back

  http://jewishworldreview.com/0103/prager.html

The odds are that you have wondered at one time or another why the great majority of Jews and nearly all blacks vote Democrat. There are, after all, no other ethnic or racial groups that so overwhelmingly and consistently vote either Republican or Democrat.

Moreover, given Jewish values and given blacks' views on a host of important social issues, there is really no compelling reason for blacks and Jews to vote Democrat.

Let us begin with the Jews. Judaism, like every great religion, is essentially conservative: Judaism demands obedience to a judging G-d and to a moral code set forth thousands of years ago. That is why the more orthodox a Jew is religiously, the less likely he is to be a liberal politically; and the more likely he is to vote Republican. Furthermore, the dominant Jewish issue, the security and survival of the Jewish state, is also unlikely to orient a Jew politically leftward. Even sociologically, Jews voting instinctively Democratic makes little sense. Jews, more than many, consider it shameful to rely on others for welfare, raise their children to believe in hard work, and benefit from a merit-based society. Indeed, even those Jews who vote Democratic usually lead rather conservative lives.

As for blacks, their virtually unanimous voting for the Democratic Party makes even less sense. For one thing, most blacks tend to have socially conservative views (considerably more so than their fellow Democrats). Blacks tend to be religious, have traditional views on homosexuality and abortion, and believe in school vouchers, a policy strongly opposed by the party nearly all of them vote for. Moreover, while the Democratic Party has brilliantly portrayed itself as the party that made civil rights possible, a greater percentage of Republicans voted for the landmark civil rights bills than Democrats.

None of this is meant to suggest that there are no Democratic Party positions that appeal to blacks and Jews. The great majority of blacks apparently do support affirmative action, a position entirely identified with the Democratic Party. And the majority of Jews do support larger government and higher tax rates, fundamental Democratic positions.

But if each party's policy positions were the sole determinants of Jews' and blacks' voting habits, the two groups should evenly divide their votes between the two parties.

Clearly then, it is not Democratic Party positions that explain why so many Jews and blacks vote Democrat. Something deeper must be at work.

That something is fear in the case of Jews and anger in the case of blacks. And both the Jews' fears and the blacks' anger are a result of their respective collective memories.

The Jewish memory in question is of Christian anti-Semitism and the Nazi Holocaust. Even Jews who know little about either Jewish or Christian history know by high school age that for nearly 2,000 years, Jewish communities suffered from anti-Semitic persecution at the hands of Christians, that Christians massacred Jews during the Crusades, that there was a Spanish Inquisition, and that the Holocaust came from Nazism, a far-right doctrine.

Because of this deeply ingrained memory associating Jewish suffering with Christianity and the far right, most Jews have a primal fear of Christianity (and even of religion generally, including Judaism) and of conservatives. Jews therefore vote for the party that opposes the party associated with anything even remotely connected with public religion or the right.

The black memory in question is of white racism. It seems obvious that many African-Americans carry a residual anger against whites and against America as a result of centuries of slavery and racism. They therefore vote for the party most associated with policies (such as affirmative action) ostensibly designed to fight racism (meaning, always, white racism), and which frequently condemns alleged ongoing white racism. And blacks vote against the party they perceive as denying that America continues to be racist, the party that opposes race-based policies, and the party that celebrates America as if it isn't a racist country.

The problem with these memories is not that they are inaccurate; it is that they are no longer accurate. And they therefore paralyze the two groups who hold onto these memories, Jews and blacks.

Next week, we will explain why these memories and perceptions are no longer accurate (and therefore paralyze blacks and Jews from clearly perceiving the present white, Christian and conservative realities), and what, if anything, Republicans, whites and Christians can do about these unfortunate perceptions. For these perceptions are ultimately bad for Jews, bad for blacks, and bad for America. 

Part II  January 28, 2003                    ...continued

In Part I, I argued that it is not Democratic positions that most entice nearly all blacks and the great majority of Jews to vote Democrat. Rather this lopsided voting is more a function of the two groups' respective memories.

As a result of millennia of Christian oppression of them, many Jews still fear religion, particularly Christians and Christianity, even though all the Christian anti-Semitism was European; and as a result of the Nazis, many Jews fear anything labeled "right wing." As for blacks, because of centuries of slavery and racism, many black Americans continue to harbor great anger at whites and at America.

If these memories accurately assessed today's white, Christian and right-wing Americans, Jews' and blacks' overwhelming support for the Democrats would surely make sense. Indeed, they would mandate such voting.

But these memories do not apply today, and therefore they are having a paralyzing effect on America's Jews and blacks.

The fact is that most white Americans have changed; most are no longer racist. Regarding race, most white Americans would probably like nothing more than to forget about race, as they no longer deem either their own whiteness or blacks' blackness to be of particular significance. I know from years of speaking to black callers to my radio show, however, that this is almost impossible for many of them to believe. They ask, in effect, "Are we blacks really supposed to believe that in the course of one generation an entire mindset -- that of white racial superiority -- has simply disappeared?"

The answer is largely, though of course not universally, yes. One reason is that most Americans are decent people, another is the non-racist education they have received. A third is the unprecedented personal and media exposure to blacks that this generation of whites has received. And a fourth reason is that in order to believe that skin color determines a person's traits or worth, you have to be not only evil, you have to be an ignoramus; and regarding race, most Americans are no longer ignoramuses. They know too many wonderful people of all races.

As for Jews' fears of American Christians, they are even less fact-based than blacks' continuing anger at whites. American Christians were never the anti-Semites of Jewish memory. Those were European Christians who persecuted Jews for all those years, precisely the Christians that America's (Christian) founders fled to establish this different society. American Jews' fears of American Christians are therefore simply irrational, especially now when Christian Americans (outside of the National Council of Churches) are the Jews' and Israel's most loyal friends.

Memory also explains American Jews' irrational fears of the right. Because the Nazis are widely deemed far rightists (yes, Nazism stood for National Socialism, but no leftists or socialists considered it an ideological ally), Jews continuing to only look rightward for anti-Semitic threats is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because it is like looking only to the right when you cross a two-way street because your grandfather was killed by a car coming from the right. And it is dangerous because since World War II, and at this very moment, the greatest anti-Semitism has come from the left.

The result of all these misperceptions on the part of blacks and Jews is that the Democratic Party understands that in order to maintain its overwhelming black and Jewish support, it must abet black anger at whites and abet Jews' fears of Christians and conservatives. And this they do well, to the great detriment of the country.

There are signs, however, that this strategy, at least vis-a-vis the Jews, is beginning to fail. Many Jewish Democrats are thanking God that Christian conservative Republicans (George W. Bush and Dick Cheney) rather than Democrats (Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman) are in the White House. And as they look around, they find that in a world that once again has a cold spot in its heart for the Jews, virtually all their allies are conservatives.

As for blacks, I am less sanguine about the immediate future. A generation of blacks has been repeatedly told by their leaders, by liberal educators, liberal media, and by the Democratic Party that America and whites are racist. They have also been told that the only way out of the social problems that plague parts of black life is through the Democratic Party.

What then should Republicans do? Talk to and especially listen to blacks. Most blacks want, more than anything else, to know that they are being heard. We can ask blacks not to allow their memories of centuries of racism to cloud their views of America today, but they can ask the rest of us not to forget those centuries. We therefore have to say sincerely to blacks, "We will not forget what this country did to you." Only when blacks know that we remember, will they allow themselves to stop being preoccupied with remembering.

With Christians speaking up for Jews and conservatives hearing blacks' memories, the Democrats will no longer be able to win elections by appealing to black anger and Jewish fear. What a better America that will be.