LA Jewish Journal Op-Ed: Republicans and the Jewish Community

Aaron Keyak — February 12, 2009 – 12:13 pm | Democrats | Domestic Policy | Economy | McCain | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

Raphael J. Sonenshein, a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton, is the 2008 Fulbright Tocqueville Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the University of Paris VIII, wrote an interesting piece in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal that is well worth reading.

The Republican Party once had a real shot at winning the support of Jewish voters. The cosmopolitan wing of the party led the way, in Northeastern states like New York and New Jersey, and in California. Now that element of the party is in desperate straits.

While Jews generally register as Democrats, they have often voted for moderate Republicans. Growing up in New Jersey, I remember Republican Sen. Clifford Case and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. California Jews will listen to moderate Republicans, too, as shown by Jews who voted for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and, before him, Mayor Richard Riordan in Los Angeles. But Republican moderates in Democratic states are now the first casualties of the national shift to the Democrats.

The Republicans became dominant when their moderate cosmopolitan wing absorbed Southern white conservatives. But now, moderates have become marginalized, and the Republican Party as a whole is in danger of becoming more like a regional third party tied together by ideology than a real second party ready to build a governing majority.

The Republican Party, on public view during the economic stimulus debate, is moving further and further away from the party that once appealed to Jews. Despite the recent smashing electoral defeat, which was largely fought on economic issues, every House Republican voted against the stimulus plan.

This disconnect has been years in the making. Newt Gingrich, in the 1990s, and Karl Rove, a decade later, created a Republican base that watches its own cable news network, listens to right-wing talk radio and thinks the rest of us are crazy. House Republicans recently called on Joe the Plumber to advise them on the economic stimulus. Polls show that independent voters, a reliable barometer of winning majorities, now resemble Democrats much more than they do Republicans.

Read on…

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