Posted on 08/31/2014 4:37:01 PM PDT by Kaslin
This is a perennial question which has flummoxed Republican strategists for years and continues to defy conventional political logic and planning. While it is impossible – and politically perilous – to attempt to take any American demographic group and treat them as a homogenous block, on the major issues of the day one would think that the GOP would be a natural fit for the majority of American Jews. When you look, in particular, at which party provides the staunchest support for Israel, there really is no comparison. A host of other topics appear to be a good fit as well, as Zev Chafets observes in an editorial for Fox News.
The American Jewish community white, assimilated and prosperous is out-of-place in a Democratic Party determined to build a coalition around an appeal to racial gender minorities, unmarried women, the LGBT community, immigrants and the dependent poor. And while the Jewish community is shrinking because of low birthrates and intermarriage, its Orthodox wing strongly pro-Israel and socially conservative is gaining in numbers and self-confidence…
All this, according to some conservative pundits, has created a tipping point. In November, they say, Jews could turn out in key congressional elections, especially in Senate contests, and vote for Republicans who have made support for Israel a signature issue. And in 2016, fed up with Obamas chilly attitude toward the Jewish state and his weakness in the face of Islamic aggression, Jews could abandon their traditional affiliation with the Democrats and give their energy, their contributions and their votes to the Republicans.
Sounds good, right? This is a sunny, optimistic view which has trapped more than a few campaign managers across the country. And to be sure there are a number of highly respected Jewish community leaders, bloggers and business people who are very vocal supporters of the GOP and their support of Israel. So does Zev think that this is finally the year when the rank and file will assemble along the same lines?
I hate to rain on anybodys inaugural parade, but this is sheer fantasy.
Jews are not simply supporters of the Democratic Party; they are at the heart of everything from union leadership to campaign funding, think-tank policymaking to grass roots organizing…
The fact is, the great majority of American Jewish Democrats see their party and its agenda as their secular religion. Reform Judaism, Americas largest Jewish denomination, is sometimes jokingly called the Democratic Party with holidays. A lot of Jews would sooner convert to Shia Islam than leave the party of their forefathers.
I wish I had all the answers to these questions and could make a case that Zev is wrong, but I can’t. We struggled with the same things in New York during the 2010 campaign, working vigorously with leaders in the Jewish community, reaching out and looking for a foothold. We lost the Jewish vote in a landslide.
I think some of the assumptions which Zev notes as common knowledge in his piece are also somewhat hollow. For example, I believe that it’s true that the lion’s share of American Jewish voters are strong supporters of Israel. But it’s equally true that these are not single issue voters, and that one policy stance alone is not enough to get them hoisting a new flag. Further, Chafets’ characterization of Jews as white, assimilated and prosperous is not only a generalization, but borders on offensive. There are plenty of folks in the Jewish community who are struggling in a tough economy just like everyone else, and policies which benefit the economically successful don’t automatically become a winning, bread basket issue for them.
Still, it always sounds like the Jewish vote would fit far better with a conservative alliance than with the liberals. Why doesn’t it happen? I wish I could tell you. Is it about to change in 2014? I think Zev is probably on the money here, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it.
Just my $0.02 worth but in my Chabad synagogue it is at least 90% Republican...
One penny spent on trying to get the conservative support of Jews, Blacks and muslims is a fool’s penny spent.
Nope. I work with quite a few and they are almost all hard core leftists. Those who are conservative are awesome at trashing the left.
Just a review of the treason and spying efforts they did in WWII are a glimpse into the closeness they feel to "Progressive" movements.
Probably why they are selling Israel out now, it is identified with anti-progressive aspects of society.
“Commentary” magazine often references the fact that a “majority” of Orthodox Jews vote Republican.
I can’t recall an exact percentage.
However, it is important to remember that Orthodox Jews are not “natural” Republicans.
The use government welfare programs at a higher than average rate.
They are not conspicuously friendly to free market capitalism.
And, in Israel at least, they are not on friendly terms with the military.
Many Jewish people have very influential in the socialism movement.
FYI: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0018_0_18779.html
Hilarious
These threads run every election cycle but it never changes diddly
Leftism is in their blood...recent heritage by and large
Only the truly independent break free
Freepers have this nutty view that orthodox Jewish means conservative
Its hilarious
Have many here been to say Monsey or Kiryat Joel in New York to see how it goes
I have
It is nothing like Freepers like to think
We had alouette some years back and dummies here think all orthodox must be like she was....no.
And Mark Levin is not terribly religious...he’s first to admit.....he just bucks the norm....his dad did too
The big wave of Jews in early 1900s were left leaning....concentrated in urban areas and continue as such
The earlier more sephardic bunch around from 1600s thru antebellum period were little different from their goyim hosts politically
Its the newer arrivals....bad habits politically for our side
The answer is NO. I split my time between S Fl. and Colombia. The Jewish voters of Broward county would spport Hitler if told to do so. My conservative Jews tell me this all the time.
The link in post 44 describes them this way.
"Unexpectedly, however, Jews who are politically conservative are not that likely to consider themselves Republican (only 40 percent according to that same study). Surveys show that the underlying reason is that even Jews who are economic conservatives have not been comfortable with Republican stands on social issues, and especially on church-state separation. Jews are predominantly liberal, but this weak Republican support among politically conservative Jews exacerbates the low level of Republican identification among Jews."
agreed
No unfortunately.
