At Party A's national convention, a prime speaking slot went to an infamous racial inciter, one with an ugly history of Jew-baiting. At Party B's convention, a leading speaker recalled with empathy the many pre-9/11 victims of terrorism, such as Leon Klinghoffer, whom the killers ''marked ... for murder solely because he was Jewish.'' Party A's presidential nominee said nothing about Israel in his convention acceptance speech. Party B's nominee, on the other hand, made a point of referring to ''our good friend Israel'' - and his campaign later distributed that portion of his remarks to its national e-mail list.Well, we all know the answer to that one.
Increasingly, Party A is the political home of those who demonize Jews, such as the South Carolina senator who claimed that the war in Iraq was launched to ''take the Jewish vote.'' Conversely, Party B has driven out the anti-Semites in its midst, and is now where the most ardent philo-Semites in American politics are concentrated.
So which party will American Jews vote for in November?
For countless American Jews, loyalty to the Democratic ticket is as automatic as breathing. The roots of that loyalty run deep. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, waves of Jewish immigrants from Europe, where the most anti-Semitic elements of society were often the most conservative, brought with them an intense aversion to right-wing politics - and an appreciation for the left, which they associated with emancipation and equality. Those attitudes were intensified during World War II, when the most lethal enemy in Jewish history was ultimately destroyed by an alliance led by a liberal Democrat named Franklin Roosevelt.I have defended this honorable legacy to long-time conservatives, vociferously and in great detail. But it's not 1940 anymore. The global initiatives of that legacy, as well as the will to justify and defend that legacy, have been picked up by the neo-conservative movement and is now being carried forward by the other party. Change comes hard to any minority group which has so wholeheartedly identified its salvation with a certain ideology. (Blacks have this problem too, and are shifting their alliegances just as gradually.)
Recent immigrants don't have the burden of this ideological legacy. The huge Russian Jewish community in NYC is overwhelmingly voting for Bush, and Eastern European immigrants in general have fond feelings for Republicans, based on the party's support for entrepreneurship and Reagan's facing down the Soviet Empire.
This profile of the NY Republican Jewish Coalition - which has been very active in providing a home for those of us out of step with the (supposed) 75% of NY Jews voting for Kerry - contains several testimonials by young Jews raised liberal and then turned off by leftist campus radicalism. More testimonials by former Democratic Jews of all ages.
5 Comments:
Here is a bit I wrote to my mom about what the Democrat Party is really about these days. I link to your piece.
Thanks.
Right, because a couple of idiots are Democratic party members, all Democrats are evil and bad for the Jews. If that's the case, then what do we say about this?
"The Rev. Jerry Falwell said yesterday that evangelical Christians, after nearly 25 years of increasing political activism, now control the Republican Party and the fate of President Bush in the November election. [...] Falwell said evangelical Christians are now "by far the largest constituency" within the Republican Party, their route to dominance beginning in 1979 with his founding of the Moral Majority, a precursor to the Christian Coalition."
This would be the same Jerry Falwell: "Falwell asserted that he believed 'Christ could return soon,' and that 'the Antichrist may possibly be alive on the earth today.' He went on to suggest that 'most evangelicals believe the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male.'"
So the head of the largest consitutency within the Republican Party is a Jew-baiter? I guess we can eliminate the Republicans from the running of "Good for the Jews" as well.
How 'bout we stop voting for parties and start voting for independent candidates?
I'm not going to defend Jerry Falwell. I doubt he has as much power in the Republican party as he says. He's a bit of a blowhard. and if moderates stream into the party as refugees from an increasingly leftist Democratic Party, they will change the Republicans. It's not an accident that Guiliani, Schwarzenegger, Franks, and McCain were featured speakers at the RNC.
Hmmmm. . .
Jerry Falwell = passionate windbag
vs.
Compassionate Liberal policy = national security via global test
That's a tough one for ya . . .NOT!
Bush/Cheney '04
I am with Mobius on this one. Jerry Falwell and his ilk are leading us like lemmings...wake up and smell the coffee!
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