Posted on 02/11/2015 2:04:44 PM PST by servo1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5IqH7oJ9h4
TRANSCRIPT
In 2008, American Jews voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. Even though Obama had spent large segments of his prior life hobnobbing with vicious anti-Semites like Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi, even though he had staffed his campaign with anti-Semites ranging from Zbigniew Brzezinski to Robert Malley, Jews turned out in droves for him. Sarah Silverman harangued young Jews into telling their grandparents that they were racist if they didn’t vote for him; Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama’s designated court Jew – a role he has never relinquished -- informed Jews that they were racist if they feared Senator Obama’s positions on Israel.
American Jews voted 78 percent for Obama in 2008.
After he was elected, Obama proceeded to undermine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, force Netanyahu to humiliate himself before thugs like the Turkish government, publicly condemn Israel’s defense of itself during the Gaza war against Hamas while funding the Hamas unity government, repeatedly leak vital national security information that would have allowed Israel to strike Iran, and sign a deal with Iran that essentially foreclosed any possibility of Western attempts to stop Iran from going nuclear.
And so, American Jews voted 69 percent for Obama in 2012.
The question I’m most often asked, thanks to my kippa, is why Jews vote leftist. The answer is simple: the vast majority of Jews don’t care about Judaism or Israel. They care about secular leftism, which is their religion.
The polls show this. American Jews are the least religious religious group in America. Only 41 percent say that their religion is important to them in their daily life, according to a December 2012 Gallup poll; only 34 percent said they attend religious services at least monthly, compared with 65 percent who said they attended religious services seldom or never. 22 percent of Jews say they have no religion. According to an October 2013 Pew poll, just 38 percent of Jews say their Jewish identity has anything to do with Jewish religion at all. Just 10 percent of Jews identify as Orthodox – people who consider themselves fulfilling the commandments of the Torah.
As for Israel, just 30 percent of Jews say they are very attached to Israel. Only 43 percent of Jews have ever been to Israel. And here’s an amazing statistic: just 40 percent of Jews believe God gave Israel to the Jewish people. 27 percent say God didn’t, another 5 percent said they don’t know, and 28 percent said they didn’t believe in God at all.
So, what does being Jewish mean to most Jews? Again, according to the Pew poll, 73 percent of Jews said it was about remembering the Holocaust. (It isn't.) Just 19 percent said it was about observing Jewish law, and only 28 percent said it was about being part of a Jewish community. Jews, in other words, are not religious. They are secular leftists who don’t want to be labeled white people because they like being diverse and being able to enjoy the in-jokes in Woody Allen films.
So why is it a surprise that most Jews vote leftists? Most Jews aren’t Jewish in any real sense beyond ethnic identification. They have nothing to do with Torah, the five books of Moses. They have nothing to do with the ethical system posited by Biblical Judaism. They have nothing to do with the mitzvot, the commandments. They have nothing to do with Israel. Polling Jews on their politics is like polling anyone born Catholic on their politics: you’re going to skew far to the left by including lapsed Catholics. And most Jews are lapsed Jews, or never-knew-anything-in-the-first-place Jews.
The Torah is not a left-wing document. It opposes abortion and opposes same-sex marriage. It does not believe in a grand welfare system, but in private charity. It dictates belief that Israel was promised to the Jews, and that the Jews have a responsibility to live ethically according to a set of specific behavioral guidelines. Judaism is conservative, in the modern parlance. Those who pretend to back both Judaism and left-wing values are betraying Torah Judaism. Which is why while Jews vote three to one for Democrats, Orthodox Jews vote nearly two to one for Republicans.
Now, there are older Jews who vote leftist because they remember the bad old days of country club Republicans who rejected them from the golf course, and don’t realize that things have changed rather dramatically. There are older Jews who vote leftist because they remember the legacy of European Christianity that preyed on Jews for centuries, and don’t realize that American Christians are Jews’ best friends, not the American left that stands by President Obama.
But by and large, most Jews vote leftist because they are upper middle class agnostics with above-average levels of post-graduate education who believe that religion is a great ill, that Biblical morality is intolerant and vicious, and that Judaism itself is passé.
Jews who care about actual Judaism don’t vote leftist. And those who prioritize leftism don’t vote Jewish.
“they are largely Ashkenazi, ancestors from Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Russia, who came to America to avoid persecution but took their socialist/Marxist viewpoints with them. “
That is true demographically, but it also had a secondary effect. Since these immigrants came with a pre-existing subset of committed socialists/Marxists, that subset naturally targeted their own community for propaganda, recruitment and organizing. They knew the language and culture, lived in their communities and in their very families.
