The Washington Jewish Week has an outstanding op-ed in this week's issue by Doug Bloomfeld on why the GOP will have problems capturing a significant percentage of the Jewish vote in November 2008.
Excerpts:
GOP AGAIN FACES UPHILL FIGHT FOR JEWISH VOTES
By Doug Bloomfield
Washington Jewish Week, August 9, 2007The Jewish vote won’t make any difference at Saturday’s Republican straw poll in Ames, Iowa, but the outcome could influence how Jews will vote in November 2008.
... If past years are any indication, the Ames event will help weed out the field of nine white guys who a quarter of Republican voters say they don’t really care for ...
Their absence is an opportunity for one or more of the second-tier candidates to break through, particularly former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is tied with McCain.
McCain, who, despite his solid conservative voting record, is anathema to many on the religious right for his views on campaign finance and immigration as well as derisive comments about some of their leaders, has been pandering to that crowd so zealously that it has robbed him of the straight-talking-maverick reputation that once made him so popular.
In a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, “none of the above” came in first, as nearly a quarter of Republicans expressed little enthusiasm for any of their party’s contenders.
Meanwhile, polls show Democratic voters are much more satisfied with their choices and money is flowing in.
It’s not a good time for Jewish Republicans. Their party relies on hardline pro-Israel declarations to appeal for Jewish support because they know that once attention moves on to other issues — from war in Iraq to prayer in schools — they’re in trouble.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has squandered millions on a failed campaign to paint Democrats as unreliable friends of Israel, if not actually hostile. Jews have consistently given Democrats between 70 and 80 percent of their votes, and 2008 is shaping up as more of the same.
Once again, Israel won’t be a campaign issue because it enjoys bipartisan support among most candidates. Religion, however, is playing a big role, and, for a change, none of the candidates is touting Jewish roots — unless New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decides to run as an independent.
This year’s religious question is who is Christian enough. Most attention has been focused on Romney’s Mormonism, which many evangelicals consider more of a cult than a religion.
Muslim-bashing has been popular among some candidates. Giuliani this week attacked Democrats for not using the term “Islamic terrorists” to describe the enemy in the war on terror.
Tancredo, the xenophobic anti-immigration crusader, went one further, threatening to bomb Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia if Islamic terrorists use nuclear weapons.
But the greatest differences are in the domestic arena, particularly the Three Gs — guns, God and gays.
Romney has accused Giuliani of being out of step with the GOP because he’s “pro-choice and pro-gay marriage and anti-gun.”
Brownback repeatedly declared his number one issue is outlawing abortion, and anyone he appoints to the Supreme Court must agree to repeal Roe v. Wade.The battle for Jewish votes will be fought over issues like health care, education, church-state separation, privacy, Medicare and Social Security, the environment, gay rights, abortion rights and civil liberties. Can “traditional value” Republicans talk to Jewish voters on these issues in terms of our community’s traditional values, or will they continue to treat us as one-issue voters who care about none of the above?
Douglas M. Bloomfield is a nationally syndicated columnist.
I saw Brownback on CSPAN the other day addressing voters at a church--I believe in Iowa. He mentioned meeting Mother Theresa and repeated four times what she repeated to him four times -- "All for Jesus."
Posted by: selena | August 14, 2007 at 01:31 PM
Despite this article and what may appear to be a self-evident argument for why Jews should be D(d)emocrats, it is quite clear that increasing numbers of us (not all of them in the oligarchic class) are voting Republican. It would be an important and strategically useful research study to try to find out why. Isn’t there someone (Soros? Bloomfield?) who could fund a reasonably comprehensive, though quick study (survey, focus groups, interviews) to try and discover why this is happening? Our candidates could then use those data to help solidify their positions, try to get an additional 10%-20% of Jewish votes confirmed (esp. in Florida and California). We can play niche politics, too…can’t we?
Posted by: Daniel Margolis | August 14, 2007 at 04:27 PM