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I’ve written several posts on this site and other blogs about the knee-jerk prejudice that Ashkenazi (European) Jews have against blond haired, blue eyed Christian nationalists, which is why they vote for the Dems (the party of “minorities”). They have absolutely no understanding of why America has been good to the Jews. They think it’s all about “separation of church and state” and the ACLU.

The sad fact is that if Hitler were the Democratic candidate he’d still get 50% of the Jewish vote.

I’m very disappointed in Jewish Republican columnists like Krauthammer, Zev Chafets, Bill Kristol, etc, for not getting to the heart of this inherent prejudice that Jews have against Republicans. I’ve read a few pieces that talk about the Jew’s loyalty to the Dems, but they all just scratch the surface. NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY is talking about how Jews of European descent have a visceral reaction to flag waving, rural “goyim”.

Let’s hope there are a lot of stealth Jewish Bush voters out there who are keeping their thoughts more or less to themselves for the time being. Take a look at this post by OceanGuy as an example: http://www.oceanguy.com/archives/2004_10.php#001077

I think this loyalty has a lot to do with FDR and the years following the war. I also think the fear of the likes of the KKK has lead American Jews to believe that overt Christians are potentially dangerous to them. What they fail to realize is that the enemy they need to worry about today is not a white anglo saxon protestant male it is the very party that would throw them over to appease a monster like Arafat.

It seems that party allegiance can change, it is just too often after the fact. The Democratic party has already abandoned the Jews.

McCarthyism is alive and well in Hollywood, againsty Republicans. Ron Silver is proof. Will Roger L become the next victim? I don’t believe that Hollywood is run just by $. I think many are bigoted ideologs.

More Hollywood liberal Jews for Bush.

I agree with the “why are my people so stupid?” tone of that essay though.

I don’t think it’s Ashkenazic Jews per se (I mean, I’m Polish Jew from all 4 grandparents), but liberal American Jewish 1st and 2nd generation Jews in particular. The Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn are overwhelmingly for Bush. Israelis poll 3 to 1 for Bush (too bad so many of them can’t vote for him).

Interestingly, Vietnamese-Americans are also overwhelmingly for Bush.

People with a recent memory of oppression see things more clearly.

It isn’t about a Stockholm syndrome, it’s about voting the way you always have voted, and the way your parents voted, and your grandparents… which is why I think Ed Koch just may talk some of those Jewish condo dwellers to AT LEAST NOT vote for Kerry.

I read the referenced article about Ron Silver, and was struck by the last comment: that Hollywood is about $$, not politics. Well, Medved has made the point for years that this is NOT the case, that Hollywood makes low profit politically correct movies, even though it would be possible to make a lotta money with movies that celebrate American life.

For example, The Passion of Christ. For example, Lord of the Rings. Both were extremely difficult to finance. Rather, Hollywood seems to like their thrillers to be completely a-political, or to have evil republican/racists as the bad guys.

And, why don’t we see Hollywood churning out movies about heroic young soldiers beating up evil Saddamites, hmmm? Why are there no movies American Special Forces wiping out the bad guys in Tora Bora??? Why no thriller about terrorists lurking around trying to plant bombs in the Mall of America???

Well???

I just heard Frank Luntz on Scarborough Country predict that Bush might take as much as 40% of the Jewish vote in Florida.

Now please excuse me while my head explodes!

Dear All – I have a very dear and close friend. He fits to a T the description of an otherwise very smart, sharp, and historically sensitive, no-friend-of-Arab-politics-lots-of-clarity-on-why-Isreal-is-tough Jew that will nonetheless vote for Kerry this coming Tuesday. As close as we are, this is the one topic that almost always leaves us (me a Goy!) huffing at each other cross-wise. And at root, his reasons are ones not touched on by Joel Engel in his Weekly Standard article. That rung of my beloved best friend’s family identified by his grandparents generation was nearly completly wiped out in the Holocaust. The survivors were serious folk, and very tough. It is family lore. And what has hung with my friend, and I think is a pretty decent sized component for many of my jewish friends, is an intense visceral sensitivity to any hints of government control/secret police concerns. My friend has a bad case of John Ashcroft negatives, and is very sensitive to the wiffs of Constitutional mucking about that talk of One-Man-One-Woman anti-Gay Marriage amendments make, like bad smell in a small elevator. He connects this type of behavior to the current administration, and for him and I suspect other Jews of similar age and direct experience, its not a big hop to bad things. Here. I think in this area, he’s too wound up, but it is what is going to animate his vote.

