Are Democrats Losing the Jews?

The Atlantic ^ | November 13, 2014 | Emma Green

[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)

[Hildy]

Thank you. My relatives in the Eadt tend to be more liberal... But all my Jewish friends in the west are very conservative.

[Netz]

Why does it take 6 long years of Domestic and Foreign disasters for the Jews who voted for Obambi to start coming around> I mean what does it take in order to remove the Rose-colored glasses? European style Antisemitism?

[TheThirdRuffian]

As noted, it was a Fiddler On the Roof joke.

But, yes, it has a grain of truth. Hence why funny.

[dfwgator]

One of my favorite movies.