4um: Why So Few Jews Vote for Republicans

Title: Why So Few Jews Vote for Republicans
Source: abcnews.go.com
URL Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2872816&page=2
Published: Feb 15, 2007
Author: Jennifer Rubin
Post Date: 2007-02-15 16:05:15 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 103
Comments: 5

Feb. 13, 2007 — It is no secret that Jews in America have historically not favored the Republican Party. Several polls estimated that only 25 percent of Jews voted for Bush in 2004. Although disputed for of its small sample size, the National Jewish Democratic Council's 2006 poll showed only 12 percent of Jews voted for the GOP. The Jewish Community Relations Council estimated that Bush got just 19 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000.

Commentators in the Jewish community and party pollsters debate endlessly why Jews are not more favorably disposed toward the GOP. Jews are wealthier and more educated than the average American, generally oppose affirmative action and favor strong support of Israel. On these counts the GOP should, many say, have greater appeal.

Is it because Jews have an historical affinity for FDR and the party of immigrants and the "little guy"? Is it because of Jews' religious devotion to "tikkun olam" — repair of the world — which they translate to support for governmental social services? Maybe some of each but perhaps something else is at work

The dustup over the location of Mitt Romney's presidential announcement — the Henry Ford Museum — may be revealing. For Jews over the age of 40 or so, the name Ford means more than Mustangs and American innovation. Ford, of course, was a notorious anti-Semite, publisher of the International Jew (an update of the Protocols of Zion), and an apologist for Hitler who received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Hitler's Nazi government in July 1938. In many Jewish homes, owning a Ford was verboten.

Fast forward to today. As soon as Romney announced that he would make his presidential announcement at the Ford Museum, the accusations and statements started to fly. The National Jewish Democratic Council came out first, chastising Romney for making a pilgrimage to the site of this famous anti-Semite. Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks fired back in a press release today, saying, "I'm saddened and disappointed by the attack today by the NJDC against Gov. Romney."

Pointing out that former President Clinton had once said nice things about Ford, the RJC said that "The RJC believes that the NJDC does a disservice to Gov. Romney's strong record of support for the Jewish community and to their own reputation by their actions."

The NJDC responded, ""Presidential campaign announcements are as much about symbolism of the location as the substance of the speech. Mitt Romney went to a museum named after the most premier anti-Semite and xenophobe in American history. But his choice of location suggests that he should do his homework on basic American history."

It is doubtful either of these groups believe Romney is really an anti-Semite. Democratic consultant Dan Gerstein perhaps said it best: "I don't think Romney is guilty of anything other than obliviousness.

But you could argue that obliviousness is indicative of a broader problem with the social conservatives Romney is trying to court, which is a lack of sensitivity to the concerns many Jews have about their place in American society."

Indeed, the incident may say something not only about Romney but about the GOP's problem with Jews. In his boatload of advisers, Romney apparently did not have anyone to say, "You know, a lot of Jews really hate Ford, and it might mess up your message. Let's try Edison's lab to make a point about American innovation."

The GOP has become a rural, overwhelmingly Christian and Southern party. It is not populated by urban ethnics who, even if they aren't Jewish, understand Jews' cultural references and sensibilities. Ask an Italian New Yorker in October why the restaurants are empty, and he'll say "It's Yom Kippur, silly." You would never catch a Greek from Chicago saying, as a Republican from southern Virginia just did, that asking the state to apologize for slavery was like "asking the Jews to apologize for killing Christ."

In short, the Republicans are not just our kind of people, many Jews say. They don't sound like us, they don't talk like us and they don't understand us. Unless and until that changes, Jews likely will likely be voting overwhelmingly Democratic for years to come.

Jennifer Rubin is a freelance writer living in Northern Virginia. She was previously a labor lawyer in Los Angeles.

