Israel aside, the unquestioning, almost Pavlovian, support US Jews give Obama is inconsistent with their values and incompatible with their welfare.
“What liberals believe needs to be changed or discarded — and apologized for to other nations — is precisely what conservatives are dedicated to preserving, reinvigorating and proudly defending against attack. American Jewry surely belongs with the conservatives rather than the liberals. For the social, political and moral system that liberals wish to transform is the very system in and through which Jews found a home such as they had never discovered in all their forced wanderings throughout the centuries over the face of the earth.” – Norman Podhoretz, Why Are Jews Liberals? September 10, 2009
“The most disturbing aspect of the American Jewish community’s devotion to Obama and the Democrats is that it indicates that the vast majority of American Jews have abandoned their faculties for independent thought and judgment in favor of conformism and slavish partisanship.” – Caroline B. Glick, “US Jewry’s cherished values,” The Jerusalem Post, October 12, 2012
As I have stated previously, I am not among the most strident critics of Barack Obama. Indeed, I find some of the vitriol directed against him by some of his more radical detractors both tasteless and baseless.
That said, I am convinced that his reelection is liable to be a calamity of epic proportions — with incalculable, probably irreversible, repercussions for US interests, both at home and abroad (at least as they have been traditionally perceived), and for those of its longstanding allies — particularly Israel.
Inconceivable conduct
Obama’s term has been one of unmitigated disaster and failure. True, the circumstances he inherited in January 2009 were far from benign. But under his stewardship, the problems, across the board, have been gravely exacerbated, with little indication of how the situation is to be retrieved, other than by holding fast to measures that have already been tried and failed.
Accordingly, continued support for him by anyone genuinely concerned with preserving and promoting the power and prosperity of the United States seems to me inconceivable.
This is particularly true for the group that, proportionately, has benefited from, and contributed to, that power/prosperity more than any other community in the US, and therefore presumably has the highest stake in maintaining them: American Jewry.
As Norman Podhoretz aptly notes in the introductory excerpt, since present-day liberals seek to restructure — in many ways, to deconstruct — the very social mechanisms that provided US Jewry with its unprecedented access to the pinnacle of power and privilege, logic would dictate that “American Jewry… belongs with the conservatives rather than the liberals.”
Self-contradictory & self-obstructive
Yet, despite the massive metamorphosis that the US Democratic Party has undergone since the days of “Scoop” Jackson, Daniel Moynihan and Tom Lantos, and its lurch leftward toward social radicalism, away from its traditional values, Jewish allegiance to it has remained undiminished.
Attempts have been made to explain this by invoking the ingrained heritage of Jewish social liberalism. In an article titled “Why Jewish voters will choose Obama over Romney,” Moment magazine editor Nadine Epstein writes: “Our 2012 Moment magazine political survey shows that a whopping 82 percent of the Jewish Americans who responded believe that it is the duty of a Jew to feel a responsibility to care for the poor.”
But based on the evidence, this hardly seems a compelling rationale to support Obama. Quite the opposite. Under his policies, poverty has increased significantly, not only making more people poor, but making the poor poorer.
Moreover, the usual foci of liberal concern — minorities and women — have fared unusually badly under Obama. It is they who have borne the brunt of his failed policies.
Latinos/Hispanics and Blacks suffer chronically high rates of joblessness. Consider the following excerpts from a review (September 10) in The Huffington Post’s Latino Voices: “The latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that black and Latino unemployment remain critically elevated… While overall unemployment fell slightly… black and Latino unemployment did not follow the same course… Communities of color are mired in an economic depression. Yet the president struggles to publicly acknowledge it.”
So much for social sensitivity.
The Huffington Post noted: “Though unemployment is a concern amongst most Americans, the situation is dire for black and Latino families… more black and Latino men are without work than others… the male workforce participation rate [has been pushed] to a new low unseen since the federal government began reporting this data in 1948.”
