Oy Vey, Obama (Jews leaving Democratic party)

New York Times ^ | August 20, 2010 | Charles M. Blow

[reaganaut1]

Is President Obama good for the Jews? For more and more Jewish-Americans, the answer is no.

In a Pew Research Center report issued on Thursday and entitled “Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim” (tragic in its own right), there was another bit of bad news for Obama: the number of Jews who identify as Republican or as independents who lean Republican has increased by more than half since the year he was elected. At 33 percent it now stands at the highest level since the data have been kept. In 2008, the ratio of Democratic Jews to Republican Jews was far more than three to one. Now it’s less than two to one.

This is no doubt a reaction, at least in part, to the Obama administration having taken a hard rhetorical stance with Israel, while taking “special time and care on our relationship with the Muslim world,” as Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, put it in June. If that sounds like courtship, it is.

(It should be noted that the Pew poll was taken before Obama’s bold support for the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque a few blocks north of ground zero.)

Some of the president’s most ardent critics and some of Israel’s staunchest American defenders — two groups that are by no means mutually exclusive — have seized on what they see as the administration’s unfair and unbalanced treatment of Israel and have taken their denunciations to the extremes.

In September 2009, Obama went before the United Nations and declared, “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”

[onyx]

Good news, and answered prayers.

[Carley]

It’s the economy stupid.

To attribute Obama’s jewish supporters of angst over his behaviour towards Israel is simply unlikely.

Jewish people like everyone else are very hard hit by unemployment and this dreadful economy.

[Ronin]

Interesting. The American Jewish infatuation with liberals and the Democrat Party has been one of the most inexplicable aspects of US politics for as long as I have been following things.

It’s about time they realized which side of the bread has the butter on it. Or should that be shmaltz?

[Ronin]

schmaltz...

[Vaduz]

“Special time and care on our relationship with the Muslim world,”
Any questions about Obama being dumb and dangerous?.

[Boardwalk]

I don’t know. My liberal, libertarian jewish friend says she doesn’t care if theY build a mosque at ground zero or not. She is all for tolerance and diversity. Her friend Jane died in one of the planes that hit the world trade tower. I asked her, what would Jane think, and she said “Jane would want the mosque.”

[fightinJAG]

Fair or not, these criticisms are crystallizing into a shared belief among many: Obama is burning bridges with the Jewish community in order to build bridges to the Muslim world.

I think there's something to this.

[MAD-AS-HELL]

This is an opinion piece based off of faulty polling. Do you really think that life long socialists that also happen to be Jewish are just waking up one day and saying, “Oy Vey, I don’t want to be a democrat anymore so I think I’ll go vote Republican!” Not so fast my friend. The issue might be that many of the leftist brain dead Jews are PO’d that Obama is not sticking to his campaign rhetoric as they want someone who really will walk the leftist socialist line on all fronts. Obama has walked some but has deviated from others to their chagrin.

[Erik Latranyi]

I would not be surprised if we start to see support from blacks peeling away from Obama as well.

While it will never be to a great extent, I can actually see Obama’s support drop into the mid-80s among blacks.

His destruction of the economy and his support of islam will be coupled with new stories about his “half-black” heritage that will drive down his support.

[guardian_of_liberty]

Well then, Jane is an idiot.

[AlexW]

“The American Jewish infatuation with liberals and the Democrat Party has been one of the most inexplicable aspects of US politics for as long as I have been following things.”

It has also been a mystery to me.
I never understood it.
But, how does one explain the American left’s infatuation with Marxism and phony illegal leaders?

[livius]

Very good news!

What many Americans who live outside of New York don’t understand is that most Jews from the late 19th-early 20th century immigrations arrived here as leftists. The Lower East Side was full of socialist newspapers in Yiddish, and the attraction of Jews to the labor union movement and their importance in it grew out of the European socialist ideas they brought with them. Don’t forget, even Israel was originally conceived of as a Socialist paradise.

Even their success under the American system didn’t seem to change their minds or at any rate, their ideals. Many of these things were more romantic notions than anything else; Jews who were successful capitalists felt vaguely guilty about their success and continued to profess loyalty to socialist ideals, even though they didn’t practice them other than to vote Dem.

Another factor was that in the 1930s, many of the Jews who came here fleeing Hitler were also leftists, particularly the academics among them. Thus you had yet a fresh infusion of leftist thought in Jewish circles.

So the devotion to the Democratic Party and leftist causes can be explained for historical reasons and is long-standing and more emotional than rational, even though the Dems have always had an antisemitic undercurrent in their party.

It has taken active hostility from a Dem president and legislature to finally get the attention of Jews, but I think some of the Jewish community might be taking a fresh look at their old allegiances.

[SkyPilot]

A man I work with (absolutely brilliant) is a secular Jew, and a big Democrat supporter.

We get into political discussions sometimes, but less seldom than you would think. Mostly, I enjoy his incredible wit and his lighting fast sense of perception.

He is not a big supporter of Netanyahu, and is suspicious of the "the right" everywhere (in general and in practice). However, when Obama treated Netanyahu like a used paper towel, I could see the anger rise up in him.

I believe many Jews are waking up. Not all, but many.

All it takes is a crack for the foundation to have serious problems. If the Democrats lose the Jews, they lose - big time. They lose leadership, intelligence, and financing. They lose their most capable and successful voting bloc.

If the Democrats lost the Jews, all they have left is all the homosexual vote, almost all of the union vote, 90% of the Black vote, and about 60% of the Hispanic vote.

[Brytani]

On the other hand, I live outside of Miami and am watching carefully what is being written about and said in the Jewish press. Especially in Palm Beach and Broward areas.

Jews are turning on Obama and the Dems. The economy is a big part of it but what has sealed the cake is the admins treatment of Israel AND Iran’s nuclear plant.

A few well know Rabbi’s from large congregations have come out with strong anti-Obama/anti-Clinton. pro-Republican editorials.

The tide has turned and while 2% of the population can not sway an election, perception counts. As Jews start moving to the GOP in large numbers, it sends a very loud signal.

[onyx]

I read it, looked at the charts and realized it’s an opinion pice. It remains good news, answered prayers and of course old, Left-wing Jewish people will continue to vote democrat, but not for Obama.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

“Jane would want the mosque.”

Jane was stupid (and liberal), too.

[Joe Boucher]

nope,
Jane is just your typical American Jew.
While more educated as a whole, American Jews gots no common sense.

[Carley]

All true patriots are worried about this abandoning of our traditional alllies and his move towards embracing the muslim world.

[Brytani]

Yes, it is happening. The moves are taking place with Orthodox and Reformed Jews. Liberal Jews play at being Jewish, JINO’s or as I call them, JIFO - Jews in Food Only. Eating bagels does not a Jew make and for many liberal Jews, that is as close as they come to practicing their faith.

There’s two reasons for this shift. First, many more Jews are returning to Temple with many moving to more conservative sides of Judaism. Combine that with support for Israel and fear of Iran and they simply can not support an administration that has proven itself to be pro-terrorist, anti-Israel.