As far as some Jews being worried/prejudiced against certain types of Christians (WASPy or Nordic or whatever you want to call us), I don’t blame them.

If the historic experience of my family in terms of prejudice, persecution and worse were similar, I would probably feel the same way. Of course the tragedy is that the Jews that think this way are doing to GWB the same thing that bigots in the past did to the Jews, judging him by his appearance and faith and not by his words and actions.

BTW, Yehudit has and interesting point about about those recently oppressed having very strong feelings for President Bush, not against him. I’m half Irish, half Cuban. My Cuban born mother lived 3 years under Castro’s regime and will never forget the cruelty of living under a brutal and loathsome dictator. There may be no greater GWB fanatic, although my cousin’s wife, who came to the US as a war orphan from Vietnam at the age of 12 after her parents were executed by the Communists comes a close second.

Smash

Israel has no greater friend today than the American evangelical Christian church. These people are also known as “born-agains”. Whereas many of the mainline liberal churches (Presbyterian, for one) are denouncing Israel and embracing the Palestinian cause, the evangelicals truly support and pray for Israel.

It has never made sense to me that some if not most jews are liberals. Liberalism is a religion, and a failed religion at that. But what is worse, is how much the jews are hated by many liberal democrats. Anti-semitism is raising its ugly head all over Europe, and so many jews are just asking, like Rodney King, “can’t we just all get along?” No, we can’t just get along, because these anti-semitic people want first the jews (and then the Christians)dead.

Secular jews think that a G_d-less government works best. How wrong they are. Why is America so blessed? In the Old Testament God tells the jews that he will “bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” George Bush knows those verses. There is also a promise in the New Testament that when the whole world has turned against tiny Israel then God will go into battle on their behalf. Hopefully at that time America will still be on Israel’s side. But I rather fear they won’t.

DaddyOh,

Your friend is sensitive to attempts of government control and he has visceral reaction to John Ashcroft? But presumably he had no problem with Janet Reno? I need some help here, please.

As a person who actually experienced totalitarian government control and being very attuned to any such attempts (my political leanings are closer to libertarian than anything else, but I ainít suicidal) I find this kind of thinking difficult to swallow. So, it is OK for Democrats to bloat up DEA budget, torch bunch of people (who cares, they were just religious nuts with guns), and abduct and send back into virtual slavery a kid whose mother gave her life to bring him to freedom, but increasing national security to catch fanatics who would love to slaughter us given half a chance is a no-no?

I donít buy that. I have heard all sorts of excuses like this one and it all really comes down to rationalization for the decision to vote Dem. Someone wants to vote for Kerry though he doesnít like him, so he thinks up a ìreasonableî reason. This reason, on the surface, may be quite noble and sophisticated. John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act are as good excuses as any other, but until this someone can explain exactly the how Ashcroft America is worse than Reno America they remain nothing but excuses.

I believe that for most Jews it really boils down to domestic agenda. Why so many of the people who suffered so much at the hands of centrally controlled, socialist governments in the last century are so devoted to bringing as many elements of central control as possible to our society remains a mystery to me. Especially that right now this Democratic soft-socialist agenda is prepackaged with weakened security of the entire nation.

And Jews are the choice targets to be victims. Except that this time it is no Christians who threaten them.

Someone mentioned their cuban heritage in an earlier comment. I work with several folks who are from Cuba and now are US citizens. All but one are registered to vote and all the ones registered are voting for Bush. You’d be surprised how things like Bush occasionally speaking Spanish and the strong anti-Castro sentiment of his administration resonates with Hispanic voters in Florida. I think the big story of the election is going to be the upswing in minority voters (blacks, hispanics, jews, etc) voting for Bush – it won’t be an overwhelming majority, obviously, but it could be enough to swing the election right.