No. That would be a shandeh. Perhaps even a "shandeh on a Honda", as they say in Brooklyn.
This is a bit more typical of their political leanings. One of Barky’s bigtime fundraisers:
As a naive Bible-Belter whose only understanding of Jews was emblemized by the Book of Joshua, I too used to wonder this all the time. I like to think that I have grown somewhat wiser over the years (many of you will dispute this after reading this post) and that some of my questions have been answered.
The first (and most heartbreaking) observation I must make is that, contrary to what most FReepers and American/chrstian conservatives would like to believe, gentile conservatism is not necessarily based on the teachings of the One True G-d. There is in all non-Jewish religions a very heavy local/nationalist/ethnic element. Even here on Free Republic, the Founding Fathers and American traditions are invoked far more often than objective universal Divine Law in defending traditional marriage. The religious beliefs of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln are invoked as if our belief in G-d were somehow based on them. I sometimes think some conservatives' is. But G-d's Laws are G-d's Laws and the beliefs of the founders of any modern country have exactly bo diddley squat to do with their validity.
Perhaps because of its incarnationism, chrstianity has always had a lot of trouble with this ethno-nationalism. While theoretically a universal religion, chrstian nations have historically sought to claim the status of `Am Yisra'el as the special, chosen, holy people/country. While theoretically it is the church itself that is supposed to be (chas vechalilah!) the "new Israel," at the emotional level it is the various traditionally chrstian ethnic groups that fit this role. For example: Armenia is the "first chrstian nation;" Ethiopia had the Solomonic dynasty and still allegedly has the Ark of the Covenent; Ireland is the "island of saints and scholars;" Spain has the tomb of James; the Greek language is the language of chrstian theology and therefore only Greeks can truly understand chrstianity; the British royal family is the Davidic line; and even the United States of America is sometimes interpreted as the special, chosen holy country which G-d raised up for the explicit purpose of restoring "true" Protestant chrstianity.
Every worship of a subjective national "gxd," no matter how loudly one claims to admire the Hebrew Bible, is not only false but wrong. And the Jewish soul is apparently programmed by G-d to act as a caustic acid to subjective local idolatries, to eat away at them so that the One True G-d may be worshiped. And in fact, throughout history Jews have been accused, not of subverting the One True Universal G-d, but of subverting local traditions. But it is precisely these local traditions that must be cleared away so that the True G-d may be embraced. Just think about it--the phrase "chrstian America" is actually quite relativistic. It implies that chrstianity is the American religion, but that other countries have their own religions which are equally valid. As a simple Fundamentalist whose understanding of religion was always very simple and abstract (religion being like mathematics--it's either true or it's not) I have been absolutely astounded at the nationalist relativism that animates so many religious conservatives.
This, I believe, is where the charge of Jews being "Communists" or "behind Communism" originates: because the Jews represent something abstractly and universally true rather than merely reinforcing the local beliefs. Before it married Third World nationalism, Communism was once anti-nationalist and sought to abolish all nations so that "the international soviets shall be the human race." This iconoclastic universalism, though of a very different kind than the Holy Torah, nevertheless like it attacked and de-legitimized local traditions in the name of something universal and objective.
I also believe it is this that opened the way for so many Jews to not only become Leftists but to identify Judaism as Leftism. Now please note that traditionally until the seventeenth century or so there was nothing even remotely resembling modern Leftism among Jews. But when the "enlightenment" poisoned the atmosphere and religious faith began to die away, unlike all other peoples, Jews had no local roots or "gxds" or traditions to anchor them. Gentile conservatism is in fact very much rooted in the local soils of the various peoples (it's amazing how anti-universalist and particularist/relativist European-style right wingers are). Long before the Third World Left, it was non-Jewish right wingers who were saying something like "deze are de ways of our pipples." The romantic nationalism of the later nineteenth century had absolutely no interest in objective universal truth; it worshiped the things pertaining to "blood and soil."
In a sense, Pat Buchanan and his ilk are correct: Jews really are the "rootless people." But they are "rootless" because their roots are not planted in earthly soil; their roots are quite literally in Heaven! They are quite literally the one, unique, special, chosen, holy people. And their existence gives the lie to the claims of the nations of the world to be the chosen nations of their own local "gxds." Yet it is precisely these idolatrous claims that so much gentile conservatism is based on.
Of course, the Jews were not chosen to replace the idolatries of the nations with any sort of abstract universal scientific materialism. But just think about it . . . if religion truly is (chas vechalilah!) primitive nonsense then what is the natural philosophy to fill that void? Exactly. Non-religious gentiles still have their roots and their traditions. Without G-d the Jews have, quite literally, NOTHING. (Perhaps this is one meaning of the saying, 'ayin leYisra'el mazzal (Israel's mazzal is nothingness).
Non-Jewish conservatives should not be looking to Jews to subscribe to non-Jewish worldviews--liberal or conservative--but should be aligning their own beliefs with the Absolute Truth of Torah and the Noachide Laws. That, and not cheer-leading for the local non-religion, is the true Jewish mission.
I know these thoughts are not going to be welcomed here, but they are the result of a lifetime of dwelling almost constantly on these issues and spending the last 24 years of my life bringing my own beliefs into line with the Torah worldview. I could be wrong about everything. But I hope some people here will accept these thoughts in the spirit in which they were offered.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.