For countless Jews, loyalty to the Democratic Party is as automatic as breathing. The roots of that loyalty run deep.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, waves of Jewish immigrants from Europe, where the most anti-Semitic elements of society were often the most conservative, brought with them an intense aversion to right-wing politics — and an appreciation for the left, which they associated with emancipation and equality.
Those attitudes were intensified during World War II, when the most lethal enemy in Jewish history was ultimately destroyed by an alliance led by President Franklin Roosevelt, a liberal Democrat.
But the political landscape in 2004 bears little resemblance to that of 50 or 100 years ago. American Jews owe it to themselves to base their political loyalty on something stronger than habit.
Those who vote for Democrats (or against Republicans) because that’s what their parents and grandparents did ought to take a closer look: When it comes to the issues they care about most, their loyalty may be misplaced.
At this year’s Democratic National Convention, Sen. John Kerry said nothing about Israel in his acceptance speech. A prime speaking slot went to Al Sharpton, an infamous racial inciter with an ugly history of Jew-baiting.
At this year’s Republican National Convention, on the other hand, President Bush made a point of referring to “our good friend Israel” — and his campaign later distributed that portion of his remarks to its national e-mail list.
The convention also featured a leading speaker who recalled with empathy the many pre-9/11 victims of terrorism, such as Leon Klinghoffer, whom the killers “marked … for murder solely because he was Jewish.”
Principle and conviction
Increasingly, the Democratic Party is the political home of those who demonize Jews, such as South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings, who claimed that the war in Iraq was launched to “take the Jewish vote.”
Conversely, the Republican Party has driven out anti-Semites such as Pat Buchanan and is now where the most Jewish-friendly politicians are concentrated.
President George W. Bush presides over what is widely considered to be the most pro-Israel administration in history. That stands in contrast not only to his father’s record — the first Bush administration had a very strained relationship with Israel — but in some ways to Bill Clinton’s as well.
During the Clinton years, no foreign leader visited the White House more frequently than Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. The current administration regards Arafat as an untrustworthy liar and has never invited him to the White House.
Bush also insisted that Palestinian democracy and tolerance, and a leadership “not compromised by terror,” are prerequisites to peace with Israel.
Unlike Kerry, who speaks of making the United Nations a “full partner” in U.S. foreign policy, Bush is under no illusions about the U.N.’s intense anti-Israel hostility. Nor has he had any difficulty recognizing the poisonous anti-Semitism that runs beneath some of the most virulent denunciations of the Jewish state.
When the U.N.’s self-styled “conference against racism” in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 turned into a grotesque anti-Semitic debauch, Bush ordered the U.S. delegation to walk out. When the prime minister of Malaysia opened an international summit by declaring that “Jews rule the world by proxy,” Bush personally rebuked him.
In all this, he has come across not as a calculated politician, but as a man acting on principle and conviction.
There is nothing anomalous about Bush’s ardent support for Israel or his firm stance against anti-Semitism. As poll after poll confirms, conservative Republicans are much more likely to self-identify as pro-Israel than liberal Democrats.
It is no surprise that Buchanan has had to leave the Republican Party, or that Sharpton is at home among the Democrats.
Jews continuing to only look rightward for anti-Semitic threats is both naive and dangerous. It is naive because it is like looking only to the right when you cross a two-way street because your grandfather was killed by a car coming from the right.
And it is dangerous because since World War II, and at this very moment, the greatest anti-Semitism comes from the left. In fact, anti-Semitism has evolved into a cultural code and even a rallying cry for progressive radicals throughout the world.
Despite these concerns, many Jews feel obligated to vote strictly on the basis of maintaining the maximum separation between state and religion. They continue to think of themselves as outsiders, nurturing an image of their own marginality.
They are unwilling to accept the fact that American Jews have moved from outsiders to insiders in American life and are, by and large, influential members of what was once called “the Establishment.” Jews, for example, are disproportionately represented in Congress, with Jewish members coming often from states like Wisconsin that have few Jews.
With anti-Semitism on the rise and Israel’s future hanging in the balance, Jewish voters have an obligation to look beyond party label. There are indications — such as the formation of Jewish Republican groups — that a shift is occurring.
This is 2004, not 1944, and the Jewish vote in November should reflect that.
Steven Askotzky is vice president of the not-yet-official Milwaukee chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
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