In 2012, GOP Could Carry Largest Percentage of Jewish Vote Since Eisenhower
Jews are about 2% of the population, but as one of the oldest age groups, and with high voter participation rates, Jews represent a larger share of the electorate, probably between 2.5% and 3%. Jews are concentrated in states Democrats usually win, with over 60% of the nation’s Jewish population in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Illinois, and Maryland, and another 20% in the five battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia.
Do the results in New York 9 signify a major shift in Jewish voting patterns? If they do, how will this impact the 2012 presidential and congressional races?
The national exit polls and earlier surveys suggest that the last Republican who won the Jewish vote (by a plurality, not a majority) was Warren G. Harding in 1920. In that race, the Socialist, Eugene Debs, garnered 38% of the Jewish vote, doubling the Jewish share for the Democratic candidate.
In more recent times, the last Republican to run close to the Democrat among Jewish voters was Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter in 1980 (Carter 45%, Reagan 39%, John Anderson 15%). Carter, of course, suffered a humiliating defeat in his re-election run, winning only six states, 49 Electoral College votes, and just 40% of the national popular vote. Carter’s Jewish percentage was only 5% higher than his national vote percentage.
In 2008, Barack Obama won 53% of the national popular vote, but was estimated to have won 78% of the Jewish vote, a 25% difference. If approval levels are indicative of intent to vote for a candidate, then the current gap is 11% (55% approval for Obama among Jews, 44% among all voters).
The New York 9 results suggest that the higher number of Orthodox Jews in the district is not sufficient explanation for the strong performance by Turner among Jewish voters. In heavily Orthodox and Russian precincts in New York in 2008, Jews voted 2 to 1 for McCain over Obama. Since these two groups comprise, at most, 15% of Jewish voters nationally (Orthodox Jews are a younger than average age cohort, with larger average family size), their votes among the total Jewish vote would have been 10% for McCain and 5% for Obama. All other Jews would have voted 73% to 12% for Obama over McCain (or by a six to one margin) to get to the 78% to 22% overall vote among the Jewish community.
Assume that the Orthodox plus Russian vote (estimated at 7% of Jews in the district) was 40% of the total in New York 9, and assume it went by 3 to 1 for Turner — a stronger result than for McCain — or 30% for Turner and 10% for Weprin, who is an Orthodox Jew himself. If the overall Jewish vote in the district was 50% for each candidate, then the non-Orthodox, non-Russian vote among Jews was 40% for Weprin and 20% for Turner — a 2 to 1 margin, down from the 6 to 1 margin among this group for Obama in 2008.
Now take these results by subgroup and apply them to the national Jewish voter distribution in 2012, assuming the Orthodox/Russian group is up to 16% of the total thanks to a slightly faster population growth than all Jews. If this group goes 3 to 1 for the Republican, that is a 12% to 4% split. If the remaining 84% of Jewish voters break 2 for 1 for Obama, that is a 56% to 28% split. In total, the Jewish vote for Obama would be 60% and for the Republican it would be 40%. The last Republican to earn 40% of the Jewish vote was Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. No wonder messaging to Jews has become a big issue for Democratic strategists.
One can adjust Obama’s percentage within each category by a point or two, without impacting the overall results all that much. If Obama receives 65% of the Jewish vote, it would still be the worst performance for a Democratic presidential candidate since Walter Mondale in 1984.
There is a long way to go until the 2012 vote. I think Waxman is right that some Republican candidates would do better among Jewish voters than others (Romney in particular). Jewish liberals seem to have an allergic reaction to any GOP candidate who is too visibly or outspokenly Christian. But if Obama’s margin among Jewish voters were to drop sharply (from 56% in 2008 to 20-30% in 2012), that would represent a net shift of about 100,000 to 125,000 votes in Florida, and close to half that range in Pennsylvania. Elections have been decided by a lot less than this.
The headline had me asking: just how many Jewish votes did Eisenhower get, in 2012?
Ha! I clicked on the article just to point out that same thing. With no offense intended to the author of the headline, it really does need to be altered for clarification.
Yes, just now important is the number of Jewish votes, for any candidate? Isn’t it far more important, even crucial, how many Jewish supporters any candidate has? Overtly AND covertly?
Not only in financial backing but in propaganda and influence media including universities, TV and HOllywood.
Jews are known to put their money where their mouths are and have the wherewithal to influence if not at times decide the vote thus the elected candidates. At local levels this is appropriate as Congressmen represent their local populations. BUT what about national Executive/President representing at least in theory the entire national matrix.
Must we continue to pretend that many people in pivotal, i.e. executive/decision echelons of those instruments are not Jewish. Can’t we grow up and speak facts? Or must we kid glove facts not polite to be spoken. As maidens too delicate to know the “facts of life”?
As in failure to publicly identify even after adjudicated as criminal including murder when brown/black-skinned, arabic, or whatever? Are Americans really nursery school infants. Who designed these social manners? And WHY
do adult Americans, after all ONLY ADULT AMERICANS
Are you implying that there’s something wrong with Jews being in influential positions?
Or that there is some Jewish conspiracy to favor their own interests at the expense of America’s?