Likewise, Colorlines – a site covering race and politics – sternly decried Obama’s policies (September 6): “Black and Latino employment is an unmitigated disaster. More than one out of seven African-Americans is without work. One out of 10 Latinos is jobless. When stacked up against white unemployment, the contrast is even more jarring. The African-American unemployment rate is 100 percent higher than that of whites. Latino unemployment is 40 percent greater. The situation amongst youth of color is even worse. One out of three young African- Americans is out of work, and more than one in five young Latinos is unemployed. In certain cities across America, almost 50 percent of youth of color can’t find a job.”
With a caustic touch, it added damningly: “The dispiritive impact of President Obama’s silence on black and brown joblessness burst into full view almost exactly a year ago, in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. In that September 2011 talk, Obama responded to the CBC’s push for race-specific action on unemployment by telling its members to ‘stop complaining.’”
What about women?
Neither have women been blessed by good fortune under the current administration. The New York Times (August 7) reported that jobless rates among single women has nearly doubled (to 11%) compared with pre-recession levels (6%).
Other sources paint an equally dismal picture.
Under the heading “Obama Economy Leaves Women Behind” and quoting the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one report published last month (September 4) revealed: “The sluggish economy under President Obama has been particularly hard on women… six million are currently unemployed, more than 400,000 have lost their jobs, and poverty rates among women have soared to record highs… ” Adding more gloom to these glum gender-based figures, it noted: “Since Obama took office, the unemployment rate among women has jumped from 7 percent to 8.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Young women have fared even worse. Their unemployment rate has risen from 12.5 percent to 14.4 percent since 2009.”
In light of the worsening plight of the poor, and the growing despair among minorities and women, one might be excused at being a little perplexed as to how continuing support for the policies — and the policy-maker who created them – could be squared with Jewish social sensibilities invoked for that support.
Despite deepening deficits
All this socioeconomic devastation has come about despite a massive expenditure of resources on the part of the Obama regime to address it.
Trillions of dollars have been added to the US deficit and national debt to generate “shovel-ready” projects, produce “green economy” jobs and enlist “an army of teachers.”
The results have been abysmal, as the preceding paragraphs indisputably demonstrate. But in the upcoming elections, all Obama seems to be offering the voter is the same promises to generate “shovel-ready” projects, produce “green-economy” jobs and enlist “an army of teachers.”
In fairness, two things must be conceded.
First, the Obama administration did inherit a disintegrating economy.
Second, there is a certain Keynesian logic to his policy of government spending to ignite the economy.
But the results speak for themselves: After four years and $5 trillion dollars, since the inspiring 2008 rallying call of “Hope and Change,” all the American people have been left with is changes that have failed and hopes that have faded.
The conclusion is inescapable — either the policies were wrong or their implementation was incompetent.
Neither alternative provides a persuasive rationale for reelection.
American Jews should be reminded of Winston Churchill’s insightful dictum: However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
A statistical fluke?
Some Obama-philes may take heart at last month’s employment figures, which for the first time in more than 40 months indicated that the US unemployment rate had dropped below 8% – to 7.8%. In truth, however, they are cold comfort and to base any optimism on them would be little more than grasping at straws. After all, in the last month of the Bush administration (December 2008), the level was 7.3%.
In fact, the September figures were a source of puzzlement for many laymen. (Some of the more suspicious-minded even hinted darkly at a White-House induced plot to “cook the numbers”).
Some have difficulty working out how a jobs increase of 114,000 could generate a 0.3% drop in unemployment in a workforce comprising 155 million (where 0.1% is 155,000); while in the preceding month, an additional 96,000 jobs only resulted in a drop of 0.1%. (If some statistically proficient reader/talkbacker could clarify this conundrum, I would be most grateful.)
