Why Are Jews Liberals

Wall Street Journal (WsJ.com) ^ | September 10, 2009 | Norman Podhoretz

[Reverend Saltine]

These numbers remind us of the extent to which the continued Jewish commitment to the Democratic Party has become an anomaly. All the other ethno-religious groups that, like the Jews, formed part of the coalition forged by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s have followed the rule that increasing prosperity generally leads to an increasing identification with the Republican Party. But not the Jews. As the late Jewish scholar Milton Himmelfarb said in the 1950s: "Jews earn like Episcopalians"—then the most prosperous minority group in America—"and vote like Puerto Ricans," who were then the poorest.

Jews also remain far more heavily committed to the liberal agenda than any of their old ethno-religious New Deal partners. As the eminent sociologist Nathan Glazer has put it, "whatever the promptings of their economic interests," Jews have consistently supported "increased government spending, expanded benefits to the poor and lower classes, greater regulations on business, and the power of organized labor."

[PrairieLady2]

Wow! Talk about painting a group of people with a broad brush!

I don’t recall my ballot asking my race, or religion, did yours?

I don’t recall answering any of those types of questions when I registered to vote, did you?

So how does the author derive a figure of 57% of Jewish voters as voting for Obama without noting that 43% did not?

Why doesn’t he cite figures for Jewish registered voters who didn’t vote at all?

The fact of the matter is, he has NO way of knowing any of the information he spouts off.

Furthermore, if the article’s author had even an inkling of Jewish history, he’d be able to answer his own question of why some Jews are liberals, but he’d also ask why some Blacks and Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Irish, French, German etc. are conservative.

What I see is a poorly written hit piece, devoid of truth.

[NorthMountain]

Liberalism is their new Golden Calf.

Somebody once said that socialism is idolatry of the State.

;'}

[HiTech RedNeck]

Way before that... it isn’t merely a “Christian” thang. God warned the Hebrews that having an earthly king was not going to work well for them. But no, they were jealous of other kingdoms when it should have been the other way around, the other kingdoms jealous of them! So God let them learn the hard way.

Christianity made explicit a plan of salvation that always had been implicit. That brought other issues onto the scene.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I think that accumulated anti-semitism is part of the story, as you say. Long oppressed Jews wanted something “new.”

I think another part is that the religion itself is unsatisfying to moderate and reformed Jews, who are more culturally Jewish than religious. Liberalism is a religion, although a defective one, which supplements what they miss.

Another factor is that in the early part of the 20th century, a lot of Jews were poor, and the labor and other Democratic initiatives were helpful to them and bought their loyalty. Besides, they weren’t all that well thought of in WASP America. A lot of these attitudes transmit through for a few generations.

[Talisker]

It’s a problem of trying to do the benefits of God without conscience concerning the responsibilities. The highly religious do not usually fall into that trap. They have other difficulties but not that one.

Very well said.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Data like this comes from polling companies. In principle the data could be quite valid. One of the few humanities courses I took as an engineering student was political science and among other things it studied polling. Statistical science asserts that if a truly random sample of people is evaluated fairly, within a very narrow margin of error they will represent the whole. Good polling goes to almost absurd lengths to make its sampling scientific and it can take weeks or months. Weekend flash polls, of course, don’t do that.

[hlmencken3]

At this point in time, Jews who are liberal are just choosing to assimilate and disappear as Jews more slowly than those who just convert out. Liberalism to Jews is little more than a fashion statement. Everyone wants to be one of the cool kids.

Religious Jews are seldom liberal.

[wardaddy]

Hasn’t Norman wrote on this before?

Personally after 57 years watching what I failed to notice till I was around 25

It’s partly Jewish lack of Messiah and path to afterlife which leads to Utopian quests for earthly life and to leave earth better place than when one lived here

Hence really dovetails with change and progress since status quo is not ever good enough

Jews tend to be clustered in urban life.....that lends oneself to government need for order and services

An irrational fear of Christianity and tradition borne originally of not so irrational genesis but this is America not Germany 1930s

Jews tend to create or walk into the same trap for themselves over and over aside from just being likely targets

Trust me the black and brown waves streaming into USA will one day turn on Jews as 1%ers even though the Left has engineered this demographic winter for old America

Many if not most American Jews are agnostic or atheist and keep Judaism as a cultural tradition for holidays and who they tend to marry to keep said tradition alive and parents happy

Not to say all not believers are liberals but the incidence of conservatism higher in believers....of western religion

Nor are most Religious Jews conservative politically....in fact...they are not but most freepers wishfully think otherwise after several posted here for years

But the most common reason is who the bulk today are. They are Eastern European Ashkenazim who brought collectivism and anti pluralism to our shores with them....the early Pre Revolution and Antebellum Jews were no different than Gentiles and they came from different parts of Europe

