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To: Beloved Levinite
I'm not Jewish so a grain of salt is advised.

Some time ago I read a book on the early days of Communist infiltration of American institutions. The author noted that many of the early members of the Communist Party in the USA were Jewish and he had what sounded to me like a rational explanation that relates to the issue at hand: Why are Jews so Liberal. The author's view was that historically the Jews have been a persecuted race/religion/ whatever. That knowledge is now buried deep in the genetic structure (so to speak) of Jews in general - they know their history. The attraction of a truly egalitarian society ala Marx/Communism was a direct result of this view of a persecuted race. The early Jewish Communists held the view, not entirely without reason, that Communism promised a society free of persecution - if everyone is equal than nobody will be singled out. As we know, that idea was entirely false. It didn't work out.

But the historical knowledge of the Jewish people remains and the idea that egalitarian socialism might relieve them of the threat of persecution remains. It is the source of Jewish Liberalism.

8 posted on 09/02/2009 9:07:04 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint
But the historical knowledge of the Jewish people remains and the idea that egalitarian socialism might relieve them of the threat of persecution remains. It is the source of Jewish Liberalism.

It puzzles me that every Jewish senator is a dependable vote for amnesty, and Jews are everywhere in the immigration system, fighting to let as many into the US as possible, and fighting to prevent deportations. I think their historic plight of being without a country for many centuries, and often expelled from various nations, makes them almost automatic open borders advocates, even when groups that hate them are ever increasing in numbers, and making the US a less safe and accepting place for them as has happened in parts of Europe.

There often seems to be a very self-destructive element to parts of Jewish liberalism.

10 posted on 09/02/2009 9:14:12 AM PDT by Will88
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To: InterceptPoint
Good points there.

It's worth noting that most Jews in the U.S. today can trace their ancestry to immigrants from Europe (particularly Eastern Europe) in the early decades of the 20th century. These folks came to the U.S. from places where totalitarian nanny-state governments were a way of life, and while they certainly fled for good reason the simple truth is that they brought many of these nanny-state expectations with them.

12 posted on 09/02/2009 9:20:21 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (God is great, beer is good . . . and people are crazy.)
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To: InterceptPoint; SJackson; Beloved Levinite; ckilmer; Godwin1
The mixture of identity politics and victimhood creates a toxic mix. The universalization of grievance is surely not unique to Jews as 100 years of Irish voting and the Kennedys shoes.

There is far more going on. There is a deep messianic earning among Jews. If not religious, we tend to wish to immanentize an eschaton. Liberals do this and so do neocons. Influenced by the renaissance, the reformation, liberalism and in the aftermath of multiple disasters European Jews felt a need to change the world. But this impulse is destructive and arrogant delusion in the most friendly of Christian nations. Finally, there is guilt. White guilt is a pale immitation of Jewish guilt.
24 posted on 09/02/2009 9:36:53 PM PDT by rmlew (“Democracy tends to ignore..., threats to its existence because it loathes doing what is needed)
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