Some see Jewish shift toward GOP

Boston Globe ^ | 5/7/2003 | Anne E. Kornblut

[Nonstatist]

The Jewish community responded enthusiastically when Senator Joseph I. Lieberman joined the presidential ticket in 2000, a move many saw as recognition of their long support for the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. As they had for every election in decades, Jewish voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots for the Democrats.

[cynicom]

Jewish block voting seems to no longer exist. Another ponderable is the vicious anti-American/Bush attacks by so many Hollywood and other elite jews. Just perhaps this is one minority that no longer is led about on a democrat leash. Now if the blacks would think for themselves, the dems would have to stop taking them for granted.

[mabelkitty]

One fact: Hillary only "won" her seat because Daniel Patrick Moynihan paved the way for her so she didn't even have to campaign.

If you remember, she had her husband do some pardons and other things to get elected.

But mostly, it was the support of the rather decent (from both sides of the aisle) Daniel Patrick Moynihan that gave it to her.

That and fraud.

She knows she won't win now her seat in '06, so she has to run for Prez in '04. Once iberal Jews in New York are the ones doing the booing at functions that we hear about like the Oscars, Bill Clinton and Willie Nelson's birthday party, and other events that made news.

[JohnGalt]

I am not a Buchanite, but you strengthen his point of view.

Get it?

[JohnGalt]

Secondly...hit post too soon, Buchanan charged the Neoconservative Clique which is clearly out of lockstep with American Jews at large with dual loyalty, not American Jews. Your slander continues to undermine any point you might be trying to make.


Oh, and Hillary won the Jewish vote in NY somewhere between 55-60% according to CNN.

[Alberta's Child]

You're being a little naive. She also won because she was running against a Republican candidate who was mediocre even comapred to your typical mediocre northeastern Republicans these days.

Once liberal Jews in New York are the ones doing the booing at functions that we hear about . . .

That's a laugh. "Once-liberal Jews" is a bit of an oxymoron -- hard-core socialists don't change very easily.

[Nonstatist]

Buchanan charged the Neoconservative Clique which is clearly out of lockstep with American Jews at large with dual loyalty, not American Jews. Your slander continues to undermine any point you might be trying to make.

Where did I use the term "dual loyalty" ? What is it with you Birchers; every rock under every tree justifies your bigotry?

[kellynla]

Money talks and BS walks. When the Jewish contribute and vote for the GOP is when I will be convinced. It is about time that the Jewish learn that the Demwits are prostitutes and they will do and say anything to get their money. Once the Dimwits have your money they are down the road not to be heard from until the next election cycle. The Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Jewish need to learn that if they are working class people the Dimwits are their adversaries.

[Alberta's Child]

So, yea, you do sound a bit anti-Semitic.

If JohnGalt's numbers in Post #24 are correct, than you sound a bit full of sh!t, too.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I have several Jewish friends that have been pretty strong RATS

Somehow the notion of referring to your friends as RATS made me chuckle.

In any case, we've all seen a bunch of stories like this one recently. For the time being, I'll side with the "seeing is believing crowd." I'm Jewish, and in speaking with some of my liberal Jewish friends, Pres. Bush doesn't seem to get much credit. Then again, they are generally older. I do believe things are changing among younger Jews.

I believe someone on the thread asked for an explanation of the phenomenon of Jewish support of Democrats.

I'd say it goes back to FDR, who was seen as: fighting the Depression (even if he didn't really do anything to end it); defeating Hitler; and generally having positive attitudes towards new Americans, particularly including Jews.

At the same time, Republicans were viewed, not without some justification, as being the exclusive, country club, slightly anti-Semitic party.

There's no doubt that the Democratic Party is now home to the majority of the virulent anti-Semites, a combo of far lefties and, sadly, many blacks. But old voting habits die hard.

[Nonstatist]

Oh, I stand corrected.. from ABC News..

Mrs. Clinton won the Jewish vote, but by a much smaller margin than typical Democratic candidates — 56 percent of Jews in the state voted for Mrs. Clinton as compared with 81 percent for Gore.

So, I apologize. You still sound like an anti-Semite, however.

[mabelkitty]

What makes you think liberal Jews are hard core Socialists? That's a rather anti-Semitic tone.

I'll play your game. If I'm being naive, then Hillary will win her seat again in 2006.

[onyx]

To get the accurate info I shall PING the FReeper who knows: NYC GOP Chick!

[onyx]

PLEASE set us straight!

