Chapter 20: Myth—Politics Doesn’t Matter

Page 11

A second monolithic voting block for the Democrats is the Jewish

vote. Kerry 10 won 78% of the Jewish vote; Bush won 22%. Like the Black vote, the Jewish vote also increased for Bush. In 2000, he received 19%. Again, the increase was due to moral issues. In the analysis of the Jewish vote, one writer notes, “the bolstered Republican presence in the Senate and

House of Representatives prompted concern among heads of Jewish organizations in New York.”

“They predicted ‘anticipated conflicts’ between the Republican

majority on Capitol Hill and the Jewish community on issues such as the separation of church and state, abortion, Gay rights, and same-sex marriage – issues, one Jewish community leader said Wednesday, on which ‘the vast majority of the Jewish community disapproves of the Republicans’ positions and views.’ And yet it was Republican stances on these issues that

mobilized the massive majority among New York’s Orthodox community, especially in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, that voted for Bush. According to unconfirmed results, Bush won 75 percent of Jewish votes in two large Brooklyn voting precincts that have a substantial concentration of

Orthodox Jews.” 10

The article points out that Orthodox Jews do not exceed 10 percent of the Jewish community so their total voting impact would not be great. Ergo,

78% of Jews voted for Kerry. While a Black majority voted for economic interests in supporting the Democrats, Jews voted in the majority for social policies they supported. All four of the concerns expressed by the Jewish leader above are moral value issues. The comments made indicate a Jewish

majority for immoral social policies. Likewise, the Orthodox vote appears clearly to support moral value positions. We can surmise that there is a lot of confusion in different communities. Both the Black and Jewish majority of voters understand politics. That much is also clear. Yet, like many other

subgroups, these majorities lack a clear understanding of God Almighty.

There also appears to be a connection between different levels of faith in God and the positions that individuals take on political issues. Data from

a Gallup survey 11 shows a direct correlation between church attendance and candidate. The more people attended church, the more they voted for Bush.