It’s just how it is....providential

It’s a pity....given their media and Hollywood influence if they turned it would change America

More Sarnoffs and less Weinsteins and Katzenbergs

[zzwhale]

its really simple....... DEMOCRAT POLITCIANS ARE CHEAPER TO BUY THAN REPUBLICANS... ONLY GENTILES PAY retail
and there you have it...also there is the STUPIDITY FACTOR....
grandpop and grandmom voted dem... daddy and mommy voted dem.... i must keep up the STUPID TRADITION....
I am sure all the JEWS are estatic over Obama’s treatment of israel.... and yet STUPIDITY overrides REASON.... and they voted for him twice... double stupid.
CAPITALISM has raised more people from poverty to middle and upper classes than any other ISM....
Another factor is the intellectual appeal of the unicorn and fairy dust and nirvana..... despite the fact that communism hasn’t nd wont work on the face of this earth and communism has kiile hundreds of millions of people.... REJECTION OF FACTS AND REALITY OF HUMAN NATURE...

[HiTech RedNeck]

Christian understanding (and much pre-gospel Jewish understanding) embraces eternity in present day life. It isn’t about going to heaven, but about embracing heaven here.

Nobody says we have to sit on status quo, but sometimes we are wise to keep it and wait rather than jumping on the first change to suggest itself.

[RayChuang88]

Michael Medved in his autobiography Right Turns asked that very question to his parents. He wrote that it was because Jews identified themselves with the Democratic Party for so long that they couldn't think of an alternative.

[Daveinyork]

“Pretty simple really - rejection of Christianity.”

You’re right, but not in the way you think and probably in a way that you don’t want to hear.

2,000 years ago, Jews rejected Christianity, and for the past 1,500 years, ever since Constantine the so-called Great, Jews have been oppressed by Christians, culminating in the pograms in Russian territories, and the Holocaust, both of which sent surviving Jews fleeing to America and the Holy Land.

It can be argued that the Holocaust wasn’t committed by Christians, but the Christians of the world mostly let it happen, and all the rest of the oppression was committed by Christians.

The plain and simple fact is that a lot of Jews do not trust Christians any more than they trust Muslims, and since the 1980’s, the party most associated with Christianity is the GOP, and the philosophy most associated with Christianity is conservatism, while the party that is most anti-Christian is the Democrat party, and the most anti-Christian philosophy is liberalism.

[MrB]

I understand what you’re saying about the past,
but I also know that in the present,

he conservative “evangelicals” are the biggest supporters and defenders of Israel and God’s people worldwide,

and that the ‘rat liberals are the biggest Jew haters on the planet alongside the Muslims.

It’s very similar to the legacy voting of the black or union demographic.

[Maine Mariner]

Excellent observation-I think your explanation goes a long way plus blue-blood old Yankee money Republicans were not exactly welcoming.

[SgtHooper]

That is the first remark that has made any sense to this anomaly.

[Daveinyork]

It’s going to take a few generations to overcome 1,500 years.

[DesertRhino]

American Jews living in Israel vote over 80% for the GOP in the last election. Israel is far more conservative that the American Catholic church which is also strongly for national healthcare, open borders, normalizing homosexuality more and more, and other leftist causes. Also note that not one Catholic politician who not only favors, but fully champions abortion has been excommunicated, or denied communion.

But I guess its always more fun to pick on the Jews.

[VRW Conspirator]

The “Progressive” movement is a conspiracy of ideas to forge a Global Culture in direct opposition to the G-d of Israel and His Law. -FReeper Torahman

I love quoting other FReepers. It makes me feel so...important.

[Jewbacca]

Baloney. Hate to break it to you, but your chosen religion does not cross the average Jewish person’s mind with any regularity.

The reason Jewish people are liberal in the USA is because:

1. They are urban Yankees. And thus vote like urban Yankees (that’s about 80% of it).

The remaining 20% is:

2. Tendency towards elite education, which comes with baggage.

3. Historical accident of time of immigration, from where, and how they were treated from same

4. Creepy, clearly fake, preacher types like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum are a turn off (the closes to your point)

5. Country-club Republicans (e.g., James Baker) and Paleo-Conservatives like Pat “Never Met A Nazi He Didn’t Like” Buchanon were historically very anti-Semitic.

6. Tendency to identify with the underdog, due to historical persecution

7. Weak theology in Reform communities, which make them a sucker for tikmum olam at the governmental level

[Grampa Dave]

BOL: As the late Jewish scholar Milton Himmelfarb said in the 1950s: "Jews earn like Episcopalians"—then the most prosperous minority group in America—"and vote like Puerto Ricans," who were then the poorest.