[NYC GOP Chick]

I don't think you sound anti-Semitic, and unfortunately, I think you are correct about the Hildebeast. My father and I have long wondered why we seem to be among the very few Jewish Republicans (let alone conservatives!) whom we know -- and we're not among the more religious ones.

It's just a reflex with so many of them, and most look at me like I have 3 heads on my neck when I tell them that I am not a 'rat.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Except for the fact that the majority of Jews in New York during Hillary's Senate race voted for her opponent and not her. So , yea, you do sound a bit anti-Semitic.

Not true at all. She won with a little more than half the Jewish votes in New York -- although signficantly less than the 75% or so that Putzhead got 2 years earlier.

And while I've had a few disagreements (on other topics) with AC, the anti-Semite charge is WAY out of line here.

[NYC GOP Chick]

She knows she won't win now her seat in '06, so she has to run for Prez in '04. Once iberal Jews in New York are the ones doing the booing at functions that we hear about like the Oscars, Bill Clinton and Willie Nelson's birthday party, and other events that made news.

At last year's Israel Day Parade here in NYC, she glumly marched along, with a blank stare and wearing her Latin dictator-style dark glasses, while other politicians were whooping it up with the crowds. After the politicians passed the block where my dad and I were standing, a couple of people started asking if she had been there, if they missed her, etc., and the response was, shall we say, underwhelming.

One person grumbled "You didn't miss anything" and others sneered that she probably didn't even want to be there.

Later, my dad and I were snickering about how we were likely the only GOP Jews in that crowd and these people who are usually Clinton fans (from Upper East Side old ladies to Upper West Side yuppies to European immigrants from Brooklyn), they were trashing her!

[JohnGalt]

Not a Bircher either, but I can safely say you have proven rather ignorant to the real non-statist groups and movements out on the further Right of the American political spectrum. Check out the writings of the late Jewish liberty theorist, Murray Rothbard and you'll have some idea where I am coming from.

You are implying that issues involving Israel, i.e. the perception that one is "pro-Israel," will attract more Jewish voters. That is the political component of the dual loyalty charge. In a less 'loaded' example, Steve Forbes proposed extending a NAFTA like arrangement to Ireland in 2000 campaign; he was relying on some ethnic dual loyalty to help win in New England, only he had dropped out by the time we had our primary here in Massachusetts. Political science, anyone?

[NYC GOP Chick]

About what? That the hag got a little over half the Jewish vote in NY? That is true. And thanks for the faith in me. Flattery will get you everywhere! :)

[MHT]

Richard Scammon wrote in "The Real Majority" in the late-1960's that the Jewish community was more entrenched with the Democrats than the Catholics, who would later become the core of "Reagan Democrats" and eventually "pro-life" Republicans. However, the element of "tradition" (my granddad voted for FDR, my dad for JFK, so I'm a lifelong Democrat) is abating, as is the influence of religious affiliation on members of the Jewish community. There are currently 12.3 million Jews in the world (down about a half-million from ten years ago). There are 5-million in Israel and 5.9 in the U.S. At this rate, Israel will have more Arab and Christian residents than Jewish ones in the next 20 years, making governance by Jews in a Jewish state more challenging, if not impossible. Furthermore, more Jews are either not identifying themselves as Jews (due to things such as intermarriage) or consider themselves cultural rather than Jewish by religion.

In the long run, because of high reproduction rates, the Arabs will outnumber the Jews in the U.S. electorate within the next decade. Consequently, with declining electoral numbers, Jewish influence will come as a result of money or being in places of high influence. With these considerations, critical thinkers within the Jewish community should carefully reconsider their blind loyalty to the Democrat party, what it has gotten them, and what it will deliver in the future.

[Tarsk]

"Mainly because of the large number of minorities and secular Jews who have always been nihilistic and unapologetically leftist in their political outlook."

What about the nihilistic, unapologetic Roman Catholics? There's 14 million Jews in the world in total and hundreds of millions of secular Catholics, and last time I looked this latter group had done far more damage to the world than the Jewish people.

And actually Jews, secular and otherwise, are in the main very far from nihilistic. Jews love life - they revel in it. It's part of the reason why they are so successful and why for example New York is not only incredibly vibrant and dynamic but the most successful city on earth. Not for nothing did the terrorists of 9/11 pick NYC. Not just a "Jewish city" but also fabulously wealthy.

The great majority of the over 22% of Jews who have won Nobel Prizes have been secular. Are you suggesting that all those geniuses who have improved the lot of mankind so incalculably were nihilistic? Can you, for example, even hold a candle to just one of them?