But whatever the explanation of the statistical wizardry behind the figures, even committed Obama supporters have advised caution. The usually sycophantic New York Times offered this downbeat assessment in its October 6 editorial: “The unemployment rate fell, from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent last month, a welcome drop, though it appears to be partly due to a statistical fluke and partly to more part-time employment, which is better than no work, but hardly the sign of a reliably robust job market.”
Regal extravagance
Just how incongruous it is to invoke social awareness for Jewish support of Obama was vividly conveyed in a recent Washington Times piece (July 19). Titled “Obama’s economic policies plague poor,” it asserts accusingly: “Obama’s economic policies essentially have declared war on the poorest class in America… ” The article goes on to identify the major focus, and the real beneficiaries, of the Obama administration’s effort: “Need I point out that Mr. Obama is spending most of his time soliciting campaign money from Wall Street and the ‘1 percent,’ not minorities? It is Wall Street that got the goodies during his first term (big profits, large bonuses) not the poor and minorities. Not one Wall Street banker went to jail or even was prosecuted under Mr. Obama.”
Social sensitivity anyone?
The article ends with the trenchant question, “Does anyone really think the second term will be any different?” But if a sense of social solidarity is the prime motivation of US Jews’ endorsement of Obama, we can only wonder at their remarkable lack of censure of the Obamas’ extravagant personal lifestyle, of regal vacations and aristocratic pastimes at the taxpayers’ expense — including a jaunt to Spain that drew off almost half a million dollars from the national coffers.
“The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern- day Ancien Régime: extravagant and out of touch with the American people,” blared a headline in the British Daily Telegraph on Thursday. The ensuing article commented acerbically on the lavish White House expenditures: “It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.”
It pointed out that “the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story.” No surprise there.
Almost buffoonery
I could go on enumerating additional reasons why US Jewry has good reason to dramatically restructure its voting patterns — not despite its “cherished values” but because of them. However, the constraints of space dictate otherwise.
But allow me to end with this: If the reasons for refraining from voting for Obama on the domestic front are myriad, they are even more so in the field of foreign policy, where gross incompetence has reached almost level of near-buffoonery.
Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.net) is the founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
catarin Said:
Pr O should have taken advantage of his bi-raciality to be a bridge between “blacks” and “whites”, instead he did exactly the opposite. He is aloof when it comes to politics and his anger took the better of himself. Why did he spent almost 4 years in a campaign mode instead of sweating in W DC to bring both sides together. He gave up before even starting. He claimed to be by-partisan but only in words not in action. The very first time he met the opposition, he made it clear that they lost. That is not the way to start when you have not accomplished much of anything in your political career.
@ catarin:
Why do you criticize my name so much? What do you find wrong with it? When my folks immigrated from Poland they were eager to americanize our surname so they dropped five or six consonants and added a vowel for clarity. It’s pronounced just as it’s written: ZWGSTKSTWIG. Nobody has ever made an issue of it. What’s your problem? Regarding my neighbor Duane, of course he’s not into voodoo. He’s a 100% Christian American just like our president.
catarin Said:
Catarin, Iran is not going to stop its program no matter what, so long as Obama is in charge, for they perceive him as weak. The problem is that as time goes by, the Iranians protect their nuclear stuff better and better. The more Israel waits, the more difficult it is going to be to inflict serious damage. If Iran is finally allowed to get the bomb, Israel might have to (justifiably) hurt Iranian civilians, and you can imagine how much the international community will vilify her in that case.
The sooner Israel acts, the better.
catarin Said:
There are a few but they are not mainstream. You see, the standard practice of our politicians was to cajole votes by hiring too many people in the public sector, by extending disability benefits to people who were not disabled, by increasing salaries of public servants too much etc. Getting a job in the public sector was every Greek family’s aspiration. We have got used to a state that takes care of everything – but we were borrowing heavily to finance this untenable lunacy, hence our debt became unserviceable.
