I was recently at a party with some Jewish friends. We compared stands on lots of issues (Israel, Iraq, taxes, Hollywood, Bill Clinton) and were pretty much in agreement on everything.
But when I asked if they voted Republican, they said "Oh no we could never do that."
I don't get it. It's like its a cultural thing, beyond logic or reason or something.
Some people try to find out the reasons behind cultural attitudes different from their own. To others this smacks of the dread "multiculturalism," so they decide that anyone who doesn't see the world from their point of view must be "beyond logic or reason." I do occasionally hear these sentiments around the blogosphere, and it certainly doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy toward the Republican Party as an entity, although I do appreciate individuals of the Republican persuasion who are actually interested in finding out why the bulk of the Jewish community hasn't rushed desperately into their embrace.
Let me help you out:
First of all, to call our voting patterns - or those of any other voting bloc - "counter-productive" is condescending. "Counter-productive" to your goal of winning elections, maybe. But from our point of view, we are - like any other voting bloc - protecting our interests. Those of us who believe Israel is more right than wrong in the current conflict are appreciative that Republicans are supporting Israel, and mostly for sound reasons too (in other words, not because Israel's wars are the harbinger of the Apocalypse). We would like to think your support of Israel is based on ethics and geo-political strategy rather than hopes of a quid quo pro, yet I have heard a few Republicans grousing that we Jews should be more grateful. But Israel's future is not the only issue that concerns us, and most most Democratic politicians also support Israel, so if you want us to go Republican you will have to address our other concerns as well.
Yes, it's a cultural thing. Secular gentiles often underestimate how much their world view has been colored by the prevailing Christian culture in this country, and many white gentiles, especially those who don't hang out with Jews on a regular basis, tend to think of us as just like them except we don't believe in Jesus. (Depending on their relationship to Christian faith, this is either way cool or regrettable.) Partly this is a result of the "Judeo-Christian" meme, which was propagated for political reasons and leads to misunderstandings about both religions. Although Christianity grew out of Judaism and they share some texts, they developed in very different directions (albeit with a bit of cross-fertilization) for 2000 years. So if Republicans make assumptions about what Jews believe and care about, they may stub their toes as did the commenter above.
Judaism is the original social justice religion - every Shabbat in shuls all over the world some Bar Mitzvah kid is chanting a selection from the Prophets. Jews stand out as the one ethnic group in America which keeps voting liberal as it grows more prosperous. Jews have made up a large percentage of the labor and socialist movements of the early 20th century, and their children became "Red-diaper babies": Freedom Riders, SDS members, libertarians, feminists, ACLU members, experimental artists and their patrons. In the Jewish world 2 degrees of separation is more common than 6, so most "conservative" Republican-voting Jews have family affiliated with these groups and attitudes, and many are proud of their activism if not their exact views.
After all, compassionate rules of war, tithing, sharing wealth as an act of justice rather than charity, challenging God ("Yisrael" means "God-wrestler"), respecting other religious paths, intellectual debate, raising children to value study and intellectual exploration, mandating pleasurable sex as a wife's right, speaking truth to power - all these attitudes are hard-wired into our religious practice and mythology. Even totally secular Jews are very conscious of and proud of the social justice part of our heritage. (For some it is the only thing about their heritage they are proud of and they apply it to fervently working for causes that are not in the best interests of Jews, but again, most of us who disagree with them will concede that the activism itself is "very Jewish.")
So Republicans need to appeal to Jews' desire to pursue justice and make the world a better place, rather than to a desire to protect the status quo. For example, if they argue in favor of free markets, it should be because markets work best to make the world a better place.
Republicans need to convince us they will maintain a separation of religion and state. Many of us have personal memories of being forced to pray Christian prayers and sing Christian songs in school, or getting beaten up or ostracized for not doing so. We are acutely aware that large swathes of the Republican religious right still think we are heathens and want to convert us. When missionaries ring our doorbells, we don't think "Democrat." We don't trust that "faith-based initiatives" will be impartial. Many of us feel very strongly culturally Jewish without any desire to express our identity through religious activities.
