RUTHFULLY YOURS

“On our issues trump is perfect,” declares the grassroots organization Jewschoosetrump.org, calling on fellow Jews across the country to remember, a word resonant with religious and historical meaning for Jews.

It can’t be true–the American Jewish community has “forgotten,” or more accurately no longer chooses to remember, the existential threat to Israel, America, and Western civilization posed by Iran and the Iran Deal.  (snip)  Our children and grandchildren [will] ask us what were we thinking or were we even thinking when we ignored and denied the dangers facing us.

(snip) Are American Jewish leaders once again going to deny reality, hope for the best, engage in altruistic surrender and denial, and feel good and superior for caring first about others rather than the future of our children? This is pitiful and incredibly dangerous. Maybe a psychologist could figure out why our history has crippled our instinct for survival, but shame on us anyway.

(snip) It is an easy choice. We don’t even need to scrutinize destroyed emails and hidden speeches. Hillary is for the Iran Deal–she is proud of it and expresses support for Obama’s handling of Iran. Trump trashes the Iran Deal and vows to end it.  This is reason enough for us as American Jews to choose Trump.

Although Jews are a “rare” minority in America, only 2% of Americans, they are concentrated in the swing state of Florida, as well as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Because of the importance of Florida, Jews could determine the Electoral College tally if the election is as close as expected.

Do we have a chance?  The answer is a qualified yes.  Jews voted Republican from Abraham Lincoln until FDR.  Ronald Reagan broke through the FDR Jewish mindset and garnered almost 40% of the Jewish vote. In recent times, as few as 14% of Jews identified as Republican. That was before Barack Obama’s anti-Israel and anti-American passions led to policies that have destabilized the Middle East and promoted Iran as a hegemonic and soon to be nuclear power.  As a result of the Democratic disaster in the Middle East, Romney won 30% of the Jewish vote. Things have gotten much, much worse since then, with Europe overrun by violent anti-western Muslims, and ISIS creating a terror threat in America.

The entire country is less Democratic thanks to Barack Obama, despite what voters are willing to admit to pollsters when asked simply if they approve of the President.  Jews have fled the Democratic Party in even greater numbers, according to Gallup:

The percentage of the general population that identifies with or leans Democratic has fallen by about seven percentage points since 2008, compared with the 10-point drop among Jews. The percentage that identifies with or leans Republican among the general population is up three points, compared with the increase of seven points among Jews.

There are some long-term trends indicating the Democrat stranglehold on the Jewish vote is weakening.  Surprisingly, younger Jews and very secular Jews from a mixed marriage are more likely to be independent or conservative. The growing orthodox Jewish population is staunchly conservative.  The Brandeis study quoted above found only 54 percent of American Jews willing to identify as Democrat.  It was 71% in 2008.

The Trump campaign is leaving no stone unturned.  They have their eye on the mostly conservative religious American Jewish community visiting or living in Israel, who could provide the crucial votes to win Florida.  Targeting overseas votes has been a Democrat game in which the GOP has been a no show.  Trump once again is stepping outside GOP conventional thinking.

Donald Trump has launched outreach to an estimated 300,000 eligible American voters living in Israel. The Trump campaign is working with the Israel branch of Republicans Overseas, an organization that works to reach American citizens abroad who can vote via absentee ballot.

Jewschoosetrump has five times more friends on Facebook than people willing to publicly put down their name as supporting Trump.  One staunch pro-Israel activist confided to Carol Greenwald, who helped launch the site, “Of course I am voting for Trump.  But if my wife found out, it would end the marriage.”

Carol Greenwald was interviewed by NPR a few days ago, and gave incendiary replies.  The interview has not yet aired, if it ever will.  The reporter asked today’s Democrat talking point that when Trump criticizes Hillary for supporting the big banks, it is a code word for Jews, and proves his antisemitism.  Greenwald tells me she lost her temper and told him, “Shame, shame on you for repeating these Stalinist lies.”  According to Greenwald:

The NPR reporter countered, don’t you see rising antisemitism in the U.S.?  I replied, “Definitely.  In the Democratic Party and in the so-called progressives promoting BDS [the boycott of Israel – ed.] on campuses.  Progressives and Democrats have become Stalinists.”  Not anti-semitism on the right, he asked. “No, on the Left.”  He asked me how it feels to be in the minority.

I said truth was never determined by majority vote. Elections yes. Truth no.

The sad reality is that most older Jews, including many of the Jewish voters in Florida, are locked into the FDR past.  Working age Jews face social pressures that make switching parties almost impossible. They live in communities and work in professions that blacklist Republicans.  Few people are willing to become social pariahs and damage their careers and family relationships for politics. It is much easier to vote like their neighbors.