Saturday, July 21, 2018

Jews Should Walk Away

Michael Lumish 

{Also published at Jews Down Under.}

There is a small social-media movement known as #walkaway that is annoying the Washington Post.

In a piece by Abby Ohlheiser awkwardly entitled, "The #WalkAway meme is what happens when everything is viral and nothing matters," the Post laments:

"The pro-Trump Internet is really good at convincing its audience that going viral signals popular opinion, that its movement is and always will be #winning. In this case, #WalkAway is the answer to the possibility of a Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms. It doesn’t need to be true to be effective. After all, the hashtag has now become an article in The Washington Post."

{I do not know about you, but I find all these #hashtags annoying.}

In truth, the foundation of the Walk Away Movement - to the extent that you can even call it a "movement" - is the idea that decent Democrats should leave the party not out of allegiance toward Donald Trump or conservatism or the Republican Party, but because the party simply no longer represents their interests. Some people, like Ohlheiser, see it as an opportunistic ploy for the Republicans.

I see the Walk Away Movement as an expression of disgust.

The #WalkAway Facebook page describes itself as follows:
This group is for people who can no longer support the tyrannical groupthink of the "Politically Correct" Left.

It is NOT a group that supports the Right, the GOP, or Trump.

There's a difference. A rejection of the Left should not imply an embrace of the Right; that's a false binary that gets us nowhere. 
After about twenty-five years I walked away from the Democratic Party and the American-Left because I could no longer bare the hypocrisy. This is because I absolutely refuse to support any political party, or any political movement, that demands - with great self-righteous indignation - that they stand for anti-racism and anti-sexism and liberalism, when, in truth, they stand for none of those things.

One of the great friends of Israel and the Movement for Jewish Freedom (i.e., Zionism) is Fred Maroun. Maroun is a Canadian of Lebanese-Christian descent and a regular contributor to discussions within the Times of Israel and many places throughout pro-Jewish venues. He will also be contributing in panel discussions, along with Métis indigenous rights activist, Ryan Bellerose, and Professor of Philosophy, Andrew Pessin, at the 3rd Annual Israel Today Community Symposium on Sunday, August 12 at Temple Shalom in Dallas, Texas.

Fred disagrees with me concerning the Jewish aspect to the Walk Away Movement. He writes:
Those who use the #WalkAway tag should realize they're doing no favors to Israel, and they're putting their partisanship above Zionism.

Zionists who are Democrats should stay in the Democratic Party and fight tooth and nail for Israel within that party. Abandoning the party to antisemites is a terribly bad idea.

What do you think would happen? Whether anyone likes it or not, the Democrats will eventually be back power. That's just the way it works. If the party has only a weak rump of Zionists left by then, Israel will pay the price. No doubt about it.

So if you're an American Democrat Zionist, don't even think about walking away. Stay and fight for your values. If you must vote Republican sometimes, just keep it quiet. But don't abandon the party to the anti-Semitic sharks.

Do it for Israel, not for me.
Maroun's point is one that requires serious consideration, although I disagree with him.

My stance is that Jewish people and friends of Israel do not want the Democratic Party to take us for granted.

The truth is - much to my ongoing horror and disgust - the Democratic Party can kick around Jews from now until Yom Kippur and we will still pound on their doors to give them our money, our votes, and our support.

And this is why I do not believe that either Fred Maroun, or Alan Dershowitz, for that matter, have much to worry about.

Jewish Americans, including myself, voted for Barack Obama in 2008 by around 80 percent.

Jewish Americans, not including myself, voted for Barack Obama in 2012 by around 70 percent. And they did so despite the fact that Obama honestly believed as President of the US that he had every right to tell Jewish people where we may, or may not, be allowed to live within the very land of our ancestry.

No one needs to concern themselves with American Jews abandoning the Democratic Party. Given the malicious and childish reaction to the Trump Administration throughout both the grassroots and the mainstream media, social pressure will tamp down any meaningful defection of Jews.

American Jews are blinkered, for good historical reasons, by partisan loyalty. Look at these numbers. According to 2018 Pew Research polling only 27 percent of Democrats sympathize with Israel over their tormentors.

Pew_Polling_Graph_2018

27 percent.

Yet they will still get our support.

What a shame.

17 comments:

  1. Jews in the Democratic Party are like battered women who don’t immediately leave their abusers. Some couples can go for years with that sometimes she leaves sometimes one of them kills the other.

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    1. My guess is that we will continue to see American Jews vote for the Democrats within about the 70th percentile. I don't think that anything the Dems do or say in regards Israel or the Jews fazes them one little bit.

      Not from what I have seen, anyway.

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    2. I wonder if it's a genuine opportunity for a viable 3rd party or even a party to replace the Democratic party and relegate it to the fringe. There aren't any Whigs anymore and they used to run everything.

