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Jewish Republicans as an oppressed minority
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
tags: israel, blog, burston, jews

This year, I've decided to do something about bigotry, starting with my own. I want to examine and root out some of the most deep-seated of my personal prejudices. This week, for example, I am resolved to take a look at the irrational queaze I feel when I consider the idea of Jews voting Republican.

As oppressed minorities go, the Republican Jew may appear to be anything but downtrodden. The stereotype, that of the upwardly mobilized breathing the rarified air of the American Dream, was already in place in the early 1960s, when satirist Allan Sherman set the tune of "Hava Nagila" to a family saga that took a New York Jewish couple from relatively humble Kennedy Democratic activist beginnings to the shiny Jaguar poolside lifestyle of Lalaland:

Harvey and Sheila moved to west LA
H
Advertisement
arvey and Sheila flew TWA

Traded their used MG for a new XKE
Switched to the GOP
That's the way things go.

As ostensibly idyllic as this may have sounded in the 1962 live recording, one can pick up a decided note of reproach in the near-angry audience guffaws that greet the end of the verse. Simply stated, there's a sense that there's something fundamentally wrong here. There's a sense of dissonance and even discomfort in the idea of the Jewish Republican. And clearly, that sense has never really gone away.

Just this month, addressing a major conference of the Republican Jewish Coalition, presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani struck a chord with many in the crowd when he said "A lot of you get grief for being Republican, right?"

For this softest of all soft targets, the grief, of course, comes from a number of directions. There are the Jews who suspect the motives of the White Anglo Saxon Protestant Males who run the party, and of the Evangelical Zionists who back them. There are the Jews who suspect the motives of the Jews who left the New Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society in order to invent, expound, embrace and/or institute one form or another of neo-conservatism. There are the Jews who mistrust the Brooks Brothered zeal of young Jewish Republicans who see in their party an American revolution of historic dimension. There are the Jews who see Jewish Republicans as exponents of Sammy Glickism, willing to shed their background for the sake of political and economic assimilation into the Valhalla of golf shoes and perfect teeth.

And then there are the Jews - as well as certain White Christian leaders of the Republican Party - who simply don't like them.

Jewish comedian Lewis Black, a commentator on the Daily Show, was asked by the Los Angeles Jewish Journal if he thought Jewish Republicans were "visionaries or blind?"

"If you're a Jewish Republican, the level of stupidity is beyond belief," humorist Lewis Black, a Daily Show commentator, told the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. He was answering a question which itself betrayed no small animosity toward the Jew who votes R. The question was "A higher percentage of Jews are voting Republican. Do you think Jewish Republicans are visionaries or blind?"

"It's like being a gay Republican or a black Republican," Black replied. "Do you need your money protected that badly?"

All too often, the price paid by Jewish Republicans for their political choice has been the need to shoulder a high tolerance for intolerance. The intolerance of their party chiefs, that is. All too often, Jewish Republicans have been forced to swallow - or worse, perhaps, to explain away - the manifest Jew hatred of certain of their party superiors.

The most familiar of these, of course, is an observation by the first president Bush's secretary of state, James Baker,who was widely quoted as having told a colleague prior to the 1992 elections: "Fuck the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway."

But Baker's irritation with the Jews pales when compared to the level of grand old anti-Semitism revealed by Oval Office audio tapes of Richard Nixon.

The Jewish Republican of today would be expected to shrug off these comments - not without justification - as ancient history, irrelevant to the current reality. In fact, the Jewish Republican of today might well argue that the Republican incumbent of the presidency is the greatest friend Israelis have ever had in the White House. Depending on what Israelis might be looking for in a president, the Jewish Republicans might just be right. That same Republican would be expected, no less, to wave away the John McCain's recent characterization of America as a Christian country, and Ann Coulter's vision of an ideal America where Jews are "perfected" into accepting Jesus as their lord and savior and all Americans are Christians.

Detour: Has George Bush, in fact, been a peerless friend of Israel? It could, in fact, be argued that Bush has been bad for Israel-lovers of both the right and the left. On one hand, he supported Ariel Sharon's expulsion of settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank. On the other, his years of non-involvement in the peace process are only magnified by the current diplomatic surge, far too little and much too late.

