Goofy Republicans and the Jewish Vote

Cross Posted at Daily Kos

This year the Republicans have been making a huge push for the Jewish vote AND with that Jewish Campaign Donations. Because of that, we see a myriad of strange attacks none of which are fact based, and all of which ignore the traditional liberal nature of the American Jewish Polity.

Many of these attacks center on the U.S. relationship with Israel and/or how President Obama has slighted Israel in some way by either originally supporting forces of change  in the Arab World, working with the changes that have been wrought by the mass revolts of the "Arab Spring", or has stuck to the position of every American Government since 1967 with regards to secure borders and the land captured from Jordan in the Six Day War. And of course, one of these slights has been not responding to every single incident that the Israeli Right (and their supporters here) have determined to be anti-Semitic (and these incidents may be and are anti-Semitic but the President of the U.S. has other things to worry about than issuing condemnations regarding every single thing broadcast on Palestinian Authority or Hamas T.V.).

Hopefully, the American Jewish community which has traditionally been quite liberal is not going to buy this crap.

Lately we see the ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) sufferers on the Right,  just getting silly and spewing (and I mean spewing) nonsense like, continuing to call President Obama a secret Muslim, saying that he loves and enables "radical genocidal jihad", blaming him for the breakdown in talks in the Middle East, straight out calling Democrats anti-Semites and generally urging the American Jewish Community to turn to the Right and actually vote for Republicans this year.... all the while claiming they are still "liberal".

Of course what makes this nonsensical (aside from the fact that it is not true) is that nothing says "liberal" like ending affordable Healthcare, pushing for an end to Medicare, taxing the Middle Class and Poor while relieving the Ultra Wealthy of all tax burdens, undoing Roe v. Wade, Gutting the environment and on and on and on. (/snark)

AND THAT'S WHAT THESE NITWITS ARE VOTING FOR WHEN THEY VOTE REPUBLICAN! and yet amazingly they call themselves "Liberals"

They simply seem to forget that President Obama:

1. Is the First President ever to hold a Seder in the White House.

2. Is the First President to declare a month of the year "Jewish History Month" (May 2011).

3. Has increased aid and cooperation with/to Israel beyond a measure of any other President and has been termed by the Israeli President (Shimon Peres) and Defense Minister Ehud Barak as an "EXCEPTIONAL FRIEND" to Israeli Security

and on and on and on.

Yet, "The Derangers" (as we call them) yell... But, but, but.... "He is an anti-Semite".

It simply boggles the mind just what these fools come up with.

Of course, many of them seem to love Newt Gingrich because of his rabid denials of Palestinian peoplehood and his ties to the Israeli Hard Right YET... I haven't seen anyone of them commenting on any blog regarding the fact that he has not denounced this incident that happened at a church service that he was attending:

Inside, the topic of the evening discussion, led by Joel Rosenberg, a novelist who writes about Islamic terrorism, focused partially on how to convert Jews to the faith.

 "As a Jewish person," Rosenberg, who was raised by a Jewish father and a Gentile mother, "our people really didn't get it the first time Jesus came."

He urged the audience not to be bashful, and to act quickly in case the End Times were nigh. "I know you know Jewish people," he told them. "You have an accountant, you have a lawyer..."

HEY Derangers... where are your calls for Newt condemn this anti-Semitic bullshit? Eh, anyone... anyone.....

The President of the United States has the people of the United States and U.S. Alliances to worry about. Gestures like not moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or denying Palestinian history really don't amount to much considering his responsibilities and quite honestly his actions which prove beyond a doubt that he is supportive of our friendship with Israel.

But for these wanna-be Republicans I guess they will not like the following news from Nate Silver

7:29 P.M. |Jewish Turnout Low in Florida There has been some speculation that Democrats could struggle to hold the Jewish vote in 2012. They had struggled, for instance, in the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District in 2011, which has a heavy Orthodox Jewish population.

But there is no sign tonight of Jewish voters switching their registration over to the Republican side in Florida. According to early exit polls, just 1 percent of voters in tonight's Republican primary identified as Jewish. That's down from 3 percent in the Florida Republican primary in 2008, which also might mean that Jewish Republican voters in the state are not terribly enthusiastic about this group of candidates. Jewish turnout in general elections in Florida is normally about 4 percent

and then there is this:

I guess that President Obama is having such trouble with Jewish support that one of his top bundlers is the chairman of the American Jewish Congress

Among the newly named bundlers who have raised at least $500,000 or more for the Obama re-election are Marc Benioff, a Silicon Valley computer tycoon who founded Salesforce.com and hosted a fundraiser for the president at his home last spring; Jack Rosen, a prominent New York real estate developer who is chairman of the American Jewish Congress; and Kawana Brown, the chief operating officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises.

OH YEAH and according to the American Jewish Committee Poll 2011 (widely considered to be an accurate read on Jewish Political trends), while Jews do not identify as Democrats as much as they did in 2008 (54% to 46%), Republicans have not picked up anything and in fact, are down 1% in their support. Much of that support is now identified as "Independent", but if trends continue President Obama should still end up with close to 73% of the Jewish vote.

However it is important to continue to fight the misinformation, poor framing, and outright lies spread by the Republicans and their supporters/enablers in order to try to win enough of the Jewish vote away from the President particularly in States like Florida and Pennsylvania, where the President will need every vote that he can get.

As Mets102 so correctly wrote: Jewish values are Democratic Values and they are.These faux "liberals" (hey they claim David Horowitz is a "liberal" that is how far outside of rationality they are) don't represent anything but a wish list of Hard Rightists who are more worried about voting against a guy whose middle name is Hussein then they are with supporting Israel in fact or recognizing that President Obama is a true friend to Jewish Americans.

For me, and hopefully many of my Jewish brothers and sisters it will be OBAMA 2012!