I’ve got news for you. What’s good for Israel is also good for the US and for the rest of Judaeo-Christian civilization. If you don’t like that, then why don’t you move to Somalia or Pakistan or the KSA where the ruling class feels the way you do?
I think you have completely misunderstood what I said here. In no way as I see it can it be construed anti-semitic. The point is that it is not only numbers, after all were ALL Jews to vote for one candidate they could have virtually NO influence on the society, being what are they 3% of the population?
The crux is that we stop hesitating or refusing to state that Jewish persons ARE in pivotal positions in many if not most of the influence media in the US. The point would be as true were these persons Chinese, Muslim, African or even WASP. Or women. Jews unrepresentative of their population numbers. Despite in the past having been discriminated against for entry into status organisations, e.g.very limited quotas for Jews for admission to the “best” universities.
My point: it is time to allow ourselves to take seriously the rights of Americans to free speech and opinion. Not to fear being drummed out of decent society for saying truths that are not secret but treated as the crime that dare not speak its name.
What is the problem in stating that Jews ARE in pivotal position in many if not most influence media. This could also be praise given that they have managed this despite the disadvantages they have had in all western and if truth to told eastern societies throughout recorded history?
For practical purposes, I suppose it is okay to tally a “Jewish vote” but it is a foolish thing to do, and it has elicited a disgusting number of antisemitic comments here. I wrote about “the Jewish vote” here: http://clarespark.com/2011/06/17/the-famed-jewish-vote/. Also, to those horrified by the racist comments, please see http://clarespark.com/2010/11/14/the-abcs-of-antisemitism/. I do not blame the author for these comments.
Seems to me the Jews are historically voting for the ‘wrong’ side. Having them on the Republican side may be a little worrisome.
hehe
If the calculation is Obama, based on NY-9, means he’ll lose a lot of the Jewish voters that still favor Israel, then it’s highly likely that he’ll abstain from the Sec. Council vote. It would truly fire up the Left base. Might even get the vote of the Skinheads, neo-Nazis and the French.
After all, where the Jewish vote is important is only in the Congressional Districts with heavy Jewish populations. It’s not as if there’s enough Jewish voters in New York, California, Texas, Florida, etc., to make much difference. But there sure are a whole big bunch of lefties, moderates and other loony, drooling, barking mad dog anti-US, pro-PLO voters out there.
Whoa! There are enough Jewish voters (and any other group of voters) in Florida to make a difference because it is a swing state. If you look at an electoral map, Florida could decide the election again. The other big states, not so much.
Obama is toxic for Israel, Jews and a whole host of others that admire and love the good ole USA.
HOPE and CHANGE is coming I hope….
…I think they hate themselves and Israel. they have no concept of their past and the suffering their own people have endured, or they’re embarassed…so they back someone that comes in and treats the motherland/people like fools..they love to suffer..
Okay, well that’s the way it appears…just wait and see…betcha a doughnut they’ll vote in mass for Obama..
Makes perfect sense. Get all hysterical about a “minority” group that is only 2% of the population; and continue to ignore the majority. Keep ignoring the largest group in the country. Keep ignoring the group that’s been voting for you (by huge margins) since 1980 (heck since 1948, LBJ was an aberration). This “invisible” group was 74% of the electorate in 2008 and voted for McShame 55-43, and in 2010 they were 78% of the electorate and voted for congressional Republicans 60-37. Who is this “invisible”, “mysterious” group that is the majority in the country and so strongly supports the GOP? Who are these losers that the GOP takes for granted and ignores them and instead panders to “minorities”?
The GOP is so smart that they are doing everything in their power to turn their most loyal voters into a permanent minority that will be powerless. The GOP is drowning their base in Third World Immigration. It won’t be long now til the GOP is an irrelevant permanent minority and there is a one-party system in this country. Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona etc. will soon flip over to the Dems because of their changing demographics. The GOP will never again win another election. They will be a permanent minority. We will have a one-party system in this country. Goodbye America.
Ted Kennedy destroyed America with his Immigration Act of 1965.
BORDERS LANGUAGE CULTURE
“Goodbye America”? Not so fast Batman !!!!
I know there’s a lot of daily BAD news coming at us at high velocities but that part of the deception. There is far more GOOD stuff being done; so succumbing to fear is not necessary.
True Republicans look totally useless and far too NICE; but don’t worry; once our new president is elected, things will change rapidly for the GOOD. Don’t quit now; we need you.
Enough with this pie in the sky, everything’s coming up roses, how to win friends and influence people BS…
There is a time for optimism…and there is a time for pessimism (realism). (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
It is now estimated that the U.S. will flip to “majority minority” in 2041, meaning Americans of European ancestry will make up less than 50% of the population — it may come even sooner.
In at least 10 states, the share of children who are minorities has already passed 50 percent. They include Mississippi, Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California, New Mexico and Hawaii.
In the long-term the Republican party — as we’ve known it — is ultimately doomed…
Ted Kennedy destroyed America with his Immigration Act of 1965. We are heading towards a Third World America…
Oh yeah, and Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions” as been a stunning success…
Don’t fool yourself. You really think Mitt Romney or Rick Perry is going to save you? Are you serious?
