Citing Israel, GOP eyes Jewish vote

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The Evangelical right scares the crap out of both American and Israeli Jews. It's been made very clear they want preserve Israel for Armageddon and convert them.

While they accept their support, they're not keen on the right being at the controls necessarily.

The Jewish people are not single issue voters, and even if they were, a lot of Democrats support Israel anyway.

Speaking as someone who actually is Jewish, I can confirm both of these, especially what King said.  I would add two other things, however:

1) Both Judaism and Jewish culture place an extremely high value upon social justice while the Republican Party is filled with folks like Glenn Beck who are running around screaming that social justice is somehow a code word for eugenics and/or Nazism.

2) Jewish culture places an incredibly high value upon education.  I am far from the only Jewish voter who believes that the Republicans have become a fundamentally anti-intellectual party.  Beyond which, that whole "Yee-haw, look it here!  I can't speak the English right and got me that there ten-gallon hat and some of them cowboy boots 'yall " schtick that a lot of Southern Republicans have is absolutely repulsive to most Jewish voters.  Until they can fix that, the Republican Party will have about as much luck reaching out to non-Orthodox Jewish voters as Snowstalker

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Beyond which, that whole "Yee-haw, look it here!  I can't speak the English right and got me that there ten-gallon hat and some of them cowboy boots 'yall " schtick that a lot of Southern Republicans have is absolutely repulsive to most Jewish voters.  Until they can fix that, the Republican Party will have about as much luck reaching out to non-Orthodox Jewish voters as Snowstalker

This probably has more to do with repulsion toward the South in general than it has to do with any actual actions of Southern Republicans. I mean, most GOP Congressmen from the South don't actually strut around DC in cowboy outfits...that's just what comes to mind when you think of the South, so you associate that with Southern politicians. Likewise, most Southern politicians don't actually brag about how they can't speak English, you just associate the South with illiteracy so that's what comes to mind when you hear a Southern accent. It's similar to how people associate Jews with lawyers, financiers, etc.

No, it really isn't.  George W. Bush, George Allen, Louie Gohmert, Rick Perry, etc are always doing this sort of thing at campaign events in the South.  It isn't what comes to mind when I think of the South.  I said Southern Republican politicians and that was what I meant.  Whether it is fair or not, the perception most Jewish voters have of the Republican party.  Many of us see Southern Republican politicians as kind of like the Rich Texan from the Simpsons (as far as mannerisms go) and it really doesn't play well with Jewish voters.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I definitely can see Jews voting against the GOP because of "anti-intellectualism", but it seems like there are plenty of whites who place a very high priority on education who vote quite Republican.

Places like Huntsville, Alabama, Shelby County, St. Tammany Parish in LA, Williamson County, TN, Colin County, TX, Douglas County, CO, Hamilton County Indiana, etc. tend to have a lot of very Republican, well-educated whites.  Perhaps "intellectual" isn't the right word for them, but they certainly care about their kids getting a good education.

Perhaps those types of voters are hybrid "intellectual/anti-intellectual" voters?  The type that would speak poor grammar and wear cowboy hates yet at the same time write normally and place a high priority on college?

These are just some thoughts, but whenever I hear "anti-intellectual", I get a little skeptical as that being a big reason.

The other thing to keep in mind is that for the purposes of any Republican outreach to non-orthodox Jewish voters, what matters is how they are perceived by the Jewish community.  Even if we say for the sake of argument that the Republican Party hasn't become an anti-intellectual party, the vast majority of the American Jewish community still perceives them as such.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The Evangelical right scares the crap out of both American and Israeli Jews. It's been made very clear they want preserve Israel for Armageddon and convert them.

While they accept their support, they're not keen on the right being at the controls necessarily.

The Jewish people are not single issue voters, and even if they were, a lot of Democrats support Israel anyway.

Speaking as someone who actually is Jewish, I can confirm both of these, especially what King said.  I would add two other things, however:

1) Both Judaism and Jewish culture place an extremely high value upon social justice while the Republican Party is filled with folks like Glenn Beck who are running around screaming that social justice is somehow a code word for eugenics and/or Nazism.

Yes because most other religions don't do that.

Catholism, Lutheranism, Othodoxy and Islam all place a great value on taking care of poor people.

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Again some other religions also do that, if it was that simple the prarie states would be overwhelming Democratic as Lutheranism and German Catholism put an incredible high value on education.

Where in that post did I say no other religions place a value on helping the poor/education/social justice?  That said, I do think that overall, the white Protestant and (albeit probably to a somewhat lesser degree) Catholic establishments in the U.S. tend to prioritize "culture warrior" issues like abortion over social justice.  Furthermore, I would argue Jewish culture (at least in the U.S.) probably does place a higher value on education and intellectualism than Catholic and Luthern culture.  This isn't to say that those groups don't place a high value on education, learning, intellectual curiousity, etc, but I don't think it is to the same degree overall that Jewish culture does.  I don't mean that as a knock on other religions or anything, but it is what I have observed.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

It appears the outreach is specifically towards the (growing) share of Orthodox and Conservative Jews for whom Israel is a genuine in-road. The Brighton Beach Democrat, if you will.

That's due to the change in birthrate due to some more affluent, reform Jews raising their kids Christian.  The Republican Party is getting more or less the same slice of a shrinking pie.