Jews and Republicans Make Strange Bedfellows
Before I start this rant, I'd like to point something out about the current spin in the press. Conservative talking heads claim that Bush is the most popular president in the history of the country because he got the most votes ever. This is misleading (duh). By that measure, Bush is also the most UN-popular president ever since the most people in history turned out to vote against him. High voter turn out and population growth provided the perfect medium for conservative spin doctors. When there are just more bodies running around the country than there have ever been, and more of them turn out to vote than ever before, Bush could have gotten more votes than any candidate in a previous election and still lost (as Kerry did I believe). Clearly the total number of votes cast is meaningless in the context of popularity. The way this picture is painted is just spin. A more accurate comparison of popularity is the percent of the vote won. Bush's 51% is nothing special. IN fact, Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. If he really was the most popular president ever, and the country really wasn't divided, one would expect him to have won 70-80% of the vote, regardless of the total number of votes. Anyone who isn't blind can see the red-state/blue-state regional divide on a map and can see that the election was extremely close in many states, as well as overall (a 3% narrow victory is not a mandate). The truth is that the country is more divided than ever.
Just for fun check
http://attenuation.net/files/iq.htm it is likey a hoax, though some of my southern friends said it is probably accurate.
Now for my real rant.
I heard yesterday that 76% of Orthodox Jews voted for Bush. This is as alarming as it is stupid. I believe it is symptomatic of the yeshiva culture and shtetle-style life. When you don't expand your world view and interact with other people and cultures you can become very selfish and focussed only on your own agenda. Many Jews voted for Bush because they think he will be better for Israel. Putting asside the fact that Kerry would have probably been just as tough on Palestinian terorism, lets remember that the economies of America and Israel are closely tied. Democrats have historically been much better for the economy than republicans. The best thing for Israel is a strong American economy (the recession in Israel is causing many Jews to leave the holy land for places with jobs). Is Bush really going to be good for Israel? A large portion of the Israeli economy is tied to the California tech industry. Bush has been particularly terrible for high-tech companies and there will definitely be a damper on the biotech market with him in office. Now some more issues. It reflects very poorly on Jews as citizens of America to vote, not based on what they think will be best for America, but rather what will be best for Israel. This sort of phenomenon is what has led anti-semites in the past to accuse Jews of having no loyalty to their countries or countrymen. Of course, I don't believe this is true, but the appearance is bad. Just like orthodox Jews disapprove of eating veggie burgers with cheese because those who don't know better might take it the wrong way, I think the appearances rule applies here. Probably the worst things I've heard since moving to NY from Jews ave been arguments along the lines of: "my grandparent came to this country after the holocaust with nothing and built fortunes, if they could do it, so could the [insert blacks, mexicans, inner city dwelling socially disadvantaged, or any other section of the population with problems]. MY grandparents didn't get help so why should we [the orthodox Jewish population] help any of them? We'll look after our own in spite of the fact that we're wealthy and pouring millions of dollars into synagogue beautification projects while people in the third world are starving." As far as I'm concerned, these socially conservative Jews have completely missed the point of the torah. If there really is a God, and he cares about our actions on Earth, and he has any semblance of rationality, I'm SURE he/she/it cares more about how we treat our neighbors and the less fortunate than how anal we are about observing rituals. The way that many Jews have moved from siding with republicans on foreign policy issues, to supporting them on domestic policy as well is disgraceful. Finally, I'd like to remind my loyal readers that the fundamentalist evangelical christian right is NOT our friend. Today they attack enemies of Israel, it is true. But they do it out of faith and ignorance, not rationality. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be any other group that is targeted. Maybe even Jews. Lets not forget that they'd still like to see us all converted to prevent us from going to hell. That idea led to the Spanish inquisition once. Religious extremism must be abhorred in every form, even if a temporary alliance might be politically convenient.