BORDERS LANGUAGE CULTURE
Interesting that at least half of those states trend Republican! I don’t think the Hispanic vote is as far in the Dem’s pocket as you think it is. They’re more naturally aligned with conservatives on social issues, and since they moved here for economic opportunity, like Asian-Americans, as they prosper they’re going to align with whomever helps them do that best.
Did you happen to see the recent results on voter ID? 70-75% approval among HISPANICS. They know the score- just like they did in California on getting rid of the habit of teaching Hispanic kids in Spanish instead of English immersion. Notice how no one talks about that loser of a program any more. It’s the people who are professional racists who need to keep identity politics and Hispanic victimhood alive. The ordinary folks just want to get ahead, and they’re going to align with whomever helps them do that.
They come here (legally or illegally) for the opportunities. At some point they are going to realize that socialism restricts opportunity and that the welfare state is unsustainable. Even if the Dems win the amnesty battle, as these new “citizens” leave the underground economy and cross into the taxpaying middle class, they are going to start seeing things differently. This is the fatal flaw in the socialists’ recruitment strategy. Imagine if they got their wish and were able to unionize all private sector workers. The first thing that would happen is massive resentment and ultimately catching-up with the pay, benefits and pensions of the public sector. Now if everyone has such lavish treatment – the loss of export business and the dramatic rise in prices of all American made goods and services would negate all of these artificial gains. It just can’t work. But let’s hope we don’t have to learn this lesson again. This time there will be no America to show the world the path to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
BS!!!
Though many Hispanics may be social conservatives, they believe in Big Government. Understandably so. For, as lower-income voters, they pay far less in income taxes than the average American, while benefiting far more from the welfare state: free education for their kids, food stamps, welfare checks, housing supplements, Medicaid, subsidized day care, student loans and grants, affirmative action, and earned income tax credits. At the local, state and federal level, Hispanics vote for the party of government.
Can the GOP be both the party that secures the border against Hispanic invaders and sanctions employers who hire them, and still be the party Hispanics will vote for? In the old imagery, if the GOP reaches for the bird in the bush, the Hispanic vote, by favoring open borders and amnesty, they may lose the bird in the hand, the support of the white working and middle class that is the heart of the Republican coalition.
Obama is now boxed into a corner regarding Israel. With current tensions rising between Turkey and Israel, with Syria and now Jordan almost in flames, and with Iran about to get a nuclear bomb, Israel is going to need American support now more than ever. The Palestinians are also going to go for statehood at the UN next week, a move that the United States will veto but a move that will undoubtedly cause more revolts on the West Bank and Gaza. So unless Obama gives Israel some serious support if any one of these problems develops into a full-blown crisis, he can kiss the Jewish vote goodbye.
This is NOT what Obama wants to do, though. He actually WANTS to support the Palestinians, so it’s probably killing him that he can’t. Given how Obama has treated Israel and the Israeli Prime Minister over the past two years, that’s the only conclusion you can come to. Obama has always seen Israel as the problem in the Middle East and NOT as the solution. So unless he really goes off the deep end and supports either the Palestinians or the Turks, he is going to have to support Israel big time. So, in a way, it’s actually good that all of this is happening during an election year. Obama will be forced to take sides. And if he doesn’t choose Israel, and fast, he will lose the Jewish vote here in the US for the next eight years.
It is beyond me why any jewish person would vote for a democrat after this administrations attitude towards Israel.
If the European-American vote is 74% of the electorate, and the Jewish vote is 2% of the electorate; that means that the European-American vote is 37X more important than the “Jewish vote”.
If the Republicans were to increase their European-American support from say 60% to 65% – that would increase their overall share of the vote by 3.7%. And if the GOP were to increase their Jewish share of the vote from say 20% to 40%, that would equal … an increase in their overall share of the vote by 0.4%. If the GOP were to increase their share of the European-American vote by 1% (from 60% to 61%) they would increase their share of the overall vote by 0.74% — nearly double what they would gain if they would increase their Jewish support from 20% to 40%.
BTW, 90% of the GOP’s votes come from this hated, ignored and marginalized group, which is still the majority in this country, but won’t be for much longer, thanks to the sellouts in both parties.
To the author of this piece: What’s with the hysteria over the “Jewish vote”? The “Jewish vote” is basically irrelevant (except perhaps in Florida, and even there it soon won’t matter).
Keep up the Mass Immigration from the Third World, drown the GOP base, and we will soon have a one-party system. We will be a Latin American Banana Republic.
Thank you Ted Kennedy for destroying America. (Yes, of course George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Karl Rove, John McCain, the Chamber of Commerce, the Wall Street Journal etc. are also responsible for destroying America. That goes without saying…)
BORDERS LANGUAGE CULTURE
This is for Savage. i wrote this article about the Jewish vote, because PJM asked me to. I agree with you. If whites vote as they did in 2010 races, Obama is doomed in 2012.
In 1980 European-Americans were 88% of the electorate
In 1984 European-Americans were 86% of the electorate
In 1988 European-Americans were 85% of the electorate
In 1992 European-Americans were 87% of the electorate
In 1996 European-Americans were 83% of the electorate
In 2000 European-Americans were 81% of the electorate
In 2004 European-Americans were 77% of the electorate
In 2008 European-Americans were 74% of the electorate
In 2010 European-Americans were 78% of the electorate.