In retrospect, moreover, the Iraq debacle has proven especially bad for the Jews. Not only because "the Jews," in the person of the neo-com corps, were unjustly blamed for instigating the war. Primarily, the war was bad for the Jews because it strengthened and emboldened Iran as a regional power, at the same bolstering Hezbollah and paving the way for Lebanon II. It was also the Bush White House, it may be recalled, which pushed for the elections that brought Hamas to power.

______________


For the sake of Jewish unity, I have looked deep within myself, and have re-educated the inner child. I have gotten over the idea that Jews should vote Democratic as a matter of course. I now believe that Jews should vote Democratic as a matter of principle.

I believe that there is a reason why the members of this miniscule but crucially important minority, just two percent of the population of the United States, still vote Democratic by a factor of three to one. They believe that there is something to be said for a society which favors the common good over the corporate good, compassion over competitive wealth, respect for opportunity over respect for rapacity,

There are many ways of looking at the American Dream. There was a time when the Jewish way held that the dream should be offered to as many people as possible, people of all races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds. Perhaps, in this era which enshrines bonfires of a range of vanities, we have left the underclass to sink in its morass of unsafe and unsupported public schools, its plagues of drugs and despair and darkness.

Perhaps the Republican way has begun to suit us, after all.


______________

Previous blogs:

Ann Coulter's dream of a Jew-free America
Yes, Sen. McCain, America is a Christian nation
In the end, bet on Israeli hawks to forge the peace
Let Ahmadinejad speak

