Rabbi Shmuley goes to Washington
Here's an interesting profile of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the Republican candidate for Congress in the reconstituted NJ-9 district. Victory for Boteach, however, is a long way off. Nearly 50,000 people voted in the Democratic primary, compared with 9,000 on the Republican side. The district includes parts of Bergen, Hudson, and Passaic Counties. Patrick Murray, the director of the Polling Institute of Monmouth University, describes it as diverse, with urban ethnic minorities in Hudson County and both blue-collar white voters and affluent Jewish voters in Bergen County. Murray says his organization will not conduct any polls of the district, since he views it as “extremely likely Democratic” and does not think the national GOP will help fund Boteach’s campaign. His low name recognition in the district will only add to the natural Democratic advantage, according to Murray.We can dream, can't we?
Prager contends that a Boteach victory would be a political earthquake that would reverberate nationally. That might be a good line to energize the crowd, but it also underscores how slim Boteach’s chances to defeat Pascrell really are.
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What are his positions on the issues?
Boteach believes that people do not actually want free things provided by the government. “Nothing is as comfortable as your own bed,” he explains, so sleeping in the bed that you bought with your hard-earned money allows you to “acquire and maintain your dignity.” All people, Boteach believes, desire the kind of dignity that can exist only when government is limited.
The biggest issue of this race, he believes, will be the economy, but not simply because growth is down and unemployment is up. Rather, he argues, liberal economic policies deny us true happiness. He cites God’s message to Adam in Genesis 3:19 — “By the sweat of your brow shall you eat.” That was a blessing to man, not a curse, says Boteach. And the cradle-to-grave welfare state denies people the happiness that comes from their controlling their own lives.
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As unconventional a congressional candidate as Boteach is, his opponent is a conventional liberal Democrat with few notable accomplishments to his name. New Jersey voters, it seems, routinely submit to such bland congressmen as a form of political self-flagellation. Boteach is anything but bland. He’s a captivating and thought-provoking speaker, a serious thinker, and a true political outsider.
In other words, just what Congress needs, but almost certainly won’t get.
Labels: Bill Pascrell, Campaign 2012, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, United States Congress
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:18 AM
2 Comments:
What? A rabbi in congress? You realize of course that some of the democrats will purposefully try to schedule votes and discussion during shabbat.
When I was growing up in New York, one of the school districts in our town used Friday night and Saturday as their days for board meetings, voting, and public fora. They changed to this from mid-week, after the jewish population in the town started growing.
Funny, you don't hear the democrats, the supposed bastion of human rights, dignity, and freedom from discrimination talking about this. Its just a bunch of jews after all.
If this man is elected, hopefully he will ask God to guide him and make it possible for him to do his job. After all, he is in a sort of exile because he does not live in Israel and like Daniel he operates under a different government.
With God all things are possible. We just expect too little.
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