In 2012 European-Americans will probably be around 72% of the electorate.
And in 4 or 8 years it will be impossible for the GOP to ever win another election.
Due to their changing demographics Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona etc. will soon flip to the Dems. The GOP will never win another election for the rest of the century. We will have a one-party system. The GOP will be irrelevant, a permanent minority.
Not only did Ted Kennedy destroy the Republican Party with his Immigration Act of 1965, he destroyed America.
We will soon be a Third World Banana Republic.
Yes, Obama may lose in 2012 to Romney or Perry…but that won’t change anything. All democracies eventually collapse. It is America’s turn. Goodbye America. It was nice knowing you.
BORDERS LANGUAGE CULTURE
Hey Richard I see you wrote an article for AT “Obama and the white vote”.
In 2012 you are certainly correct, it should be pretty easy for the GOP to defeat Obama. If the Republicans come to their senses, they should be able to win states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin etc… and blow out Obama and the Dems.
But in the long-term the GOP is DOOMED. They brought it on themselves. They did everything possible to destroy their base — the white working and middle class. And so they will get exactly what they deserve… The GOP is complicit in the destruction of America.
BORDERS LANGUAGE CULTURE
I wish the media would quit publishing what percentages Obama is loosing by,as the Democrats will know how many votes they have to steal. Look at how the Republicans sandbagged the Wisconsin Democrats when they misplaced a whole district’s votes and discovered them after the Dems had allready stolen what they thought they needed.
Despite what Waxman says it is not money that distinguishes one Jewish voter from another, it is education. I do not mean secular education I mean Jewish education. Unfortunately the Jewish community in the United States has been plagued by a group of charlatans motivated by financial reward who have claimed to be spiritual leaders in the Jewish tradition. We live in a society where anyone can become a minister by buying a degree online. These ” jewish ministers ” have swelled the ranks of people who claim to be Jewish but are not. They would fill their seats with camels if a camel could open a wallet. Sadly some authentic Jews , who have no real Jewish education, get taken for a ride by these snake oil salesmen. Their anything goes attitude is as close to judaism as a ham sandwich.
Educated Jews have always based their vote on the individuals stand on issues not party affiliation. In 2012 the choice could not be more obvious. The cancer of the Obama administration must be cut out before it can metastasis any further.
The Jewish vote is a pivotal and swing vote in a relatively small number of districts that are in key states. What is more important, in my view, is the catalytic effect that a large change in Jewish opinion would have on other much larger demographic groups like upwardly mobile Hispanics, moderately conservative white Catholics, etc. These groups who make up the center of the American political spectrum – not the right or left – are essentially unrepresented today and voiceless in our political life, because the Democrats are dominated by leftists and Islamophiles like Obama, and the GOP is dominated by Southern Protestant right wingers.
The Jews are the only centrist group in America that is articulate and ideological enough – and well connected in the media world – to articulate policies that represent the old conservative wing of the Democratic Party that is now dead. That is what Ed Koch represents, but he is 86 years old. God bless him that he stood up to the Obamas and the Nancy Pelosis of this world who have dragged the DP into the dustbin that it presently finds itself in.
The Jewish revolt against the Obama-led Democratic Party will hopefully bring back some sanity to the party, and perhaps, who knows, even the Clintonistas.
Thank you Ellen,
You insight is important and nicely articulated.
Your….
Nonsense. The “Jewish vote” is basically irrelevant. It is a handful of schlemiels like George Soros, Herb and Marion Sandler, Peter Lewis, Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen, Eisner etc. who the Democrats care about. The “Jewish vote” itself is practically meaningless. Stop trying to make it seem like you’re so important and everyone should pander for your vote.
There is no “Jewish vote”. There are 2 VERY DIFFERENT groups. There are the “frum” (religious) Jews who vote 90% for Republicans. And then there are secular “Jews”, like that putz Larry David, who vote 90% for Democrats. CURRENTLY the secular “Jews” are about 85% of the Jewish population in the U.S. Therefore the Dems win the “Jewish vote” 80-20. However soon the “frum” (religious) Jews will be a majority of the Jewish population in the U.S. and everything will change (for the better)…
Not to worry. The victory in NY – 9, is by no means an indication that the Repulican party will attract significantly more Jewish voters in 2012. The majority of the tribe will still vote Democrat; just like most blacks will.
Expat in Warsaw
Don’t think for a moment Mormon Rmney or protestant crazy Perry would get any Jews votes.
Why not? Hussein al-Ubama did all right.
I disagree with you. I personally know quite a few Jews who would vote for either of the men you mentioned in preference to zero-bama. Moreover, based on on my observations I do not believe that this will represent a statistically unimportant part of the Jewish vote in 2012.
Yet, the truth is that, as the article’s author, Richard Baehr, noted in a comment above in response to the point made by poster “Savage,”, the numerical value of the Jewish vote, per se, is unimportant in all but a very small number of places. MUCH more important than the number of Jewish voters who will turn against zero-bama is the number of financially significant Jewish donors who will choose to not support zero-bama. THAT is significant, and will be one (amongst several) factors in zero-bama’s upcoming electoral defeat. One example (among a growing number of similar examples) is billionaire Haim Saban, who supported zero-bama big-time in 2008, and who will no longer support him.