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  2. American Jews are ADDICTED to the Democratic Party and the New York Times, the same way that drug addicts are ADDICTED to heroin and cocaine.

    No amount of facts or logic will change them, forever and ever.
    They cannot be reasoned with, forever and ever and ever.

    For every one Jew who quits the Democratic Party or stops buying the New York Times, there will be 100 others who never will, forever and ever and ever.

    American Jews are decreasing rapidly, and that is good news, because American Jews who are ADDICTED to the Democratic Party and the New York Times, the same way that drug addicts are ADDICTED to heroin and cocaine, do not deserve to continue to exist; they are a disgrace, and the sooner they vanish, the better.

    American Jews are decreasing rapidly, and that is good news, because American Jews who support anti-Jewish anti-Israel anti-Torah causes (a category which includes the entire senior leadership of the Reform Judaism movement and the overwhelming majority of their follower) are an unmitigated disgrace, and the sooner they vanish, the better.

    ======================================
    Who are the Palestinians?

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2018/06/who-are-palestinians.html

    ======================================
    Did Captain Kirk believe in negotiating with terrorists?

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/can-jews-learn-from-captain-kirk.html

    ======================================
    Mr. Patrick Condell has no Jewish ancestors
    and no religion that might cause him to favor Jews.

    Please read these short pro-Israel articles that
    expose the Palestinians by Mr. Patrick Condell:


    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/boo-hoo-palestine-by-pat-condell.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/patronising-palestinians.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-great-palestinian-lie.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/useful-idiots-for-palestine.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/israel-and-united-nations.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/why-do-muslims-always-blame-jews.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/liberal-hypocrisy-over-gaza.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/09/why-i-support-israel-by-pat-condell.html

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The American Jewish "addiction" to the Democratic Party probably has less to do with ideology than it has to do with social acceptability and the tendency toward group-think.

      When I first started making noises concerning the fact that Jews support the Dems despite the fact that, increasingly, the Dems despise Jewish sovereignty on historically Jewish land, I knew that I would pay a price.

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    2. a lot of it is also this fantasy of pan-minority solidarity and the idea that diversity makes being Jewish less weird and thus lowers anti-Semitism.

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    3. So how’s that working out?

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    4. It's about "intersectional theory."

      It's the idea expressed in the notion that Ferguson intersects with "Palestine."


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    5. If Ferguson intersects with "Palestine" it is not in the way they would have us believe. Fergusonwood, meet Pallywood.

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  3. The Dems are increasingly anti-Israel and it's getting worse. Like a runaway train it will never get better; look at the antisemitism in the British Labour party. That's what the Dems will look like inevitably. The ideology is stacked against Jews/Israel. Plus, they are freaking nuts: Trump Derangement Syndrome, open borders, white man hate, increasing move to socialism, a failed concept, etc. Get out while the getting's good.

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    1. I got out in 2012.

      I am still amazed that American Jews are perfectly fine with voting for a guy who honestly believes that he has every right to tell us where we may be allowed to live.

      It's astonishing.

      I bring it up all of the time because nobody else ever seems to.

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    2. Well that's part of it for sure. But let's call it for what it is, an issue that deeply concerns a small number of people. There are far more people who aren't Jews who hate Jews than there are Jews who love Israel and defend their own identity. What concerns me is not this so much. I'm on record as being agnostic on the point of whether it really matters in the long if the US becomes a virulently anti Israel country or not. And by matters, I mean matters to Israel.

      What's concerning to me is the whole ethos of the left of which is this is a small facet. Hate Jews. But also hate white people hate men hate non LGBTQ hate citizens hate anyone to the right of Emma Goldman. They are becoming increasingly unhinged in many different areas. This could end in widespread violence. Just another country that's pretty much permanently in a state of low level insurrection, civil war and insurgency. Some of us can handle that but many people can't. Descending to a new water level that resembles a semi-failed state is not only unpleasant it's ugly and depressing. But if that's what the left really wants, if they really want America to turn into a Banana Republic or worse, I can tell you that the people who scream "power to the people" are the people they want the people to hand all the power to. And that will result in some awful things. Good luck. We geezers and geezettes have far less to lose.

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    3. I also got out in 2012. Coincidence? I think not!

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  4. The leader of the Great Satan threatened peaceful Iranian religious guys engaging in free speech(in all caps too if you can imagine.) Vote Dems so we can kiss and make up and give them more billions to wipe out Israel.

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  5. Since Jews don’t make up 27% of Democrats the support for Israel is necessarily also coming substantially from non-Jewish Democratic voters. I think a breakdown by age group is warranted here.

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    1. What I mean is that it safe to say there is what we old fogies used to a generation gap.

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  6. There is a rumor (as of now) that CNN has launched an exploratory committee to run for the nomination in 2020.

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