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In just two weeks we have an election.
Since at least the 1920s, American Jews have been among the most reliable supporters of the Democratic Party. Half of American Jews self-describe as liberal. But more tellingly, they vote Democratic at a rate of 70%. Jews are successful in many pursuits, yet they frequently seem to work against their own economic and political interests through their strident liberal leanings. The question is “why?”
What you need to know about Jews (and I’m proud to be one) is that most of us believe that our successes in the arts, education, politics, business, philanthropy, and other areas require us to give back to the society that enriched us. We should also lead the fight to improve the lot of the poor and powerless. Jews lay claim to more Nobel prizes, patents, more economic success, and likely more doctors than any other ethnic or religious group in the world. That merely proves we are smart. That still does not explain why we collectively lean toward liberalism. So let’s dig deeper.
American Jewry is tied to America’s twin social problems of antisemitism and race relations. On balance, Jews in other areas of the world, particularly Israel, tend to be conservative. I think it can be said that for Jews, the threat and reality of antisemitism in the U.S. made the suffering of blacks, particularly in the South, a sympathetic and emotional pull to the left that put both groups seemingly on the same team. However, Jews were in a position to do something about it. Blacks, not as much. This desire culminated in the founding of the NAACP in New York, largely with the support of Jews.
In my hometown of Atlanta, the president of Rich’s, which was, our largest department store chain, plus the president of National Linen were the two most important backers of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. It was this group that introduced the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the world.
Without Jewish support, you may never have ever heard of MLK. America did not welcome Jews who were escaping Nazi Germany before the war. Jewish influence here was not as great as it is today. Jews kept their heads down even in the U.S. as antisemitism predominated. Jews were excluded from American society on many levels — social clubs, business, and housing. Such exclusions caused Jewish communities to become insular. Other Jews simply hid their Jewishness.
Post-war, all this helps to explain why Jews still felt persecuted, even in America. They tended to align themselves with liberal causes which often promised an end to injustice. Sadly, the last vestiges of these threats still exist as we witness recent attacks on Jewish houses of worship and schools.
I attended an Atlanta public school in the mid-60s. A couple of times a week, a Hebrew school bus would pick me up after school to take me to my religious study class. One particular day, a group of adults surrounded my bus and shouted epithets at us. One window was broken. My parents were devastated, but I was back on that bus the next time it came by. Thankfully, that incident never repeated itself. Interestingly, my parents were conservative as well. Perhaps conservative values run in families?
There is a growing gap between American Jews and Jews in other countries. While Jews are always “on guard” for real or imagined threats, they largely depend on the government to right wrongs and to protect them. While in Israel and quite a few other countries, that may seem naive. The refrain “Never Again” is more of a reflex action when spoken by American Jews. It means something quite different elsewhere. I can’t recall who said “To live in this world, not in the world of the politically Utopian or the religiously messianic,” but I think it capsulizes an important sentiment. Without the threat of imminent demise, American Jews, who vote reliably Democrat and align themselves with every liberal social cause, have lost perspective.
Every day, the divisions within our country on any social or economic line you can think of, are enhanced by a lack of logical thought as to the long-term consequences that flow from liberalism. The central premise of liberal thinking, as expressed by Barb Cortez, a former HHS Department Head, states:
“From my observation of liberals, I would say they notice the disparities in society and would like to close the gaps. They would like bigotry not to be accepted in society. Liberals would like every human to be treated with the same respect. Liberals would like the basics of life or the basics of a good life to be afforded everyone especially since we can afford to do it. The basics of life are food, housing, health care, education, a living wage, justice, and a clean environment.”
Liberalism’s end game lies exposed. Food security, housing security, healthcare, guaranteed, education, guarantee of a living wage, together with a justice system that supposedly works for everyone.
Who wouldn’t want to make a more perfect world? But one just doesn’t exist. It’s been tried, but to accomplish it, we’d have to become a nation of drones. We’d have to drive out the very features of Man that have given so many of us prosperity and longevity. Lust, avarice, greed, and some other powerful human emotions and drives, often accompanied by the opposite of egalitarianism predominate in a free society.
Another wise philosophy, as I mentioned above, was expressed in this way; “Live in this world, not in the world of the politically Utopian or the religiously messianic.” I completely agree. Liberals have had their chance, and while they think they have changed the world, the change they think they’ve brought us is even more poverty, suffering, and a contrived economy where the government almost always makes the wrong calls.
Liberals wage phony wars (foreign and domestic) to right the wrongs they see as an impediment to a better world. Conservatives build on what works. If they stick to their philosophical guns, that is.
American Jews make up a disproportionate share of our political leaders. There are 37 Jewish members of Congress and the Senate which represents about 7% of both bodies. Only 2.4% of our population is Jewish. Jews are motivated to serve in disproportionate numbers by their desire to make our world better. Unfortunately, their persuasive positions overwhelmingly lean left.
Please don’t misunderstand the intent of today’s missive. At my core, I believe in the value of conservative Jewish theology and the power we, as a group, have to make our world better. However, our human DNA will not support a Utopia. I wish that every Jewish leader from whatever walk of life would realize the limitations of good intentions. They must remember, every day of their lives, how close the clarion call of “Never Again” still is and hew to a conservative approach to all things in life.