The voters in New York are estimated at 13% Jewish and 49% Catholic. How do you think Reagan won in 1980?
Do not assume that New York is ‘deep blue liberal’. The Dems had to run on ‘protecting women’s reproductive rights’ in 2010 statewide contests, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in order to drive up female turnout in Manhattan and Westchester counties.
anyway, NY same-sex marriage was as much an issue in NY-9 as jobs or Obama’s hostility to Netanyahu and an undivided Jerusalem. Orthodox dem Weprin’s vote in NY Assembly was not needed, yet he made an impassioned speech in support.
In 2010, Ackerman and McCarthy actually had to campaign and debate because of Jewish voters in Nassau County, which McCain won in 2008.
All the NY and national GOP have to do is stop being comatose. NYC voters register as dems mostly to have a vote in the primaries when the Dem machine allows a primary. Absence of enthusiasm = 50% turnout in 2008, with <35% turnout in NY9. When there IS a bit of enthusiasm, NYC elects Giuliani, and even Bloomberg instead of liberal hacks.
First we have an article about the GOP and the black vote.
Now we have an article about the GOP and the Jewish vote.
Will we have an article by Ruben Navarrette on the Latino vote next?
Conservatives will rent a studio to the Jews while the house of their own creation is periodically being fumigated, but this is a always a short term arrangement.
Obama is the worst president our country has ever had the misfortune of having to experience. Nothing he has done so far has worked to improve our nation’s economy! His platform for change went in the wrong direction, which nobody expected. His blatant and disrespectful views toward Israel are appalling. Israel must remain our best friend in the middle east. We need Israel to give us the assurance of a balance of power and especially to prevent our enemies in that region from developing nuclear capabilities to use against us.
I’m sorry Chaz, I beg to differ. Lots of people including myself saw that writing on the wall. Obama run a hateful and deceptive campaign. His ideas signaled that his was a recipe for economic disaster, about as subtle as a freight train headed at a hundred miles an hour towards the end of the track. Completely predictable.
This is a horrible sign of the incompetence of the American voter.
Obama went to a church for twenty years. He sat in the pew of a race hustling, America hating bomb thrower that praised Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, a group that used to be tied to the American Nazi party. And Jews voted for him. WTF?????
Hello Dilo Tank
Most of us learned about Obama’s background after he became our nation’s worst president, including dumb me! I commend you for your prudent research prior to voting. I deserve punishment, but to the extent of deserving this deeds of this asshole president of ours. Thank GOD we still have the right to freedom of expression and speech in America. If asshole had his way, he would attempt to also remove that freedom. I’m an ex military man, a combat veteran. I am the most patriotic person you’ll ever know. I am in tears to see what Obama has allowed to happen in this wonderful country of mine and yours. No more posts for me. I’m done.
The reason American Jews have been voting for Democrats is secular over-education and mistrust of Christianity and under estimation the danger of Islamo Fascism. As for soo called Jewish Liberals clergy, they nothing more misguided Jews who turned Jewish history and traditions up side down. I do think in 2012 most the Jews will vote republican except for those misguided Jews who will stay home. Either way Hussein Obama will not get the majority of the Jewish vote.
It’s nice to hear that Obama will lose anybody’s vote but I suspect that in real numbers the Jewish vote is not much of an issue. As for donations, American Jews have not been exempted from the recession and so many Jews were cleaned out by Madoff that I wouldn’t expect a ton of gold to be delivered to GOP candidates by Jews. The issue is not an issue.
“…Jewish liberals seem to have an allergic reaction to any GOP candidate who is too visibly or outspokenly Christian…”
Jewish liberal voters are anti religion. Their own and anyone else’s. Liberal Jews know less about Judaism than they do about Christianity. Raised without Judaism beyond circumcision and a big birthday party at the age of thirteen, these Jews are proudly ignorant of all things Jewish except bagels and lox and pastrami on rye. Only the appearance of a traditional Catholic Jew hater like Pat Buchanan, or the comment by one or another yahoo that “God doesn’t hear the prayer of a Jew” reminds them that they are different from their Christian neighbors.
It is ironic and bizarre that Bible reverent, Hebrew literate Jews with some attachment to Judaism are less threatened by such anti-Semitism than their more irreligious and liberal coreligionists.
Connected Jews are not surprised by Pat Buchanan and take it for granted that his ingrained Catholic jealousy and hatred of Jews lies just beneath the surface of some difficult-to-quantify minority of less vocal Catholics. Buchanan’s is the traditional, narrow minded and murderous Roman Catholicism that sent Jews fleeing from Europe. Liberal Jews have no Jewish memory and make no such connections. Buchanan’s vile opinions come to them as a great shock.
Connected Jews recognize that this nation was founded by Deists Freemasons and Radically purist Protestants who were as religiously hated and persecuted by the Roman and Anglican Churches as the Jews. Those blessed founders of this nation made provisions in law to protect themselves and Jews along with them from such hatred and prejudice. The American Constitution and American law forever guarantees Jewish protection from Buchanan and his ilk who came to these shores not for religious freedom but to fill their bellies.
