Why so Few Jews Vote Republican

Jennifer Rubin, a freelancer for ABCNEWS.com, has a piece out about why so few Jews vote Republican.

Rubin highlights Mitt Romney's choice of a museum named after Henry Ford - the premier anti-Semite in American history - as the location for Romeny's presidential annoucement as one example of how Republicans fail to understand the Jewish community.  NJDC was the first in the country to raise these concerns.

One political consultant quoted in the piece put it this way:

I don't think Romney is guilty of anything other than obliviousness.  But you could argue that obliviousness is indicative of a broader problem with the social conservatives Romney is trying to court, which is a lack of sensitivity to the concerns many Jews have about their place in American society.

Rubin's assessment on Jewish voting trends:

The GOP has become a rural, overwhelmingly Christian and Southern party. It is not populated by urban ethnics who, even if they aren't Jewish, understand Jews' cultural references and sensibilities...

In short, the Republicans are not just our kind of people, many Jews say. They don't sound like us, they don't talk like us and they don't understand us. Unless and until that changes, Jews likely will likely be voting overwhelmingly Democratic for years to come.

Comments

[Daled Amos]

Back in 1999, Bill Clinton praised Henry Ford--and there was no backlash (http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/WH/New/html/19990108-2098.html):

Here in Detroit nearly a century ago, as all of you know better than me, Henry Ford set history in motion with the very first assembly line. He built not only a Model T, but a new model for the way America would do business for quite a longwhile. He said he was looking for leaders and thinkers and workers with "an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done." People like that came together in Detroit and all across America. They forged America's transition from farm to factory. Detroit led the way and America led the world. [Hat tip: John J. Miller]

[David Goldenberg]

As someone who spent the first 20 years of my life in Detroit, I never once questioned Ford's ingenuity. At the time same, I learned of his vile anti-Semitic and xenophobic beliefs.

Here is Clinton's quote. You be the judge, but quoting something that Ford says about "infinite capacity" isn't praising him.

"Henry Ford - a small entrepreneur - once said that the best Americans were those with 'an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.' We honor today those kinds of Americans, testament to the power of enterprise and the strength of the human spirit."

[Potter Stewart]

Using anti-semitism as a vehicle for a political hit on Mitt Romney was ill-advised. Most Americans do not associate Henry Ford with anti-semitism. This article in the LA times I thought was a thoughtful analysis of why it was misguided.http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-chavets15feb15,0,1623534.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[Matthew]

I am jewish and I vote Republican, across the board. I can tell you that the jewish community has seen how the republicans and christain right has shown support for israel and that we are re-evaluating the leftist liberal media. The left liberal media has shown a considerable amount of hate towards the jewish people in israel-arab conflicts. And they have turned a blind eye to the bombings of synagogues in France, calling that act of terrorism "free speech". So who knows what this next century holds?

[Dr. Wigglesworth]

Facts are facts, 87% of Jews do not vote GOP. 60% of the campaign contributions to the Democrats come from people with a Jewish background. The Democratic party has the reputation for being a party of the Jews(and many other groups as well). Many older Jews have a fondness for Roosevelt, the President who turned back the boat of the Jews fleeing Germany and declined to let Jews fleeing Germany to find refuge in America. It is true, that people like John Hagee, and the Evangelicals support Israel to the detriment of Palestinians Christians. Go figure. Nobody ever said that politics has to be rational. A lot of politics is about "feeling" and being "comfortable".