Worse, no Greek working as a professional pays taxes. Lawyers, plumbers, doctors, they all tax evade. I’m against too much taxation, but this does not mean that there should be NO taxation at all. And of course the politicians wouldn’t create an efficient tax authority so as not to displease this sector of voters that were tax evading.
Anyway, we have reached a point that we are so used to the corrupt politicians that were pampering us, that we cannot accept those honest ones who would implement the necessary austerity in the most fair way.
catarin Said:
I think the human rights activists will not protest on behalf of the Talibans and other extremists, so long as Hamas and Hizbollah can be supplied with missiles and rockets to fire against Israel. If their favorite terrorists get the weapons and ammunition they need, we can be sure that the activists will stay quiet. After all, it is Israel that mostly occupies their discourse.
Catarin, would you wait for the German people to revolt against Hitler, rather than bomb Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden? Lots of civilian Germans were killed there. Do you believe that thenAmericans and the British committed war crimes by bombing German cities during WW2.?
I am sorry, but the reason the US has not won one single war, just battles, since WW2, was this attitude that they must NOT bomb enemy civilians, except Serbs, who were not really US enemies.
If we must destroy Iranian nuclear program, we must destroy Iranian regime, and I we are to destroy Iranian regime, we MUST destroy Iran, which means killing Iranian civilians in the process. We must wage the war the way we fought WW2.
The roadblocks we have placed against Israel in their conduct of the war are now being imposed on us. That’s why we have lost the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and that’s why all the deaths, maiming and sacrifices of our soldiers ended up being for nothing. We have won battles and lost the wars.
Our sins against Israel are coming home to roost, to paraphrase Obama’s favored preacher.
Unfortunately, Israel is a very, very small country, with a very small territory, small population, small economy, and no natural resources. It is not that Israel has no moral right to destroy not only Iranian nuclear program but the entire belligerent, hostile Iran, but can they do it without the help and support of the US?
Once again, the Jews are facing destruction, the Gentiles don’t give a dime about it, and the American Jews worry about their favored Democratic leader and abortion, instead the lives of the 6 million Jews.
Uzitiger, I don’t know who these Liberal Democrats are that you speak about. Are there well known Democrats in the group? Are they people who work for Obama, like his staff? If you will give me some names, I’ll research them. Obama’s poor showing in the first debate was due to some people who weren’t part of the debate experts preparing Obama. I read when the experts were through, these people grabbed him and said no, don’t do that, do this. They totally threw him off his game, and the results were devastating. This time these people were banned from saying one word to him, and he did well in the second debate. In the Times of Israel online today, there was an article showing that Obama has been more supportive of Israel than any other U.S. president.
Dion, the Iran problem needs a world solution. No country should have to take on this huge responsibility by itself. Many countries will attack them if all else fails. We know if they attack Israel first, there are others in line. It won’t come to that unless these Shiites are suicidal. I don’t think they are. Let’s see what result Obama can get from them. So present Greeks are corrupt? Are there any you would trust to start a new government? Is there any way to get rid of the most corrupt, like banishing them to Greek Islands and asking NATO to come in and keep the peace?
Steven, I don’t think Mitt knows the discrimination Obama grew up with.
Max, what happened to the vowels in your last name? There is just one tiny i. Is there a word your last name rhymes with so we know what it sounds like? I hope your friend isn’t in to Voodoo. I think that boy benefited from good medicine and the passage of time.
We’ve all read about the shooting of Malala, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban. She is alert in Birmingham, England, thanks to the UAE who provided a medical plane to fly her there. Her big crime was to ask the Taliban to reopen her school. The Taliban said they’d get her yet. Here’s a thought Pakistan should try. Choose an elevation on K2 and build a prison camp. The elevation should be uncomfortable, and heavy duty tents and warm clothes should be given to the prisoners. Airdrop in ready to eat meals. Put wire around the lower base of the camp. There would be no need for guards, just snipers outside the wire for anyone trying to get out. They would be free to go up. Also put in other radicals like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Shababb and other extremists. Would human rights people complain? Probably. But we have to accept the fact we need to get rid of them.
