Democrats Losing Grip on Jewish Vote

Winning 1/4 of a voting constituency is nothing to write home about, except when it’s a Republican winning Jewish votes. The Republican Jewish Coalition reports that President Bush continued a positive trend in this year’s election:

• In 1992, President Bush (41) won 11% of the Jewish vote
• In 1996, Senator Dole won 16% of the Jewish vote
• In 2000, President Bush (43) won 19% of the Jewish vote
• In 2004, preliminary results indicate George W. Bush received likely support of 25% (a 32% increase over 2000)

Demographic trends indicate it will continue:

Demographic trends are favorable to the Republicans ñ younger Jewish voters are more inclined to vote Republican. In fact, preliminary results indicate that 32% of Jews ages 18-49 supported Bush. In addition, the foundation of the traditional Democratic Jewish base, senior citizens, is shrinking in numbers.

While Jews represent only a small fraction of one percent of the population, they tend to be concentrated in key states where that vote can make a difference. More importantly, ending the Democratic stranglehold on the Jewish community could have a more significantly negative impact on the Democratic party in terms of fundraising. With the Democrats typically relying on 9 out of 10 Jews and blacks just to maintain parity, any inroads into these 2 groups would be a boon for the GOP.

Jewish Voters Put New York in Play

The Jewish Week reports on the New York race tightening due to Jewish voters’ view of President Bush.

With Sen. John Kerryís lead in New York dwindling to single digits according to two new polls, the heavily Democratic state may emerge as a surprise battleground in the final stretch of the election.
And if Jews, who have made up as much as 17 percent of likely voters here in recent races, support Republican George W. Bush as heavily as some believe, they could play a larger role than usual in deciding how the stateís 31 electoral votes are cast…
The latest poll by Marist College has Kerry only eight points ahead of Bush in New York, 48 percent to 40 percent, down from a 14-point advantage in April. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Kerryís lead down to 6 points, 47-41, a 12-point drop from a month ago. Sixty percent of voters here picked Gore in 2000…
“In our community, support for Bush is overwhelming,” said Mandell Ganchrow, a doctor in the heavily Orthodox enclave of Monsey and a former president of the Orthodox Union. “When I sit down with friends and professionals, if the vote was held among them, [Bush] would win 99 percent.”

The response from Kerry’s campaign is to mask the candidate’s genuine inclinations on mideast policy:

Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Kerry could widen his lead among Jews by articulating “a clear, crystallized Mideast policy that calls for secure borders and talking about an envoy acceptable to large segments of the Jewish community,” as well as speak out about worldwide anti-Semitism.

In other words, Kerry should go back on his core instincts and beliefs (yes, his problem is not that he doesn’t have them, but that he’s trying to hide them) and put up a facade that is acceptable to the Jewish community. Jews just observed the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Nothing could be better atonement for our lockstep Democratic voting patterns than to show support for President Bush, who has backed our values and interests more strongly than any president ever has.

Jewish Americans and Democrats

A few days ago, we posted a long article giving some of the reasons that American Jews might want to think their rather lock-step support of the Democratic Party for the last 60 years. Here’s another reason, gathered for us by James Taranto in his Best of the Web Today.

Further evidence that Jews don’t control the world: Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat, defeated challenger Andrew Rosenberg in yesterday’s primary, 59% to 41%. Since the seat is safely Democratic (Al Gore’s margin in the district was 20%), Moran is as good as re-elected. As we noted in March 2003, Moran blamed Jews for threatening Saddam Hussein’s hold on power:
“If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this,” the Connection newspapers of northern Virginia quoted Rep. Jim Moran as saying last week. “The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going and I think they should.”
In the past week, “Moran’s longtime pollster, Alan Secrest, said he quit the campaign because of anti-Semitic remarks Moran made at a private campaign meeting,” the Associated Press reports. Moran denies it.
The incumbent also accuses Rosenberg of trolling for Republican votes in the open primary. Rosenberg denies it, and as a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy, he wouldn’t be the first choice of most GOP voters.