Too often, our desires to make us believe we can change fundamental human behavior, and by extension the world, will never materialize.
l’chaim! To Life!
God bless our country.
Allan J. Feifer is an author, businessman, and thinker. Read more about Allan, his background and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com
And:
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”--- Ezra Solomon (1920-2002), Burmese-born American economist and educator, as quoted in Reader’s Digest 1985. The quote is often wrongly attributed to John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), Canadian-American economist.
And:
Stacey does something weird:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/ch+++
Kim responds:
Thanks Dick!
I'm glad you got a chance to read it. We're still living with the left's decisions to tear down everything in response to Trump.
How do yo see the senate election going in Georgia?
I passed on your hugs. Nick and the kids are doing great. Oliver is a senior this year--and we are doing the college thing. Scary,...
xoxox Kim
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Fetterman To Campaign With Socialists in Philly
By Chuck Ross
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'Face the Nation' focus groups of GOP, Democrat parents sound off on 'woke culture' overtaking US education.
Parents say having control over children's education has become main priority
By Yael Halon
A "Face the Nation" focus group featuring a Republican, Democrat and an independent unanimously agreed that "woke culture" has become a prime concern for parents raising children in America.
In a segment called "Eye on America: Election Influencers," CBS host Margaret Brennan asked a group of parents to get candid about the issues they'll prioritize when voting and their struggles raising kids in a post-pandemic era.
John, a Texas Republican, cited the "woke" overhaul of U.S. education as a key issue for parents.
DR. PHIL ASKS WOKE EDUCATORS: WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER THAN PARENTS WHAT'S BEST FOR KIDS?
"The whole woke culture affecting our children, all these elementary, middle schools having woke culture pushed on them from the LGBTQ+ community for sexual identify and gender. We should be pushing the actual school studies. Math, social studies, science," he said. "Not gender studies."
Lashawn, an Illinois Democrat and mother of eight, largely agreed.
James Miller, a teacher at Mountain Gap Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama, operates the "Madge D. Ivine (Miss Majesty Divine)" Facebook page in which he frequently posts pictures attending drag events such as Drag Queen Story Hour.
James Miller, a teacher at Mountain Gap Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama, operates the "Madge D. Ivine (Miss Majesty Divine)" Facebook page in which he frequently posts pictures attending drag events such as Drag Queen Story Hour. (Mountain Gap Middle School)
"I can agree with some of his points," she said. "I will say sex education, I feel like some things are brought to the children's attention they wouldn't even think about."
"Children are really influenced," she continued. "You can teach them one thing at home, but when they go to school, they're just as much influenced by their teachers and their surroundings."
Lashawn said parents should have more of a say over what children are taught.
Stephanie, an independent from Arkansas, also agreed, spotlighting the struggles children are facing as they get back in their classrooms after extended school closures.
Later in the segment, Lashawn took aim at leaders in her own party for putting the needs of illegal migrants before Americans with misguided open border policies.
"I mean, there's nothing wrong with helping, but we have more problems here in our country. I feel like there is so much focus on helping immigrants and not enough focus on the people here that might need assistance."
CALIFORNIA MOM OBLITERATES SCHOOL BOARD OVER ‘FAMILY FRIENDLY’ HALLOWEEN DRAG SHOW
Lashawn said she holds both Washington and local leaders accountable.
"It's everybody, Washington, the mayor. They help who they want, certain groups of people," she said.
John echoed a similar sentiment, adding that he believes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should have more control over border policies that directly impact his state.
Heading into the midterms, Lashawn said her main concern is how candidates plan to tackle crime in her hometown.
"I want to know exactly what they're going do about this because it's out of control in Chicago," she said.
Brennan remarked that she has rarely found such a unanimous consensus among voters of different parties in past focus groups she's conducted.
"Often, when we do these focus groups, we have people from different parties disagree with each other, but I'm hearing a lot of you echo the same concerns and agreeing with each other," she said.
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They both were classics:
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dispatches from
the middle of somewhere
"middle of nowhere." This is America; everywhere is the middle of somewhere.
By Salena Zito
The reason the magnitude of this wave has been underreported isn’t just because less and less reporters spend time on the ground with voters in their communities; they also don’t know anyone like the voters they are covering — they imagine every Republican is an insurrectionist, everyone who owns a gun is a radical, and everyone who attends church is a freak—so they struggle with how to write the story.
They also struggle with understanding why someone who voted for Biden would now vote Republican.
And they also miss how culture is interwoven in their decisions.
I’ve been negligent in sending my stories out because there’s so many and I don’t want to overload my faithful readers; but there’s some really great pieces in here from all across the country that consistently tells the story of how we’ve gotten to this wave election and why.