Why is it so hard for liberals to say the word ABORTION? They say “reproductive rights”, “right to choose”, and other euphemisms instead. Could it be that they feel somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that perfectly healthy, and even breathing babies are being murdered and discarded into the trash bin? THERE IS NOTHING CIVILIZED ABOUT ABORTION and the Torah does not condone it except in the case where the mother’s life is at risk.
@ catarin:
catarin Said:
Me neither.
There is so much Jew-hate in the world that anything Israel does gives them one more excuse to badmouth her.
But what is Israel supposed to do if Iran is on the verge of getting the bomb? Commit suicide by staying inactive so as not to displease the hostile public opinion?
catarin Said:
No,no.
Only the nuclear facilities have to be taken out, no civilians will get hurt.
catarin Said:
Here comes my cliche: all backwards men are afraid of smart women.
catarin Said:
I hope so.
The nuclear threat might survive even that though: a survey in 2010 showed that 87% of the Iranian public supports the continuation of the nuclear program.
catarin Said:
I am afraid it’s complicated: there is widespread corruption among both the politicians and the civil servants. Even if the ship owners were willing to help Greece, they would be put off by the near certainty that their money would be wasted.
Corruption is endemic in ALL of Greek society. I think it’s the 400 years that we spent under Turkish occupation that instilled this attitude in us, i.e. seeing the state as an enemy that has to be conned.
To Dion. I don’t want Israel to act by herself. If the attack was a joint venture with other countries, maybe, but I still wouldn’t like it. Many of the Persian people have fought against this government, demanding freedoms, and now they should be blown up too? I just received a news alert that Iran and the U.S. are holding a one on one meeting about Iran’s nuclear facilities very soon.
The scroungy old ayatollah has decreed that Iranian women can no longer enroll in math and science classes at Iranian Universities. It seems too many women wanted to be engineers. They are just too ambitious, as far as the scroungy old ayatollah is concerned. And maybe too smart for this ugly old man. The people will eventually throw out these tyrants, but I hope it’s not years away. Persia has too great a history and legacy to allow outlaws to remain in charge.
So you are from Greece, enduring very hard times? Why don’t you ask the Greek shipping billionaires to donate huge sums of money to help out?
@ catarin:
The excesses you describe in the Republican party is the mirror image of the excesses you ignore in the democratic party.
I do not believe that Romney has any intention to challenge R VS W, many on the republican side yes but what about the abuses on the left? Ab at 42 weeks? R U for that?
Romney if he wins, will be the boss. I don’t think we can trust the republicans but I trust Romney. He has witnessed enough misery to understand the human souls and their needs. He knows both sides. Pr. O knew only one side.
The Jewish community (at least the JINOs) need to get off the Democrat train to Treblinka and stop supporting the Jew hating DemocRATs. We don’t need to act like Pavlov’s dog and vote Democrat and march in ‘lockstep’ with every leftist cause. The difference between lockstep and goose steps is very small. The DemocRATs showed their hatred for G-d and Jerusalem at their convention which means they also hate the G-d’s people the Jews. Liberalism/progressivism are diametrically opposed to Torah Judaism.
So Max, do you think I’m wrong on including women with the rights of the bounties of Western Civilization? Shouldn’t civilization be a progression of rights for all people including those women fortunate enough to be born into it? It’s only been since 1920 those battered and beaten women secured the right for women to vote in the U.S.
Well, as for the Torah, it preaches justice for all, and though that did not include women way back then, there are at least some Jewish sects that accept women as equal today. They can be Rabbis, can you imagine?
The Code of Hammerabi from ancient Iraq was written before the Jewish laws and gave women property and other rights, but rights are like freedom, they must be fought for every day. Those insecure and ignorant backwood Republicans are trying to take away women’s reproductive rights in America that we’ve had for decades right at this moment. What is it these men don’t understand when a woman says “I wouldn’t have your kid if you were the last man on earth.”
catarin Said:
Catarin, i am on your side on abortion.