Got that? According to Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, who was just resoundingly approved by 59% of Democrats in his primary, if the Jews had just exerted some of their influence, the liberation of Iraq wouldn’t have happened…you know, that super-secret Jewish cabal which controls the government – all they had to do was give the Illuminati a call and they’d have instructed President Bush to change course.
Thus the utter degeneracy of the Democratic Party – my father has been a registered Democrat all his life (a leftover of the long time Irish-Catholic support for the Democratic Party), but I think this might be sufficient for me to finally push him over the edge and realise that no decent person could be a member of a Party which cannot do the very simple task of booting out an anti-Semite. This wasn’t brain surgery, good people – anyone who talks about some group using its influence to single-handed change US policy is a raving nutter which no one would want to be within a mile of … but the Democrats kept him, and by a very strong vote.

Why The Jewish Community Should Support Bush

Perhaps you are not an observant Jew, as I am not. Perhaps you do not even identify with the cultural or ethnic traditions of Judaism. Certainly, I do not. However, when the anti-Semites come to destroy the Jews, whether they are Nazis or Muslim extremists, both you and I will be in danger. Where will we be able to take refuge?
According to Matt Brooks, Executive Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who spoke at an event at the Makor Center in New York City on Tuesday night, if you care about Israel, Republican is the way to go. Specifically, it is imperative that we, as a Jewish community support Bush, as he is the unequivocal pro-Israel presidential candidate.
Mr. Brooks deduced that there is a thread of anti-Semitism weaving its way through the Democratic Party. To support his point, he cited numerous comments recently made by several Democratic politicians including Fritz Hollings and Jim Moran, among others. He pointed out that those in Democratic leadership, such as Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi remained conspicuously silent in response to blatant anti-Israeli comments and anti-Semitic innuendos made by those in their own Party. In many cases, Mr. Brooks astutely pointed out, the demonization of Israel is nothing more than a cover for anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism is rising globally at a rate faster than it ever has, since World War II. Jews are leaving Europe. Synagogues are being burned. The Jewish community is at risk. In Israel, innocent Jews including women and children are being murdered daily by homicide bombers and other terrorists just because they are Jewish. Muslim extremists who take to terror, whether they be Palestinians in Israel, Al Qaeda in the United States, the Taliban in Afghanistan or other terrorist groups in Madrid or Iraq, do NOT want peace. They want the destruction of Israel and the termination of the freedom granted to all citizens of both the United States and Israel. According to Mr. Brooks, President Bush understands that a country cannot negotiate for peace without a partner who wants the same. It is ludicrous to ask Israel to relinquish land while terrorist acts and violence are still being committed against it. Palestinians do not want to recognize Israel as a legitimate State. Bush set forth a simple requirement for the Palestinians as a pre-requisite for peace negotiations: end the terrorism and elect a leader who wants peace. The Palestinians complain of their treatment by Israel. Yet, they themselves hold the key to change. Prime Minister Sharon has said that Bush is the most pro-Israel President the United States has ever seen.
Kerry, on the other hand, does not get it. He has stated that, were he to be elected President, he would bring in Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton to advise him on his foreign policies. He has indicated that he would go back to treating terrorism like a crime. He and others in the Democratic Party do not seem to understand the severity of the threat ñ not only to Israel and the United States, but to the values of freedom and democracy. The magnitude of creating a democracy in Iraq is minimized. The reverberations throughout the Middle East, such as the voluntary relinquishment of nuclear programs by Libya, are glossed over. President Reagan said something to the effect that every step toward freedom of man is a step toward peace, but Kerry does not appear to understand that, or does he just not care?
According to Matt Brooks, who accompanied both Bush and Sharon on a trip to Israel in 1998, prior to them obtaining their current positions as state leaders, Bush is not moved to support Israel by pure politics. He is moved by his spiritual beliefs, and because his trip to Israel changed him on a deep personal level. Bush is trying to do what is morally right. Mr. Brooks believes that history will look upon Bushís actions in Iraq as a statement of moral conviction and courage. He explained that that the war on Iraq will effect generations to come by placing democracy in a region of the world where democracy is unfamiliar.
Mr. Brooks also informed the audience that many local parties in the United States are currently passing anti-Israel resolutions. It is time that we wake up. As Americans and as Jews, many of us have become too complacent. We have taken our freedoms for granted. Yet, there are a large number of people out there who believe that the United States is ìthe Great Satanî. They are willing to give unlimited amounts of funding and shed unlimited amounts of blood in order to obliterate our great and tolerant democracies, both in the United States and in Israel. September 11th was our wake-up call. But the democrats are still sleeping. Are you?