Posted on 09/30/2004 8:36:26 AM PDT by nypokerface
MERCER ISLAND, Wash -- Two prominent, long-time Democrats have said they will vote in November for President Bush: One is United States Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia; the other is former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
My experience as a lecturer and talk radio host assures me, however, that they will not be alone. Enormous numbers of Jewish voters, all long-time Democrats and more, I believe, than current polling indicates, will also be voting for President Bush. Let me tell you why.
No country has been a more stalwart friend of Israel than the United States. No other society has been more hospitable to its Jewish population. It is hard to think of another nation in which a Jewish community has enjoyed a longer period of tranquility and affluence.
The bond that has always existed between the United States and its Jews is so conspicuous that it has even attracted foreign attention. Hundreds of books have been published in Europe, Asia and many Islamic countries, chronicling the extraordinary prominence that Jews enjoy in the United States.
Many of these popular volumes are not necessarily anti-Semitic, as one might think; they are, rather, the result of a simple observation that would be clear to anyone who was not a recent immigrant from Patagonia: U.S. Jews are disproportionately represented among our country's elite.
There have been instances of anti-Semitic discrimination in the United States, yet it seems churlish to harp on them, given the many Jews who can still remember the terror of the frequent Saturday night pogroms in Eastern Europe -- not to mention what it might have been like to have been a German Jew during the period 1930-45.
Alongside the heart-stopping uncertainty of daily life that most European Jews experienced over the past few hundred years, getting denied admission by a Jewish medical school quota or not being allowed to buy a home in some choice neighborhood hardly ranks as a serious problem. Life has certainly been good for U.S. Jews.
For 2,000 years, in different countries and at different times, the wandering Jew found a resting place for his weary feet, some more hospitable than others.
Many, however, were downright painful but were, thankfully, only temporary. After two world wars left the United States as the mightiest economic and military power in the world, its Jewish community achieved maturity and emerged as the healthiest and wealthiest of all Jewish communities.
The hospitality that Jews have enjoyed in the United States is unparalleled in recent times and perhaps even in all time.
One explanation often advanced to account for the hospitality enjoyed by U.S. Jews has been the size of the American Jewish community along with its economic and political influence. In other words, people in the United States have been good to Jews because Jewish power has allowed them no alternative.
In addition to demonstrating astonishing ingratitude, this argument is as wrong headed as claiming that switching on streetlights causes the sun to set. Even a moment's humble reflection reveals that U.S. Jews have achieved prosperity and political prominence precisely because of the security and tranquility they have enjoyed here for so many years.
A valuable clue in the search for an explanation of the United States' fondness for Judaism, is that it comes most often from precisely those politicians who can hardly be said to preside over major centers of Jewish culture. For example, it is hard to make the case that former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., supported Israel in order to placate the large number of Jewish voters in North Carolina.
No, clearly something more profound lies behind several hundred years of affinity and friendship between the United States and Judaism. The question is, what?
The real answer is that in the history of the world, only two nations were founded on an idea rather than on a land. Judaism was founded on monotheism and the United States on freedom. Furthermore, there are only two peoples that foreigners can join with all subsequent rights.
Just try, for example, to become accepted as a naturalized Englishman, Frenchman, Swiss or Japanese. If one becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States or converts to Judaism, one becomes a full American or a full Jew with all rights, save one: a convert to Judaism cannot become king, and a naturalized American cannot attain the presidency.
Shortly after the founding of both the U.S. people and the Jewish people, each experienced a horrendous civil war. Both the war between the North and the South and the war between Judah and Israel were over moral issues and both wars allowed their respective people to continue to grow and prosper.
Only two countries, the United States and Israel, open their doors to immigrants from around the world who share their ideals. Both countries are unique in that their populations mostly comprise immigrants.
The founders of the United States, the Pilgrims, were called "separatists." Similarly the early Jews, Abraham and his family, were called "Ivrim" -- Hebrews, or in English - "separatists."