But don’t you think that the threat of a nuclear Iran far outweighs any other social consideration?
Romney will let Israel decide how to deal with this existential threat.
Obama is already bulling Israel to accept that the mullahs get the bomb.
It’s a no brainer really, anyone concerned with Israel’s survival should vote for the President who gives Israel a chance to defend herself.
catarin Said:
If America follows Obama’s lead in government spending on welfare, it will end up like my country, Greece.
Democrats have an extraordinary ability to sort through the confusion afflicting our times, and then present us with a clear formula for ethical and political choices representing our highest values.
I’m particularly taken by Catarin’s equivalence of Democrat pro-reproductive rights stance with the best of Western Civilization, and Torah values as well.
My neighbor Duane says that Obama will one day be regarded as the greatest leader the West has ever had. And Duane goes further. He says Obama may have powers to heal the sick, literally. The president appears to have given a hint of his powers during the debate when he made the following startling disclosure:
You know, just a couple of weeks ago, actually, probably about a month, I saw a mother, who I had met at the bedside of her son, who had been shot in that theater. And her son had been shot through the head. And we spent some time, and we said a prayer and, remarkably, about two months later, this young man and his mom showed up, and he looked unbelievable, good as new.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/18/Obama-takes-credit-for-healing-young-man-shot-in-head
Martin Sherman can go jump into the sea. You wonder why American Jews normally support Democrats and now Obama? Because Democrats are the ones carrying on the goals of Western Civilization, of which Jews played a big part in formulating. My view of Republicans is that many of them would like to go back to Surfdom, in which there are only a few big shots and the rest of us can live in the mud. The present Republicans running the party are no better than the slave owners from America’s past. They want to take away women’s reproductive rights and put them back in the sow barn. You think America’s Jews should be supporting this? Some people need to go back to Torah classes, and it’s not the Jews in America.
Obama saved the economy of the United States. For all I know there could have been Republicans wishing the fall would happen. After all, they made the mess that practically caused the fall. How much easier it would be then to make serfs out of the poor and middle class.
Obama saved the car industry, he extended unemployment benefits for the jobless, he gave the old folks a stipend or two, he vastly improved relations with the world, he got rid of bin Laden. In fact, his military exercises have been mostly successful. He fought for and passed equal pay for equal work, which really burned some Republicans’ ptooties. He wanted to repair U.S. infrastructure, but some Republicans in the Congress refused to cooperate with him on anything, so just let those bridges fall, they said. What it has come to may be a civil war, but I’d rather see these ignorant people secede. They won’t make a new state work, because too few of them have any horse sense. Then the Union will have to line up at the new border to keep them out.
Today on the news I heard that some big U.S. company is willing to spend a few million to train U.S. workers for supposedly high tech jobs. Didn’t the companies have to train workers overseas for these jobs? The commentator said there are man workers available here but not for the low pay workers overseas earn. When the pocketbook takes priority over the well-being of America, you know a war is in the air. It will also be a moral war. I regret I am too old to get in on the butt kicking.
Why was Jesus a liberal! The rest is history. Many have paid for this and many pay forward.
A poorer economy is a greater probability under O than R and therefore the probability to see more poor is greater under O than R.
This may be too complicate for the Jews to grasp.
(About the Sept jobs report — as I understand it, the stats are based on two surveys. There is the establishment/ business survey and the household survey. In the analysis for Sept, the Bureau decided to place more weight on the household surveys ( ie, they changed the formula). This change in formula means you can no longer make monthly comparisons. It’s the equivalent of comparing apples to oranges. That’s why you’ll get the bizarro results if you attempt a comparison. In the past they would use the same formula for extended periods of time, so that one could understand/predict trends.)