Our traditions have never led us to expect that the whole world should believe as we do, and we are used to functioning as a small minority in many different cultures for over 2000 years, so most Jews have no problem making a distinction between our personal moral choices and what is necessary to maintain a pluralistic society where minority rights are respected. So we tend to trust politicians who support civil rights and civil liberties, including keeping abortion (which is discouraged, although not forbidden by Jewish law) safe and legal, whether or not we as individual Jews would get an abortion, watch pronography, burn a flag, face discrimination in the workplace, or what have you.
Like every American ethnic group, American Jews have relatives all over the world. Most of us are at the most 2 generations from immigrants. We tend to support politicians who believe that immigration in general makes our country stronger. We tend not to support isolationists. At this point in time, Republicans are more interventionist than Democrats, although often the reverse has been true. We have a highly developed sense of history and geography, and are well aware that we have lived through previous Golden Ages which inevitably ended with persecution and misery, so we tend to be skeptical about wooing by political entities - they are fickle.
Finally - did someone say this already? - it's a cultural thing: Even suburban middle-class Jews tend to think of ourselves as more ethnic, urbane, artsy-fartsy, entrepreneurial, emotionally "authentic," and encouraging of independent thought in our children, than our gentile neighbors. We tend to stereotype Republicans as: WASP, corporate, suburban, lowbrow, preoccupied with being "nice" to the detriment of honest emotion, believing that children should be "seen but not heard," having bland taste in music and literature. (And dumb enough to pay retail.) Both stereotypes may not be true or even desirable, but it's our own little bit of in-house bigotry. So not only are we are not amused when Republicans try to ban books, put drapes on statues, gut the NEA, or refer to us or our relatives as "pointy-headed intellectuals," our opinion of WASP culture is reinforced.
In short, Jews will vote for whichever group aligns with our deepest desires for a just compassionate society and lasting security for individual rights (including freedom of worship, assembly, conscience, speech, etc., which in turn guarantee our survival as a distinct ethno-religious group). Is this the Republican agenda? You decide.
PS My comments are based on a bit of reading and a lot of personal experience with many different Jewish communities and several different parts of the country. This article come to much the same conclusions based on some sociological research. I will quote a few juicy bits but read the whole thing:
Jews generally have an all but hardwired propensity for avoiding theological and religious terminology when describing themselves. Hebrew, for example, has no exact equivalent for the word "religion." . . . the majority of American Jews should be understood as deists: They define themselves as members of a religious group yet they possess a distinctly secular outlook.
. . . Jews were supposed to assimilate into American society, yet their exceptionalism persists. They are not like the rest of America. By virtually any measure America is a Protestant society. It is a land of spiritual searchers, associational religion, and belief in personal salvation. Yet this hardly describes the majority of Jews. Indeed, it better describes Orthodox Jews, who are of course a small minority of Jews . . . . In short, most Jewish hearts and minds are not part of white-bread, Main Street America. Rather, the well-educated Jewish masses appear to emulate the secular elite of Europe. Whom do American Jews most resemble from a sociological and demographic perspective? The Dutch or Scandinavians: an affluent population with low fertility, well-educated and emancipated women, low levels of religiosity, strong communitarian values, tolerant social attitudes, liberal outlook, and center-left voting records. . . .
Issues surrounding the place of religion (and race) in society often play out in America the same way that issues of social class do in other democratic states—that is, in political party alignment. In Europe, for example, the left-wing and socialist parties exist to advance the interests of the trades unions and the socially and economically disadvantaged, while the Conservative parties and the right have a well-defined platform representing the opposing interests of capitalism and the wealthier elements in society. In the United States, the more religious tend to support the Republican, rather than the Democratic party. . . . American Jews are the mirror image of the Pentecostals and Mormons who occupy the opposite end of the political spectrum—even after controls for social class, education, and geography are taken into account. Time after time, Jews stand out as being the most politically aligned with the Democrats . . . The evidence thus seems to bear out Milton Himmelfarb's famous aphorism that Jews live like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans.
. . . . Truly assimilated American Jews—those whose religious and cultural affinities have led them to leave the fold completely and adopt other faiths—assume a political profile mirroring that of Christian America.
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