Connected Jews recognize that Pat Buchanan and his kind are a European German-Irish anachronism that overtly and covertly opposed the Union in the Civil War and both America and Britain in two World Wars. They don’t forget that the single worst racist outrage in the nation’s history—a three day pogrom of lynching, burning, raping and mutilating blacks by fully seventy thousand Irish Catholics–didn’t occur down south but right here in New York. They don’t forget that a black man or woman wasn’t welcome in an American Catholic Church until the Twentieth Century or that Italian Catholics in Boston were compelled to build their own churches because Italians were not welcome in the Churches of the Irish who openly referred to the Holy Father as the Ghinny Pope. Sorry if this sounds like Catholic bashing but it is true history and it didn’t happen so very long ago.
What do we make of the fact that unconnected, non-traditional, Hebrew illiterate and liturgically ignorant liberal Jews who never pray are more upset by the assertion that God doesn’t hear their prayers than are traditional Jews who pray three times a day? If you don’t pray, why worry that someone says God doesn’t hear your prayers?
The sad truth is that the unconnected Jews who consider themselves sophisticated modernists are more traditional than their more connected American coreligionists in one all-important respect: Their fear and distrust of the Goyim. A connected Jew knows Jewish history and plainly recognizes that the ordinary American Christian—Catholic and Protestant alike—is a very different creature than his backward European cousins. A connected Jew knows and appreciates that the influence on America and Americans of the blessed Founding Fathers remains strong and will always be his shield.
Unaffiliated Jew Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, kept news of the industrial scale murder of Jews in Europe out of the pages of the New York Times for fear that such news would only inspire Nazi-like anti-Semitism in American Christians. His Episcopalian son and current publisher of the NYT is reportedly hypersensitive to being mistaken for Jewish. The celebrated journalist Walter Lippmann wouldn’t go near a Jewish topic in his columns throughout his entire career but his biographer reveals that in the privacy of his own mind, Lippmann was continually obsessed and tortured by Judaism and his Jewish identity. It comes as no surprise to connected Jews when a Second generation Episcopalian convert from Judaism with a Jewish name like Caspar Weinberger descends to keening hysteria over the discovery of an American Jew named Pollard spying for Israel. No surprise either that an irreligious and unconnected Jew like Henry Waxman descends to anti-Semitism when thwarted by Jewish voters.
Liberal Jewish voters demonstrate their craven fear of being identified as a successful and prosperous minority and their desperate need to be unnoticed among the mediocre and struggling masses in every election. Contrary to their public presentation, liberal Jews are backward and cowardly “shtetl Yids,” still terrified of the Goyim right here in the land of the free.
I have learned a lot today, especially from the above comment by David Levavi, David this was a real proper comment you made. I have always wondered why Pat Buchcanon, always seemed so angry, bitter, and downright hostile to all. Now i can see it clear….When you have a ”Connected” Christian and an average catholic, the real true Christian will have an aura of peace, and joy, and love for the Jew and Israel….I have never seen a trace of that with Pat B…..I really appreciate you and your kind words about us true connected Christians, and there is one dear Jewish Man that made a statement about christians killing 1’5 millian little Jewish children just 70 years ago…I truely that people like you and mr Rubin will tell that friend of mine that we true Christians do not Harm a Jewish person, and we were the people that went to war to Help save our Jewish friends….Maybe he will read this…The connected Christian is the one friend that will fight for Zion, and her inhabitants…..Jimi Belton, the Zionest Christian..
Thanks, Jimi. Secular Jews imagine that Christian Evangelicals are a recent phenomenon. In fact, British Evangelicals were protecting Jews and Zion in the Nineteenth Century. Historian Barbara Tuchman, in her book on the subject of Christian Zionism, Bible and Sword, tells how British Evangelicals strongly imposed on the Turks who controlled Palestine in those days to actively protect the Jewish minority there from the continual rioting, murdering and looting by the Arab majority.
My maternal ancestors were among the Jews protected by those noble Christians. Were it not for them, I might never have been born.
It is time for those who love America to speak up at the ballot box and get rid of all politicians who would trade our sovereignty to the UN, who believe good is bad and bad is good, who believe in social justice rather than equal justice, who have no respect for the Constitution or the rule of law, who believe it is fine to use children for their own sick agenda.
On this subject of the [secular] Jew, please see http://clarespark.com/2010/04/03/liberals-and-jewish-racism/. Note too that David Levavi gets the Founding Fathers right.
Thanks Clare. Followed the link and read your piece. On the money.
It is entirely unremarked upon, but the annual American Thanksgiving, commemorating the Thanksgiving (Eucharist) feast of the Puritan Pilgrims, is the only instance in the history of Christian Jewish relations where religious Christians and religious Jews join in religious communion.
(Recall that St. Paul rooted the Christian Communion in the (Last Supper) Passover Kiddush over wine and matzoh. Recall also that the the first Kiddush/Communion over wine and bread was celebrated by Our Father Abraham and the Jebusite King of (Jeru)Salem to mark their eternal peace. Recall finally that joining in Kiddush (blessing or hallowing) over wine and bread was what separated the Pauline Church from the Jerusalem Church. The Jews of the Jerusalem Church refused Gentiles from participation in the Kiddush absent circumcision and T’vilah (Baptism) into the Jewish faith. Every American Thanksgiving Day that proscription from communion between Gentiles and Jews is quietly ignored and overcome.)
