Posted on 04/16/2005 10:11:48 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Quite a claim in that title, isn't it? Anyone who is interested in voting trends and tendencies in the United States electorate is well aware that Jewish Americans usually vote far more often for the Democratic candidate in our presidential elections than they do the Republican. However, a recent survey on Jewish voters in the 2004 election relayed the startling fact that half of American Jews who attend Temple regularly voted for George W. Bush.
This is survey was not made by a Republican either, by the way. The man reporting this finding is Democratic candidate John Kerry's pollster, Mark Mellman who, according to a recent L.A.Times article , reported his study results conducted during the 2004 campaign's final month.
Mellman's study found that Americans of all stripes who attended religious services regularly tended to vote Republican far more often than they voted Democratic. His findings among Jewish voters was not as lopsided as that among Christian voters but still the Jewish vote was split down the middle between GOP and Democrat voters. That split is still an amazing new trend in the Jewish community. In fact, George Bush made advances in every Jewish voter category to one degree or another.
Of course, many in the chattering classes on the left have been yelping about the evil "religious right" dominating the Republican Party for a decade now. But they must have been taken aback by this rise in GOP voters among the left's favorite and most reliable voting block, the US Jewish population.
It is becoming clear that Americans who have a strong religious belief, just about any religious belief, are turning to the Republican Party in greater numbers every year. And several conclusions can be drawn from this statistic.
Religions are generally family oriented. Religions have well structured moral tenets, they know what is right and what is wrong (within their own moral codes). Religions are stable in ideology and steady in deliberation. Religions are steeped in tradition and mindful of historical precedent. Religions also place an emphasis on duty, honesty and self-reliance. The Religious are voters with quintessentially American ideal.
Whereas, over the last 70 years, the bedrock of American citizenry among the religious have voted for the "Party of the people," the Democratic Party, these people are now voting Republican far more often than their former allegiance. This is a sea change in US voter trends. So, it makes one wonder what has changed?
Have American ideals or principles changed? Have those of the GOP radically changed? Or have those of the Democrats changed? No to the first, and yes to the later two would be your answer.
Americans have not changed very much in their basic principles except to tend toward a more even distribution of those ideals and expectations upon more categories of Americans than was extant in past decades. But, both political parties have changed and quite radically, too. The Republicans have evolved from a Party strictly representing the Business Community, and little else, to that of representing the people whereas the Democrats have drifted far away from representing the average American citizen and become a Party of dispirit fringe interests. The Republican's sea change is the only one that has tended toward the current and historical ideas and principles of the average American voter and that is why they are enlarging their voter base every year and why the Democrats, tending to represent radical, fringe groups are losing theirs.
Consequently, religious Americans are increasingly finding themselves uncomfortable and unwelcome among the lunatic fringe in the Democratic Party and Democratic pollster Mellman has proved this true once again.
In light of these facts the question becomes, just what kind of America does the Democratic Party want to see promoted? One which the average citizen has voted to support since time immemorial, or one that is radically different, one pushed by the kinds of extremist, fringe groups that Americans have rejected for over 200 years?
Even Democratic pollster Mellman seems to be confirming that the Democratic party is increasingly out of the mainstream in answer to that question.
Warner Todd Huston is a freelance writer and graphic designer. His work ranges from historical essays to popular culture and has been published in several magazines and on many websites. He is the editor for Publius' Forum website at http://www.publiusforum.blogspot.com.
If Pubbies would have gotten 35-40% of the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania, we would have won that state. Likewise, New Jersey would bee competative if the GOP could crack the Jewish vote in the Garden State.
New York is a lost cause, as the white gentile vote tends to split. Florida is an exceptional case as the white gentile vote is OVERWHELMINGLY Republican, in voting habits if not registration. Nevertheless, Florida is a swing state in national elections and will be so in the future, so ANYONE who runs for the Presidency will have to do outreach to the "ethnic communities" (whether those be Jews and Carribean blacks in South Florida, Puerto Ricans in Central Florida, etc.).
Interesting tidbit about Ohio: The Jewish population in Cincinatti went for Bush, while those in North Ohio voted for Kerry, albeit not by as large margins in the past.
I sure hope so.
I was sort of stunned to see that.
But stats forcasting is a pretty vague science is it not?
Pray for W and Our Troops
It is absurd when you think about it that they put the man who could not win their very own primaries in charge of the Party. Twits indeed.
BINGO! This says it all! Talk about self-destructive behavior!
The more Liberal and/or secular Jews are inter-marrying with non-Jews at rate that will lead them to extinction as an idetifiable group in a few generations.
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