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  1.   Road Map unconstitutional action against religion:change pop+bord 10:23  |  sam 22/10/07
  2.   An ominous lesson from another time and place 10:29  |  Velvl Shmerlson 22/10/07
  3.   American Jews are paying a heavy price for Bushs Iraq war 10:32  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  4.   Since the Jewish lobby controls both sides, the choice is moot 10:35  |  Natallie Durson 22/10/07
  5.   Swiss -- Must be the company you keep 10:50  |  Gina 22/10/07
  6.   Natalie Durson -- Arab Lobby assisting Jewish Lobby 10:53  |  Gina 22/10/07
  7.   # 7 Gina 11:09  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  8.   NDURSON whigeing because Arab billions&big oil&CAIR can`t buy all 11:11  |  PETER S .M. 22/10/07
  9.   Jewish Republicans 11:13  |  Lloyd 22/10/07
  10.   Burston - the heroic ! 11:17  |  europamedical 22/10/07
  11.   The Soros - Carter wing of the Democratic Party 11:18  |  Shalom Freedman 22/10/07
  12.   Swiss-- 11:18  |  Gina 22/10/07
  13.   side note 11:59  |  realism 22/10/07
  14.   Natallie Durson #6 And How Do Many Arabs Lobby? 12:01  |  Tim R 22/10/07
  15.   Long Winded but Arrives at the Correct 12:13  |  ARTH 22/10/07
  16.   did I hurt your feelings ! dear hate creator haaretz ? 12:33  |  Atilla Karagözoğlu 22/10/07
  17.   NOT ONLY JEWS VOTED DEMOCRATIC EVERYONE DID 12:45  |  Petra 22/10/07
  18.   #14 Tim re: Natalie 12:49  |  Petra 22/10/07
  19.   Which Republican Party? 12:55  |  dyinglikeflies 22/10/07
  20.   Balance and why Left or Right is hopelessly narrow 13:03  |  Ronnie Wolman 22/10/07
  21.   WOLFOWITZ WAS A SHAME FOR JEWISH 13:23  |  indrajaya 22/10/07
  22.   Velvl 13:27  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  23.   Jewish Republicans-overly represented & powerful 13:39  |  DrSteveB 22/10/07
  24.   Jews are a minority fullstop 13:47  |  Chris Linthwaite 22/10/07
  25.   margie 22 13:50  |  realism 22/10/07
  26.   remember nov 1948 14:01  |  ROB OF MELBOURNE AUS 22/10/07
  27.   Realism 14:02  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  28.   Dino 14:08  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  29.   # 24, CHRIS LINTHWAITE 14:17  |  indrajaya 22/10/07
  30.   # 28 Margie in Tel Aviv 14:54  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  31.   Get someone who really understands America 14:56  |  Martin 22/10/07
  32.   Leftwing Totalitarians 15:04  |  Michael 22/10/07
  33.   Dino 15:19  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  34.   Reply to Martin in Connecticut (Post No. 31) 15:22  |  Johnny Weintraub 22/10/07
  35.   # 33 Margie in Tel Aviv 15:40  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  36.   Swiss Dino #3 - the Parties have changed 15:43  |  Polybios 22/10/07
  37.   Jewish Republicans 15:44  |  David 22/10/07
  38.   Jewish Republicans 15:47  |  C. E. Nelson 22/10/07
  39.   Various megalomaniacs have seen to it that we remain a minority 16:04  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  40.   Jews are attracted to Messianic ideas 16:17  |  Tosefta 22/10/07
  41.   bradley explains the neocon 16:25  |  peter 22/10/07
  42.   Democratic Party is Anti-Jewish 16:26  |  Roy 22/10/07
  43.   Dino #30 - Jewish names 16:35  |  Polybios 22/10/07
  44.   # 36 Polybios (and maybe Margie...:) 16:43  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  45.   American Jews 16:49  |  Choni Davidowitz 22/10/07
  46.   OKEY HAARETZ ! I APOLOGISE FOR ALL MY BAD POSTS 16:59  |  Atilla Karagözoğlu 22/10/07
  47.   Every action has a reaction.... 16:59  |  Tess 22/10/07
  48.   Swiss Dino #44 17:05  |  Polybios 22/10/07
  49.   margie 27 17:09  |  realism 22/10/07
  50.   B Burston unaware of history 17:13  |  Alan 22/10/07
  51.   There is nothing "liberal" left on the left 17:18  |  Alan 22/10/07
  52.   Linkoln was a Republican 17:26  |  Alan 22/10/07
  53.   Jew nidme li, invented the idea of a Messiah 17:33  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  54.   Alan 17:38  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 22/10/07
  55.   Wonderful article, we probably vote according to our 17:46  |  Smadar 22/10/07
  56.   Slow news day, TURKEY? 17:47  |  FOX 22/10/07
  57.   Boy, Even For Brad, What a Load ! 17:56  |  Tod Zuckerman 22/10/07
  58.   Tossi shallow mumblings #40 18:01  |  FOX 22/10/07
  59.   FOX #56 On the wrong site. 18:03  |  Klaus 22/10/07
  60.   45-Choni. I would like to come, but 18:06  |  Hal 22/10/07
  61.   Polybios, on the Goldberg Variations 18:12  |  akiva (zionist) 22/10/07
  62.   It is USSER for a Frum Jew to vote Democrat! 18:16  |  Leib770 22/10/07
  63.   DINO - Please accept my congrulations on occasion of 18:23  |  17 22/10/07
  64.   Republican-Democrat, what`s the difference? 18:24  |  Hubal 22/10/07
  65.   Klaus in Hamburg #59 18:30  |  FOX 22/10/07
  66.   # 63 17 18:36  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  67.   Swiss (Dino) 18:36  |  akiva (zionist) 22/10/07
  68.   # 63 17 Just to make sure...... 18:57  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  69.   # 67 akiva (zionist) 19:05  |  Swiss (Dino) 22/10/07
  70.   #33 So callesd Trad leftist Margie.Re Dino. 19:09  |  Labhras 22/10/07
  71.   Dino is a white or black sheep? 19:11  |  peter 22/10/07
  72.   Sometimes it`s not about money Mr. Burston 19:11  |  Mark Lincoln 22/10/07
  73.   DINO - Swiss Daily 19:13  |  17 22/10/07
  74.   #28 So called trad leftist Margie.re who is a Jew 19:26  |  Labhras 22/10/07
  75.   Burston doesnt understand republicans , never mind Jews 19:29  |  pace306 22/10/07
  76.   Oh Yeh! Lincoln read a book! #72 19:44  |  FOX 22/10/07
  77.