This is a common tactic among Left Wing Jews. It is the Jews are leaving their historic sensitivity and becoming selfish (which usually means either not voting Democratic or not doing something Democrats demand so that they can have the statistics they need to prove such and such needs money). The last prominent scam of that type was when it was pointed out that Jews were leaving public education and seeking more religiously oriented education for their kids and this “selfish” act was somehow undermining public schools and the Jews should rethink it all and go back to being good liberals. You can look up the Atlantic website (which has some very good articles from time to time but that one should never have seen the light of day) to see an example of that kind of “academic thinking” http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99oct/9910jewishschools.htm. There is a lot of resentment of Jews in the political establishment in the Jewish community because that kind of Waxman ploy is employed almost daily on the local level.
Thanks David for saying, in your long-winded way, exactly what needs to be said. Liberal secular Jews abandoned Judaism long ago for the illusory comforts and status of liberal elitism and all its hypocrisies because it made them popular in a social class (limosine liberals) to which they aspired to enter. Now that they are in that class, they are faced with the unpalatable fact that this class chooses to promote people like Obama, after 20 years in Rev. Wright’s hate-infested church, to the leadership of their party – and worse – to the leadership of our country.
We were all told by the craven and cowardly court Jews (not to be confused with the court jesters)such as David Axelrod that Obama was secretly proIsrael but just couldn’t say it in the toxic swamps of South Side Chicago because of his political needs to appear “black.” Oh … blow it out the other end, please. Ed Koch had the great courage to stand up and say what many people are saying privately, that Obama dislikes Jews and Israel.
It is true that the Jewish vote is not that important empirically in a large country, but Jewish money is. However, beyond that, the Jewish vote is highly symbolic, and the symbolism is written about obsessively by our media, both Jewish and gentile. Just as Israel is a symbol globally, so is the Jewish vote in America. That is why Koch could rally a population in Brooklyn and Queens that was mostly Catholic blue collar voters, to oppose Obama by talking about his insult to Israel. Its the symbolism, stupid. Obama and Axelrod are so clueless about most of America, they didn’t realize that. They learned a lesson and will learn more in the near future.
This is a heartening article, which my conservative Jewish friends will be glad to read–but I don’t know where Mr. Baehr gets his data that Jews make up “about 2%” of the population. According to this study, from 2008 (http://b27.cc.trincoll.edu/weblogs/AmericanReligionSurvey-ARIS/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf), they make up only 1.2% of the American populace. So while it’s nice that some Jewish folks are realizing the vacuity of the Democratic agenda, Jewish voters really aren’t all that important in the vast electoral scheme.
I am a right-leaning Jew who woke up when I was 22, but most are far too secular, guilt-ridden, ignorant of Israel and elitist to get it. Obama will still score 70% of the dumb secular Jew vote. They are fools. They were around in the 30s too. Shameful.
Hillary-Barry, in that Order
Many Americans consider the Barack Hussein Obama administration the worst of all American political worlds, the be-all-end-all epitome of the depths to which the nation could possibly sink, the ultimate catastrophe for our country.
It’s entirely possible that, as Andy Bachman warbled, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.”
Consider this: Obama is wallowed in a well-deserved wallow of popular disapproval. He has declared his understanding that his could be a one-term presidency. He and his lovely bride have been milking his office for all it’s worth as if in anticipation that he too will be jobless after next year. He has offered no viable solutions to alleviate the nation’s unemployment issues nor for any other pressing domestic or international problems.
I think he wants out, at least for now.
So, what does Barry do?
(Obama, of course, could win next November with or without Joe Biden but for the purposes of this analysis–and my own sanity–I’m just examining his other options.)
He could simply resign his office within the next year, a very unlikely act which would put him in the Tricky Dickie class of loser presidents. He could continue on to the bitter end, be humiliated in an election landslide, and slink off into the dark pages of history, He could pull a Carter by spending the rest of his days trying to build a legacy predicated on fantasy. He could dump Biden in favor of Hillary Clinton, not a likelihood since it assumes Hil would agree to be his second banana.
And he could take the high road, claim he was acting in the best interests of the nation, appear as the consummate hero of the Democrat Party by accepting the nomination as vice president on a Hillary ticket to serve as her junior, seasoned adviser.
Unprecedented? Yes. Absurd? Not at all.
Is it any more inconceivable than the incredible absurdity of a two-year U.S. senator with precious little experience in anything other than functioning as a neighborhood organizer on Chicago’s mean streets and as an inconsequential Illinois state senator becoming president of the United States?
At 51, Obama will be a virtual babe in the woods next Election Day, far too young to retire into political oblivion. He is insatiably egotistical and ambitious but very unpopular outside his core black, socialist, union, and homosexual constituencies. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5480.)
Your idea is totally absurd. Obama would never play second fiddle to Hillary. Never never never. Nor could he count on her keeping a gentleman’s agreement to appoint him to the Supreme Court. In reality, O-bummer’s best shot at winning reelection is a 3-way contest. He needs a third party candidate to siphon off the Independents, so he can win with only his base of 43%. I’m sure the media will be all too happy to help out in this department. Trump, Huntsman – there are several possibilities here.