Here you go and please make sure you let me know your thoughts and share with your friends too https://salenazito.com/
Salena 😊
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How honest American history can cultivate gratitude
By JEFFREY K. MANNAttending public schools in the 1970s and 80s, my teachers had no problem managing the dual task of celebrating what was great in American history and pointing out its moral failures. We were taught to appreciate the brilliance of the Founding Fathers, the courage of our fellow citizens, and America’s many contributions to the world. At the same time, our teachers pulled no punches on America’s moral failures. We learned about slavery, the Trail of Tears, the women’s suffrage movement, company stores, the Sacco and Vanzetti Trial, the Ku Klux Klan, Japanese Internment Camps, the Red Scare, Jim Crow—all by the end of ninth grade!
My educational experience instilled in me a sense of gratitude and optimism for America. But this is regrettably absent from our culture today.
Before the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, schools taught a uniformly patriotic tale of America’s greatness that ignored or downplayed our country’s shortcomings. It’s easy to see how this could lead to victim-blaming—if our society is perfect, then anyone who fails to do well must simply lack the necessary determination.
Today, however, many teachers stake out the opposite extreme, reducing American history to a zero-sum power struggle between “the oppressed” and “the oppressors.” Through this lens, the story of race relations in American history becomes simply white folks subjugating non-white folks. Very often, this is not presented as part of our story, but the essence of it. America is defined by various systems of oppression that, according to some, are a permanent fixture of our society.
This new narrative renders gratitude impossible and only feeds resentment and despair. Those who declared principles of freedom, fought for them, risked their lives for them, and even died for them—men and women of many races—are expurgated from our national memory. They are to be removed from places of honor when we find them deficient in some respect. And they will always be found deficient. Gratitude for the Founding Fathers becomes less than pedestrian; it is the honoring of contemptible people.
When we consider the current reality of race, sexuality, and gender-identity, we know that we have not yet arrived at the ethical ideal, but are we ever encouraged to stop and think how far we have come in the past decade, fifty years, or century? Would any of us like to roll the dice again and be born at any other time or in any other place and belong to some marginalized group? Is it wrong to stop and enjoy a little gratitude, if just for a moment, for what others have made possible? Might it not boost our morale, encourage more work, and improve our mental health just a bit?
A narrative that fixates on one group oppressing other groups; that proffers no hope for improvement; that is unable to see progress; that discards heroic efforts by imperfect men and women; renders gratitude impossible. As the research makes clear, this is not conducive to our health and well-being. Neither is it helpful to be gripped by the fear that your government is hopelessly corrupt, bent on taking away your rights, and ushering in a socialist regime. Cynicism and scorn for our fellow citizens and obsessing on their failures leads to shallow historical analyses and an unhealthy self-perception.
A different narrative, which appears more honest, accurate, critical, and helpful, is the same one that Martin Luther King Jr. embraced. With regard to race, he taught, “The American people are infected with racism—that is the peril. Paradoxically, they are also infected with democratic ideals—that is the hope. While doing wrong, they have the potential to do right.”
King had no trouble pointing out the failures of his fellow citizens, but he was also adept at recognizing their virtue. This was the balanced narrative I grew up with: imperfect people were slowly making progress in living up to the ideals they set for themselves. The arc of American history is bending slowly toward justice. That is something to be grateful for.
And yes, we can even have gratitude for men who owned slaves! “There is much in the life of Jefferson that can serve as a model for political leaders in every age,” King said. “He came close to the ideal ‘philosopher king’ that Plato dreamed of centuries ago. But in spite of this, Jefferson was a child of his culture who had been influenced by the pseudo-scientific and philosophical thought that rationalized slavery.”
If King could assert this, we can too.
Conservatives, by definition, focus on the good that has been handed down and that we now enjoy. Liberals orient themselves more toward the good that can be brought about. Both are necessary for a society to thrive, and both lack something important that they can learn from the other. The liberal sentiment, unchecked, results not only in a lack of gratitude, but can easily lead to ingratitude. For those of a more liberal bent, they should be mindful of this. Unchecked conservatism, on the other hand, can easily result in complacency. Conservatives often forget that the people they admire and to whom they feel so much gratitude were the radicals and progressives of their own day. They were not content with the good they had received, but fought for something greater. Proper gratitude means appreciating their boldness, unwillingness to accept the status quo, new ideas, and radical courage. Conservatives need to realize that their heroes were those people who were not conservative in their own times.
With that in mind, maybe they can even find some gratitude in their hearts for some of the liberals stirring things up today—and perhaps that can be the start of a new culture of gratitude that extends beyond its current bounds.
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THIS WEEK ON CURE AMERICA TV SHOW
Delving into the 2022 Midterm Elections
By Star Parker
Midterm elections are only a few weeks away. In this critical moment, it is time to evaluate the state of our nation, the turbulent two years that brought us here, and the new leadership we desperately need.
This week on CURE America with Star Parker, Star invites longtime panelist Jonathan Alexandre from Liberty Counsel for a one-on-one discussion heading into the midterms. Together they dive into some of the serious issues on the top of voters minds heading into the voting booth. Star and Jonathan also take time to discuss the importance of voting our faith and our values, and why we unfortunately see far too many voters not doing so. As Jonathan states, “Don’t raise your hand in worship with one hand, and then fill a ballot for government to usurp its God given role with another.”
You can find the show on our website or catch it live on Monday nights at 7 p.m. EST on the NRBTV network.
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