By Robert Anthony
May 13th 2024
(Originally Posted at WND.com - https://www.wnd.com/2024/05/will-american-jews-stay-blue-november/)
Writing some notes for this article, I was shocked to learn how far back the Jews have had left leaning politics! I have long known that the majority of the Jews vote blue/left throughout Jewish history in America but I was shocked to learn how large a majority! In 2018 midterms it was nearly 80% of the Jews voting Blue! (Here is the Wikipedia article on the subject.). But I was almost more shocked to learn that the Jews have been voting left-progressive, even since the mid-19th century! (Here is that article about their political history.)
After spending several hours throughout the day getting up to speed on this, I am getting more and more aware of a surprising fact, the Jews with only 2% of the US population largely helped to create the Democrat Party as we know it today! The facts surrounding Jewish politics are quite surprising to me.
Perhaps I viewed the Jews as more politically-right because I was never into politics and often viewed the Jewish people as religious and conservative but no, that is not the case in America. I lived in Israel for 6 months and traveled much of my time in country. I found the Israeli’s to be a rather conservative people, more or less, and would guess Israel to have a majority conservative population but that too has not been the case, not until recently anyways. Israel, as a nation, has recently and dramatically shifted into a conservative nation and now with Hamas, Hezbollah and enemies attacking them daily, even moreso. (Here is an interesting article on the subject.)
I can’t help but ponder what will become of the Jewry in America coming into the 2024 election. The bastion of progressive-liberalism in America has obviously been our world-famous universities, and for quite some time now. More than Wall Street, Big Media, Big Pharma or even Big Tech., the stronghold for the progressive movement has remained America’s institutions of higher education for really two generations now, almost three.
So to Jewish-America I would ask, What are you going to do now? Now that you see these institutions turn against you, even as a people, with such extreme bigotry, angst and intolerance – the very institutions once pining for tolerance – what will become of your politics?
Another quite interestingly policy issue among the left leaning Jews to me is, Abortion. Now, the Bible is entirely Pro-Life, so how the Jews could champion a political party so nonchalant and even cavalier about taking an unborn life is difficult for me to understand. The Bible warns over and again about homosexuality, it teaches in detail about marriage (being between a man and woman) and has many other laws pertaining to sex and how to remedy illicit-sexual activity throughout Judaism and within Israel. One would think the Jews would abstain from supporting the whole of the LGBTQ movement but instead they are some of its greatest champions!? They have a long and famous history of being gifted bankers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, inventors, etc. one would think their fiscal policy would be quite conservative but throughout US history it is quite the contrary. Nearly every modern liberal policy seems to be a violation of what the Jews hold dear, and yet the Jews still vote overwhelmingly, Blue?
But now the Jews have come to a cross-road. For one, classic liberalism is all but dead at this point. Sure, RFK Jr. and a few relics throughout the Democrat Party are trying to bring about a classical-liberal revival but the purveying crowd against them has grown far too loud. So the Jews are left with the new Woke-Progressive Democrat Party that is looking more and more Socialist-Marxist and anti-Israel by the day… or they can totally abandon ship.
I think to myself, “What must be going thru Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg, Tony Blinken, Janet Yellen, Merrick Garland, Josh Shapiro (PA), Jared Polis (CO), Josh Green (HI), JB Pritzker (IL) and so many other high-ranking Democrat-Jewish minds watching this country turning increasingly antisemitic, and practically overnight!?” Has it not been more than 80 years since antisemitism has been found among their ranks? Do they not take great pride in being the party of inclusion and equity? And yet suddenly Israel, as a nation and a people, is being cancelled.
I suppose it would be possible for the Jewish Democrats to abandon Israel in her hour of need so as to avoid a civil war within their own party but how many of these same Jews have family who have immigrated to Israel and perhaps living in country for generations now? How many of these high-profile Jews in Hollywood, Wall Street and DC have intimate ties with Israeli businesses, years long relationships in country, perhaps even owning property there and then of course, agreeing quite frequently as they make a toast at Hanukah or Passover, “Next Year in Jerusalem!” The intimate ties among even the reformed Jews in America with Israel cannot be overstated, let alone the deep-seated and unbreakable loyalty of the Orthodox-community throughout the US and their undying devotion to the Jewish state. Is it even possible for the Jews in America to unravel themselves from Israel? The university protestors seem to understand this glaring reality better than anyone, and you can hear it in their chanting.
This election cycle is shaping up to be without a doubt one for the history books! It will be quite shocking to me if even close to a majority of Jews vote Biden this coming November, but then again, thus far Biden and his administration have been more or less supportive to the Jewish state throughout this regional war - but as the war goes more to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran what will the Biden Admin do then?
The proverbial and Biblical writing is on the wall, the Democrat party is almost thru its metamorphosis and what is quickly emerging does not have a place for any Israel-loving Jews. So will American Jewry abandon Israel altogether to keep pace with their party or will they bring a new, maybe more moderate and centrist, voice into the GOP? History is being written even as we consider these things.