Now I could see Hillary being Trump’s or Huntsman’s VP in a 3-way. That would make the contest interesting!
“If Obama receives 65% of the Jewish vote, it would still be the worst performance for a Democratic presidential candidate since Walter Mondale in 1984.”
And the worst performance for the Jews since they left Egypt and 80% chose to stay behind.
But who will the GOP candidate be? Isd it not possible to have a candidate who reflects considerable support for his views, not inordinate pwersonal ambition?
Is there no Republican to call for reaffirmtion of our founding legacy, with specific reference to the Declaration of Independence, Constitution — and Federalist Papers? It is my belief that the American people would respond to such a Republican who criticized our neo-aristocrats, intent on destroying free enterprise and the middle class, and demanded that our leaders serve the common good and stay close to the people, failing which,he or she would point out, government, as Madison warned in Federalist No. 57 degenerates into tyranny. How about a Republican delivering such an address at…Cooper Union?
Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich — please copy.
The Jews have been “wispy washy’ way back to Moses’s time. Their vote is vital in local politics,such as NY, NJ and FL, but national, a very small minority.
Just a thought.
david levavi
“Historian Barbara Tuchman, in her book on the subject of Christian Zionism, Bible and Sword, tells how British Evangelicals strongly imposed on the Turks who controlled Palestine in those days to actively protect the Jewish minority there from the continual rioting, murdering and looting by the Arab majority.”
WHAT arab majority, especially in the 19th century.
Samuel Clemmens (Twain) reported finding Palestine basically deserted and then later, T. E. Lawrence, during WW1, in Palestine, encountered more Turkish soldiers than arabs….
Arabs migrated to Palestine from as far as Yemen…with 30,000 Syrians pouring in during 1947…prompting the Syrian foreign secretary/minister, in 1958, to declared that Palestinians do not exist..it is a fiction…..
I stand corrected O Hairy One. Thanks.
I think, after reading all the very interesting comments, what we can take away from this article is that, while the Jewish vote is insignificant nationally, it is still part of the Democrat base. The election is still far off, and special elections are not known as predictors. The NY 9th election could be interpreted as a repudiation of not only Anthony Weiner but Obama and Democrats in general. What the GOP hopes (for a ripple effect throughout the NYC base of minorities) may be very different in the reality of 2012.
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I have Catholics and Jews in my family. How on earth will we re- elect Obama or most of our Congress again. They have shredded Habeus Corpus, Privacy and Surveillance laws. TSA is involved in abuse of AMERICAN travelers, performed regular thefts from AMERICAN Citizens. TSA moved 3/4 of a million in ICE this April in Hawaii and it is believed to have been a pattern according to their reports of up to 9 million. Thats one AirPort!. Our Secret Service ordered hookers with hotels. DHS said this is a random act. How did they know who to call for whores ahead of time?. GSA order Hot Tubs and pissed away millions and they aren’t a part of DHS. THE US MILITARY begged us not to go to Iraq and obey the Constitution and treaty of Westphalia. WTF the military is teaching Congress about the limits of the Constitution. Where are the Supremes. Lindsey Graham (R) writes the Super Patriot Act which endangers anyone who speaks out against the National Social Orders. He is joined by McCain (R) Lieberman (I) and it is signed by the President (D). DHS disrespects Veterans and actually warns they may be a threat. Why a threat? Veterans know and believe in the Constitution. One out of 4 people are on assistance. We have bailed out bum after bum and thief after thief. We have driven industry from our shores and money to the Grand Caymans. In other words US Govt. fornicates,lie, encourage sloth, intimidates the meek, pays the lazy poor and violate every citizens inalienable rights. OH Judah why do you turn your face from us. Jews that don’t read the Torah and Catholics who don’t remember our Rabbi’s words. We condone genocide, wipe out the Arab governments which will foment more Anti-Semetic and Anti Christian feelings. We watch the 10 Commandments removed from all buildings. If you are Jewish and vote for the same people. Pray we are all not rounded up. Because America the government can do it and will if you protest in the future. Stay silent ,mind your own business and hope things get better. It didn’t work for my wifes step grand mother or grandfather in 1941. He was Catholic so he got watch his Jewess women skinned and stripped for lamp shades as she bled to death.
These are the laws of Germany 1936. President Obama lamely says I really didn’t want to sign it. Well we see how well he treated Benjamin Netanyahu. So if this Congress and President can disrespect Israel and destabilize the Arab States and the United States. Please think before you vote. Oh and I am a Democrat. Please re-elect no one. I know you will walk up like sheep and stick your head in the yoke. No doubt Romney is taking a chance. He sounds stable by comparison to aman who doesn’t even want to help Israel. I spent 20 years as Marine and I never thought my government would be the Stazi. I was looking for Russians, Cubans and the PRC. The death is coming from with in via greed, meglomania and elected socialist. Yaweh help us even if we have turned and don’t serve it. Pray for deliverance and read the Psalms. That is all that will save us. We don’t deserve it but lets hope the blood we have shed to help women and children in the middle east will be sufficient for the mercy seat.
Oh and I am far from religious but I do know the rank structure and we ain’t in charge.