Also, the Democrat Party had (and still has) the practice of outreach and organizing efforts to new immigrant groups, especially in areas where they had big city political machines (notably NYC) to dole out benefits and favors.
Most immigrant groups lean Democrat for a generation or two, Jews longer than most.
“The care about Secular leftism. That’s their religion.”
I wonder if that’s only half of it. Might there be an ingrained cultural distrust of the WASP establishment, causing such Jews to reflexively support whatever or whomever reduces the power and influence of the WASPs? Of course, that’s incredibly foolish and nearsighted, because WASPs created the only society which has given a safe haven to Jews in modern times. They have been engaged killing the goose for so long that they can’t see they are now in danger of losing the golden egg along with the rest of us.
“The care about Secular leftism. That’s their religion.”
I wonder if that’s only half of it. Might there be an ingrained cultural distrust of the WASP establishment, causing such Jews to reflexively support whatever or whomever reduces the power and influence of the WASPs? Of course, that’s incredibly foolish and nearsighted, because WASPs created the only society which has given a safe haven to Jews in modern times. They have been engaged killing the goose for so long that they can’t see they are now in danger of losing the golden egg along with the rest of us.
Talk about bizarre stereotypes.
Our Jewish neighbors and friends are not voting against republicans because they are trapped in voting like it was a 100 or 150 years ago.
Believe it or not, Jews read newspapers and keep up with current events, watch the TV news that they choose to watch, and vote for the politics that they support.
Jews need to be reminded how a Democratic President along with his cabinet members abandoned them during the Holocaust.
I think they tend to be Liberal because many really don't believe in living on after death in Heaven but think their spirit lives on through their children and good works. At least, that is how some have explained it to me. Being Jewish means being in is a religion of works, not grace, but family and heritage is important to them.
That is a shame because that means they have missed out on the Gospel and their (and our) Messiah. But then, they always have been a "stiff-necked" people.
Same can be said for Christians who vote democrat or who are liberal.
They would rather give other people’s money to the poor than their own. Just like Hollywierd.
Pray America is waking
Perhaps, but is there any indication that Wilkie would have done any differently?
The question is why the GREAT MAJORITY of Jews ALWAYS vote leftist, not why some do or have in some elections.
Does there need to be?
Why offer that as a defense for FDR and actions actually taken? And what about the Kennedys and the Jewish vote?
What about today?
Key phrase from the article:
“They care about secular leftism, which is their religion.”
Yes. Somewhat different experiences and, to a degree, theological emphases — as far as I go, none of these groupings should be permanently attached to either political party but what with the islamoNazi extremist takeover of today’s D party headquarters apparatus then yes they all should vote that dangerous cabal out of power IMHO. This opinion’s worth what u paid for it (if you’re lucky ). Best, fhc
I belonged to a Reform temple for over 20 years...as one might imagine, most of the congregation and the rabbi were politically leftists. But they were all fervent supporters of Israel as well. Many of them made trips there regularly, or sent their kids on trips there and almost all made regular financial contributions to Israel. It doesn't hurt to remember that Israel itself is a socialist country. Many other Jews I've known that didn't belong to my temple felt the same way; they voted Democrat, but strongly supported Israel.
So the reason Jews vote Democrat, in my personal experience, is not because they don't care about Israel. Some don't, but I've rarely met one. I believe that most do.
I think it's more a matter of finding it difficult to abandon old belief systems and tradtions. I don't think they want to believe the president is an antisemite, or that he dislikes Israel. And I believe I am right in saying that many US Jews view Netanyahu as the Israeli Right politically, so they are already in agreement with Obama that they'd prefer a different Israeli leader. Of course, they are not on the same page with Israeli Jews in this.
I wonder if that’s only half of it. Might there be an ingrained cultural distrust of the WASP establishment, causing some Jews to reflexively support whatever or whoever reduces the power and influence of the WASPs? Of course, that’s incredibly foolish and nearsighted, because WASPs created the only society which has given a safe haven to Jews in modern times. They have been engaged killing the goose for so long that they can’t see they are now in danger of losing the golden egg along with the rest of us.
How, then, did they transition to the ideological opposite, statist socialism? Was it through a belief that a dictatorship of the proletariat would avoid an oppressive state? That would have been the ultimate in unintended consequences. Jews became a important force behind the Russian revolution. It is also postulated that Jews saw a strong state as a potential protector, which is the opposite of the nihilist view. How could a nihilist also be a Bund member?
I am seeking an answer to these questions since it may indicate the source of the ideas brought to America and still alive in today's voting patterns.
“You’re encroaching into my space,
besides your breath is bad, smells like goat.”
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