Disappointing Leon ("transformation has occurred" for a "lifelong" Jewish Democrat)

American Thinker ^ | February 28, 2010 | Candice Paul

[Brugmansian]

I am going to disappoint Leon Wieseltier. The famous liberal wrote this week, "A day does not go by when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass."

Well, Leon, you let one get by.

My transformation has occurred. It began with 9/11 and progressed along bumpily until the Obama, Pelosi, Reid express train came roaring down the track . . .

For years I had been looking around and asking, "What the heck has happened to the Democratic Party that I grew up in?" My Democratic Party loved America, believed in the Constitution, free market values, and independent thought and actions. When did it turn into the Party of "group think" and intolerance, of programmed talking points and mean spirited, vitriolic spokespersons such as Wanda Sykes and Janeane Garofalo? . . .

Now, all of this transformation has not followed a smooth and flowing path . . . How could I, a child of the sixties, a lifelong Democrat and a Jew be listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck?! I guess that part of the answer to that question could come from the fact that the current Democratic President of the United States came to his epiphany listening to Reverend Wright . . .

[Jabba the Nutt]

"When did it turn into the Party of "group think" and intolerance, of programmed talking points and mean spirited, vitriolic spokespersons such as Wanda Sykes and Janeane Garofalo?"

Good question. I can tell you exactly when it happened: Under Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky affaire blew open (pardon the puns). The media and Democrat Party completed its turn toward totalitarianism with total GroupThink, DoubleSpeak and DoubleThink. With James Carville, the Forehead, Lanny Davis and the rest of the talking heads gang, the Democrats turned their backs on decency, honesty and other traditional values. It became 'do anything to win', because the Republicans and conservatives were so evil.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I wish I had that Herzberg quote handy..."Jews are by innate tradition expected to question assumptions in the culture they always inhabit as a minority"

Yes, because the surrounding culture is assumed to be based on false religions. The ironic thing is that today many Jews critique the very things about their host cultures that are ultimately derived from Judaism and instead engage in stuff like "bringing down the moon," earth worship, and other kinds of `avodah zarah.

Don't you think "conservatism" is required to preserve Jewish Tradition for over 3300 years?

[Zionist Conspirator]

supporting Israel just due to Christian dogma sounds condescending to Jews

How about supporting Israel for the sake of the Jewish G-d? I'll take that over "democracy" and "western civilization" any day.

[TASMANIANRED]

They worship a faux FDR .

His policies prolongued the 1st great depression by at least 12 years... They never allow discussion the truth.

[wardaddy]

you have a point....progressivism is now the “established order”

but the concept of tikkun olam often lends itself to social progressivsim but I can't say how many Jews follow that

can you enlighten me?

[wardaddy]

I think Jews relish being exclusive outsiders.

When they own their own world like in Israel...for a super smart peoples....they govern confused.

[wardaddy]

I support Israel because I like Jews more than their enemies.

I’m a man of simple balance.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I support Israel because I like Jews more than their enemies.

I’m a man of simple balance.

And I'm a Theonomic positivist who's still living in the Book of Joshua.

[wardaddy]

lol...Theonomic positivist...that is pretty good.

my old former poli sci professor at Ole Miss who had been a WWII Lebensborn orphan sent to the US at the end of the war in an adoption program at aged 8 was well versed in these labels:

theocentric humanist...Socrates, the Bible etc

anthroprocentric humanist...Hobbes...my favorite

messianc humanist....Karl, Fred, Camus-Sartre et al

I often thought I was the second till around age 30 I realized I was very much the first.

The latter being what fuels the left....the quest for the new man as the Godhead.

[wardaddy]

You have to be a northerner or a youngster to talk like that about Jefferson

the context of the times is wholly incomparable.

[Texas Jack]

What about the Populist movement and the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900, and 1908?

I'm not very well educated about the Populist movement. I'll have to look into it.

I suppose my reference to Wilson, and the hard left, is because to me it was the first time that US political movements were mimicking (being directly influenced by) European Marxist.

I do love history and will do some research. Thanks for the tip.

[Neidermeyer]

You have to be a northerner or a youngster to talk like that about Jefferson
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I didn’t say clinton LIKED pulling back from socialism ,, for him political survival trumped idealogy.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[RaceBannon]

I turn 51 this year

Am I the first to say:

THE DEMOCRATS WERE NEVER AMERICA LOVING OR DEMOCRATIC IN MY LIFE TIME. THEY WERE ALWAYS LIARS ON THE NATIONAL SCALE AND ALWAYS SIDED WITH COMMUNISTS IN EVERY WORLD CONFLICT. THEY ALWAYS SAID AMERICA WAS WRONG BEFORE SAYING ANYONE ELSE WAS WRONG.

No, Really, am I the first to say that?

[RaceBannon]

How is supporting Israel based on the Bible condescending?

Genesis 13:
1: Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In my opinion, anyone who calls himself a Christian has an obligation to side with Israel first as long as Israel is not doing something that is totally off the wall...and they are the only ones doing right over there. Agree?

[Brugmansian]

I’m a few years older than you and that has been the general theme. Maybe JFK was an exception.

[dervish]

Yes I have been enjoying this almost as much as the Mossad brouhaha.

Thanks for the links.

[wardaddy]

I have heard Jews complain we only want them for our religious needs.

I supported Israel as a boy and later as a young man before I ever really understood salvation and God’s voice.

[Lancey Howard]

That picture of the gerbilite pretending to be taking it from the starving black Ethiopian on the cross is... interesting. “It’s sick out there and getting sicker.” - Bob Grant

[Zionist Conspirator]

I suppose my reference to Wilson, and the hard left, is because to me it was the first time that US political movements were mimicking (being directly influenced by) European Marxist.

In the election of 1896 the elitist Northeastern urban Ivy League set were ueber-conservative and voted for William McKinley (who was assassinated by an anarchist). Meanwhile, the "fanatical Bible-thumpers" of the rural South and Midwest were advocating an income tax, nationalization of the railroads, and a limit on how much land a person could own. Ironically, while the Northeast and Southeast have switched ideologies they still remain at loggerheads, and the Southern Populist list of villains remains the same: the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, the Morgans, the Astors, the Harrimans, etc. In 1896 these people were considered "capitalist pigs." Now they are considered "secretly behind Communism."

It was perhaps during the New Deal that Hamiltonianism and Jeffersonianism switched places as the liberal and conservative positions, but I'm not sure.

Even before Wilson you had Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was, like Bismarck of Prussia, an advocate of socialism who was adamantly against actual socialist organizations. On domestic policy he was to the Left of many liberals today (though not on social issues, which weren't issues at that time), while he was Senator McCarthy when it came to subversive organizations.

American political history is certainly fascinating.