews more, and caring about their sensitivities less. They aren't going to vote for us anyway. The attack on Romney over Henry Ford was the antics of an Al Sharpton. It was juvenile, and whiny, and sounds like the complaints of underachieving ethnics.
I don't care about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism.
He's dead, and he was the greatest industrialist in American history. Ford's techniques made America work, made us rich, and won World War II. His anti-Semitism was a detail of history, and an irrelevant one. If it is to be MADE relevant, in 2007, by Jews pressing a grievance, then it damages my view of Jews alive today making the point, not my view of Henry Ford. These same people will vote for Hillary "F---ing Jew" Clinton, and I am supposed to take them seriously? Sounds like more whiny minority ethnic powers. Sounds like losers, not overachievers.
"Jews hate Christians"
give me a break.
"After this thread we'll be lucky if we don't lose a few Jewish voters."
Almost lost me.
Our Rabbi is carefull enough that he doesn't actually advocate any party or candidate on the pulpit, but he does make his opinions known about Republicans in general and the President in particular. Otherwise, he's a very nice guy and a good Rabbi.
I heard Mona Charen call Reformed Judaism the Democratic Party with holidays.
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