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Wars against terrorism, Iraq put Jews in Bush's corner; Traditional Democrat bloc is shifting alliance, leaders and polls say.(NATION)(NEWS ANALYSIS)

From: The Washington Times

| Date: April 6, 2003

| More results for: jews vote democrat

Byline: Donald Lambro, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

There has been a significant shift of support for President Bush among Jews in the United States as a result of the war against terrorism and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, pollsters and Jewish leaders say.

Jews have long been one of the Democratic Party's most loyal political constituencies. But the growing likelihood that the war in Iraq will eliminate one of Israel's regional enemies, perhaps leading to positive changes in the Middle East, has helped Republicans make inroads into the Jewish vote, a leading Jewish clergyman says.

"I think there are more Jews who would be willing to vote for President Bush now and in the year 2004. I think that is a concern and a challenge to the Democratic Party," said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a pro-Israel group that seeks to promote closer cooperation between Christians and Jews.

Mr. Eckstein said he is "neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

"I am a rabbi, and this project is our ministry."

"We don't know how much, but there is a shift among Jews who are supporting Bush and his battle against terrorism. You would have to be blind not to see that. Republicans are making an effort to bring the Jewish community into its tent, and the Democratic Party is trying to stop the hemorrhaging," he said.

The latest evidence of this political shift was on view last week when hundreds of Jewish, and evangelical Christian leaders and supporters gathered in the District for a two-day conference called Stand for Israel, a project of Mr. Eckstein's organization.

The event, which is to be an annual meeting, was co-chaired by Republican strategist Ralph Reed, who has been a close political adviser to the White House.

Participants cheered speakers, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, Rep. Tom Lantos, California Democrat, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, who one by one lauded Mr. Bush's campaign against terrorism, especially his drive to dismantle and disarm the Iraqi regime.

Mr. Reed was reluctant to discuss the broader, long-term political implications of the war while U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying in a campaign to topple the Iraqi regime, but he acknowledges that it has led to political changes in the way Jews view the president.

"His conduct of the war against terrorism has caused a lot of voters to take a second look, and that includes Jewish voters," Mr. Reed said.

A survey of 1,216 Jewish voters taken in October by the Tarrance Group, a Republican polling company, found that Mr. Bush has made "significant inroads with this heavily Democratic group, something that could have an impact on the next two election cycles."

"A clear majority of Jews (81 percent) see Bush as a strong supporter of Israel, and 46 percent say they would be more likely to vote for him based on the way he has been handling the war on terrorism," the polling company reported at the time.

Ed Goeas, who conducted the poll, said Friday that it was done "in the midst of the [midterm] election, when you would expect a lot of political polarization, but we found none. There is no reason to believe that this support has deteriorated. In fact, it has increased."

Ronald Reagan received 38 percent of the Jewish vote in 1980 against President Carter, the high-water mark for a Republican presidential candidate.

More recent national polls show that while at least two-thirds of Americans back Mr. Bush on the war, Jewish support has been higher. Notably, a Quinnipiac University survey in New York City, where voters are far more liberal, found that Jewish voters are supporting the war 56 percent to 35 percent.

"Without a doubt, we are seeing a majority shift [among Jews] in the political landscape of this country," said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the only Republican Jewish member of the House.

He credited the war on terrorism for the shift.

"The war we are fighting in Iraq is the same war that Israel is fighting internally," he said. "In my travels across the country, I hear Jews telling me, 'I find myself agreeing with the Republicans more than the Democrats.' "

Democratic officials did not respond yesterday to requests for responses to the assertions of Jewish leaders such as Mr. Eckstein, though one Democratic strategist, who did not want to be identified, said, "We've seen some evidence that Bush is getting more support" from Jewish voters since the war began.

It seems like the GOP and the associated snake shaker churches are a few of the tools the Jews use to keep the US on the wrong side of the middle east conflict. If you routinely used a tool to manipulate a group of dump rubes, would you want to join the group that you routinely manipultated? No, you would probably have nothing but contempt for the dumb shits.