Early arrivals in both America and Israel found the lands to be populated by pagans who knew nothing of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; in one case, American Indians and in the other, Canaanites. Both people built their capital cities in a manner designed to guarantee equal access for all.
Neither Washington nor Jerusalem belongs exclusively to any one state or tribe.
The intrinsic similarity between these two great nations was not lost on the early Americans. Neither is it lost on their descendants, so many of whom still share a devotion to the Judeo-Christian principles that fueled our earliest visions. Robert Frost's "The Gift Outright" and John Winthrop's "City on the Hill" are only two of the many examples that reflect awareness of this deep spiritual bond that links Judaism and the American dream.
If the United States' support for Israel were based entirely on political expediency, that support would originate from the State Department. It does not. Instead. it springs from the heartland of the United States as a reflection of the deep commitment to Judeo-Christian values felt by so many people in the United States. President Bush personifies that commitment which is starting to make so many Jews feel comfortable with his party.
President Bush will get more of the Jewish vote in 2004 than he did in 2000, but Senator Kerry will win the Jewish vote in a landslide.
For some Jews, apparently it's a question of who they fear most, Muslims or Christians.
Sure they will, and American Blacks too!
In the 1930s Jews formed an extremely disproportionately high percentage of the American Communist Party. The percentage of Jews that fought on the Communist side in the Spanish Civil War was similarly high.
The U.S. Jewish population today is composed of the sons, daughters, and grandchildren of these folks.
Don't expect them to vote for G.W. Bush, or any Republican any time soon.
And the Gay/Lesbian community will be marching to the polls for Bush right along side of the teacher's union...
I've never understood why Jewish and Blacks voted Democrat???
I mean, what did the 'Rat party ever do for the Jewish???
The GOP cut taxes and finally initiated a war against terrorism which Klintoon and his party didn't have the balls to do!!!
And if not for the GOP, the blacks would not have the freedoms they enjoy today! The 'Rat party certainly wasn't for black freedom and rights!!!
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President Bush will get more of the Jewish vote in 2004 than he did in 2000, but Senator Kerry will win the Jewish vote in a landslide.
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The delta is all that matters. When the last election was a tie, any positive change has to help.
It really doesn't matter whether or not they move en masse to the Republican column. If only 5% more Jews (and blacks) vote for Bush in 2004 than did in 2000 it will constitue a landslide victory for the President. Remember, the Dems have cobbled together a "broad coalition" of special interests to win elections in the past. That coalition is now fraying badly, and it may keep them out of power for a generation. I think the good Rabbi's point is that the Jews are *heading* in the direction of the Republican party. I doubt if even he would believe that they will overwhelmingly become Republicans. Let's talk again in 2024 though and things might be very different.
Ping
For the Jews, look at the post up above - Jews fear Christians more than they do Muslims here in America, and most could care less than gentiles about isreal.
As to the blacks, their "leaders" sold them out to the Democratic party long ago, and nothing Bush can do will change that. Republicans offer a hand up, their leaders promise hand-outs. The hand-out wins every time.
Let's not forget there are many Jews, particular Russian emmigrants, that are rabidly anti-communist, most of which are very pro-Bush.
Absolutely true, but Bush will be lucky to get 20% of the Jewish vote--the legacy of those 1930 lefties.
I'll a gentlemen's wager he gets over 30%.
The more Jews and Blacks that vote for Bush in 2004 the better.
It will represent, hoepfully, the beginning of a eroding and crumbling of the Bolshevik base upon which tht modern Democrat party is based.
I expect much more than 20%, at least 40%. I'll vote for bush(as I did in 2000) my wife registered to vote for Bush.
Our older babysitter and her husband will vote for Bush(all NJ). In addition both mine and my wife's parents are going to vote for Bush, but voted for gore in 2000. So here comes
2004 'Jews for Bush'
With the massive scale of vote fraud taking place this election, Bush needs more than "any positive..." to win.
If it isn't a landslide, Kerry will win.
O ye of little faith.."
Bless you, bless you, bless you. Bless you all.
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