Ettinger: Jews vote on merit, not on party affiliation
Former Israeli Consul General to Houston, Texas, Yoram Ettinger, argues that younger American Jews vote based upon candidates' merits and not based upon party affiliation.Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is no monolithic Jewish voting bloc. The Democrats have a lock on older straight-ticket Jewish constituents due to historical circumstances: Democratic Party openness to Jews since FDR’s grand New Deal coalition; Jewish concentration in the larger Democratic-dominated urban centers; Jewish association with labor unions; and Jewish identification with social causes and the underdog. However, younger Jews increasingly join the ranks of independent voters, who vote on the merit of the candidate, rather than the party. They are less-driven by the still-dominant social Jewish agenda: human services, abortion, Supreme Court appointments, illegal migration, state-church, school prayer, gay rights and affirmative action. This trend is bolstered by demography, which features higher fertility rates among modern-orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews, who are conservatively-inclined.Hmmm.
Furthermore, as the number of Independent Jewish voters grows, so grows the critical mass of Jewish constituents – which could tilt the election in “bellwether states” - who are swayable when it comes to crucial Israeli and Jewish issues.
For example, Republican President Eisenhower won 36% (1952) and 40% (1956) of the Jewish vote on the coattails of his role in crushing Nazi Germany and liberating Jews from the concentration camps. Republican President Reagan received 39% of the Jewish vote in 1980, benefitting from his close ties with the Jewish community and from President Carter’s negative record on Israel. Republican President Bush #41 profited from Reagan’s pro-Israel reputation, and therefore received 35% of the Jewish vote in 1988. However, it plunged to 11% in 1992 due to the Bush-Baker scornful attitude toward Israel and the Jewish community.
Presidential candidate Romney attempts to leverage the new trend among Jewish voters. Will he follow in the footsteps of Eisenhower and Reagan, thus making a difference in some of the “battleground states?”
Labels: Campaign 2012, Jewish vote, Mitt Romney
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:04 PM
2 Comments:
Wow. Where did he get this idea? The pressure on the U.S. Jewish community to vote Democrat is absolutely enormous. It comes from the communal organizations and, thus, also from the membership. These Jewish kids would have to be "Independent" in every way (including keeping their views to themselves to avoid being castigated by the organization staffs) to do this. Very few kids are strong enough to do it. The thing to tell the kids is that they STILL THIS ELECTION have a secret ballot and can go into the voting booth and vote ALL REPUBLICANS to get rid of these marcuse marxist Dems. And that they don't have to tell a soul, therefore avoiding the interventions before and shunning afterwards that would come their way. PATHETIC, eh?
BTW, the Jewish organizations advocate that their members do far, far, far less community service, conservation, stewardship, etc. volunteer projects than the Scouting organizations do. The Jewish organizations are advocating that the Government do the things the Scouts do just at their own volition.
I think this group has sort of stalled out; we need to get it going again. Hopefully I'm wrong and just not plugged into their activities right now:
http://www.jewishscouting.org/camping/philmontscoutingservesthejewishcommunity.asp
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