to try and explain this (I’m Jewish btw). “He who believes in nothing will believe in anything.” The vast majority of Jews in this country are highly secularized. The ones who aren’t actually tend to be conservative.

One of the things I believe more and more as I get older is that for most, the religious impulse is like the sex drive, if not acted on, that energy will go *somewhere*. If it isn’t turned towards traditional religion, it will be turned into something that makes the person believe they are “making the world a better place.” In our days that would be “social justice”, “the environment”, and that sort of thing. You especially see this in successful highly secular people.

and he didn’t really have much of an answer. More or less just a cultural legacy.

…first, outta curiosity I ask, why is this question asked so often here? There are lots of other groups who are also liberal, and the question doesn’t seem to be asked of them quite as often, especially when you are talking about a group that’s 2% of the population.

A big part of this is what I will call, for lack of a better word, cultural. People pick sides not just on the arguments that both sides present, but on a lot of other things – assumptions implicit in the way people talk, the jokes people make, how people talk about various things, whether it’s religion, history, sports, etc.

A few examples:

First, occasionally I hear people on the right speak against the idea of “tolerance,” saying that people use it to stifle free speech by imposing political correctness on others. I am reminded of the South Park episode, “the Death Camp of Tolerance” (I don’t even remember what it’s about, I just remember the name). Anyway, I think this causes most Jewish people I know (inc myself) to cringe…to Jews, tolerance is a good thing. And people saying that tolerance is a way of stifiling free speech, sounds like “I oughta have the right to be intolerant.” To which the response would be, “you have the right to do whatever but don’t expect my support.”

Is that fair? Maybe not, but it’s how people think, and how people pick a side.

Another…conservatives often use the Bible / Christianity to argue their side. I hear people say the US is a Christian nation, and others say that the country was founded on Judeo-Christian values*, and how they’re a Christian first and a conservative second, and how conservatism follows from Christianity, and etc. Now that’s not a reason to not be a conservative, but you have to think about opportunity costs. Imagine some Jewish person is deciding whether to be left or right of center, and listens to the message of each side for an hour before doing so. If the right spends 30 minutes talking about Christianity, well to someone who doesn’t care about that stuff you’ve wasted 30 minutes, and are starting from a disadvantage. Further, you have created the impression that you’re not really a conservative unless you are Christian…you can be in the tent, but you’ll be an outsider whilst inside.

Another thing…look at this Dennis Miller thing on Bill O’Reilly’s show. Particularly like 15-45 seconds. He says that liberals, esp liberal women, hate Gov. Palin because she looks like she has non-neurotic sex, and that women on the upper east side’s husbands haven’t been aroused since (some reference I don’t get from the 70s). To most here, this is probably harmless fun, but to anyone above the age of 40 in my family they would throw a shoe at the TV upon seeing this. They would see the words “neurotic,” “upper east side,” and the thing about unappealing women as digs against Jewish people. You may think that totally unfair, but I am telling it how it is, based on personal experience. And that last part, about the women on the upper east side being unappealing…well that’s pretty personal. And of course, a lot of Jews actually live on the upper east side, and a lot of Jews once lived there, or have family who lived there.

Building on that, you see conservatives talk negatively about the East Coast, Hollywood, and New York. And even when speaking positively about small towns, it is usually in contrast, implicitly or explicitly, with big cities. And it comes off to those living in big cities as being negative towards big cities. And especially towards New York. Stereotypically Jews have always been associated with these places, and are more likely to see an attack on those places as attacks on themselves. Especially the Big Apple.

I know I have mentioned New York a lot, but 1 million Jewish people live there, and probably another 1 million live in surrounding areas I would guess. Who knows how many more have family there, lived there previously, etc. There are only 5-6 million in the whole country. Every time a conservative says something negative about New York, the Jewish community’s collective ear to the conservative side of the aisle closes a little. It may not be fair, but it is how people think.

An attack on liberal elite people from the East Coast in general or NYC in particular, or Hollywood, will be seen by many Jews, more than you may realize, as an attack on Jewish people. Or at least that thought will weigh in on people’s minds, and cause them to be wary. That may not be fair, but that is the way it is.

Finally, just keep in mind that people who are more likely to see themselves as in a minority group discriminated or excluded by the larger main group are more likely to be left of center. This applies to racial and religious minorities chiefly, also gay people, and I’m sure other groups you could talk about. Also women – though women are the majority and men the minority you could argue that men have a larger share of power/influence, and even if this isn’t true today it certainly was once, and attitudes change slowly. Keep in mind that many areas which once prevented black people from living there, did the same for Jewish people…there are other examples of historical anti-Jewish discrimination as well…this is definitely part of the explanation.

*I think many Jews assume this is a phrase made up to include Jews, when really what is meant is Christian values. To bring an example, recently when I was in an argument here talking about Judeo-Christian values, the people arguing with me used “Judeo-Christian” and “Christian” interchangeably. Individual people usually stuck to one phrase or the other, but collectively it was a hodgepodge, and that is the impression which is given.

that is the experience I have had in speaking with Jews. We learned in school that the Nazis were Right Wing ( they were not) —– some years ago, I researched this and found that American Jews did not want to be considered anything close to Nazis—ie. Right Wing/ Conservative) and wanted to be liked & seen by others as knowing which side to be on—- too bad it did not occur to them to stand up and say the Nazis wereLefties, even at the risk of ” being looked at & pointed to—” .
This ignorance( perhaps even cowardice), has allowed Israel to be see as the aggressor visavie the Palestinians,etc. , has allowed thousands of bright college kids to be indoctrinated( by parents/professors), has caused Jewish professors/teachers to work/propagandize for the Left, has kept most Jewish celebrities silent, ignored the slide from democracy to bondage and has caused rifts within the Jewish comunities and even families.