Democrats and Jews (Part 2)

Michael Lumish

{Also published at Jews Down Under.}

Candace Owens

In my recent piece, Democrats and Jews, I asked the following question:

Why is it that of all the minority constituencies of the Democratic Party only the Jewish minority is thought to be morally obligated to sacrifice the well-being of their own children in deference to that party and in deference to progressive-left ideology?

Among the email responses that I received one, in particular, caught my attention.

It essentially said:

Lumish, what the hell are you talking about? What about the American Black population? What about the unrequited sacrifices that Black Americans have made for the Democratic Party? Black people got screwed.

It is not particularly difficult for me to speak to the toxic issues between the western-left and its Jewish constituency. I grew up with it. I know it in my bones. I was a Democrat for 25 years. I understand how and why American Jews fought so hard for the Democratic Party throughout the twentieth-century. It could not be more obvious. But this also means that I am aware of the racist Democratic Party flaws that have become poisonous fissures eroding Jewish trust.

It is, however, much more difficult for me to say anything concerning the Black American experience with the Party. Polling shows that Donald Trump -- much to everyone's astonishment -- has increased his favorability rating among Black Americans. If this is true it is a terrible blow to the Hillary Clinton Basket-of-Deplorables wing of the Democratic Party.

It is a blow to those who stand up with great moral indignation against "white" people -- particularly those of the male variety -- and "Zionists."

It seems fairly obvious that part of the reason that Trump beat Hillary was due to her insistence on divisive and poisonous "identity politics." This never-ending screaming against "white" people -- whoever they are supposed to be, exactly -- as exemplified by MTV's racist 2017 New Years Resolutions for White Guys -- is corrosive to the Democratic Party.

{I like to highlight this kind of thing because I suspect it drove many young "white guys" directly into the arms of Donald Trump and may very well do so again, shortly.}

This "progressive" inclination inevitably pitted Hillary Clinton against American workers of European descent. Hillary's failure in the previous presidential election to castigate "white" men thus opened a space for Black conservatives such as Kanye West and Candace Owens who oppose "intersectionality" theory and, therefore, favor a Martin Luther King, Jr. approach to American ethnic relations.

Owens is interesting because she is a young, beautiful, balls-to-the-wall, Black American Trump supporter.

You do not come across such people every day.

Wikipedia tells us:

Candace Owens (born April 29, 1989) is an American conservative commentator and political activist. She is known for her pro-Trump stance and her criticism of Black Lives Matter and of the Democratic Party. She is the Director of Communications at the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA.

She is, to my mind, almost as interesting as Ryan Bellerose.

Bellerose, as I am sure many of you know, is a Métis American-football-playing, indigenous rights activist and pro-Jewish activist from northern Manitoba who will teach you the laws of physics in a New York Minute if you cross certain lines... God bless the guy. Owens is a tough, young, smart, Black woman who resents Democratic Party political dominance over her people because she does not see where the Party has done her people any good.

I know how she feels.

So, the question that my interrogator asked was how can I believe that the Jews are the only ethnic minority thought to be morally obligated to sacrifice the well-being of their own children in deference to the ideology or the Party?

Owens is the sort-of young, hip, analyst that equates Democratic Party dominance over Black people to a "plantation."  I would never go so far, but it is not up to me to say.

Owens came up quickly and I think that it is fair to suggest that she is among the Black leadership who are walking away.

I first became aware of her through Dave Rubin.

The Rubin Report provides a venue for the New Center and liberals such as Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris.

So, are the Democrats only stomping on the heads of Jews?

Perhaps not.

The Week on Nothing Left

Michael Lumish

This week Michael Burd and Alan Freedman hear from Jonathan Neumann, a journalist and commentator speaking about Israel’s nation-state law and other topics.

Isi Leibler then discusses a conference organised by Jewish Federations of North America where the key item for discussion was criticism of Israel.

Daniel Mandel from the Zionist Organisation of America discusses the relationship between Israel and Jordan as well as bringing us up to date on events in Pittsburgh, and Matthew M Hausman revisits the Jerusalem embassy issue and also branches into some general issues.

Here is this week's episode of Nothing Left ...

2 min Editorial:  “We were once refugees”

8 min Jonathan Neumann, journalist and commentator

33  min Isi Leibler in Jerusalem [day prior to Pittsburgh Tragedy]

50 min Daniel Mandel, Zionist Organisation of America Live

1 hr 15 Matthew M Hausman, American attorney and commentator [prior to Pittsburgh Tragedy]

NOTHING LEFT can be heard live each Tuesday 9-11am on FM 87.8 in the Caulfield area, or via the J-Air website www.j-air.com.au

Contact Nothing Left at:

michael@nothingleft.com.au

alan@nothingleft.com.au

Democrats and Jews

Michael Lumish

{Also published at Jews Down Under and the Elder of Ziyon.}

The Democratic Party is sabotaging its Jewish constituency and, thereby, in some measure, punching itself in the face.

It has put American Jews -- who are traditionally among the most loyal Democrats  -- into the position of having to choose between a political party and our own families... our own people.

In 2008, I was part of the 80 percent of the American Jewish population who voted for Barack Obama. In 2012, I was not part of the 70 percent who did so. The main reason that I refused to vote for Obama in his second run for office was because I deeply resented his insistence that he had every right to tell Jews where we may, or may not, be allowed to live on our own ancestral homeland.

Despite the fact that President Trump is more supportive toward Israel than any president since Harry Truman, recent polling data shows that only 6 percent of American Jews are likely to vote for him for the 2020 presidency. This is despite the fact that Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is despite the fact that he is defunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which literally teaches little "Palestinian" Arab kids to violently despise Jews. And it is despite the fact that Trump opposes Obama's "Iran deal" which assures a Persian bomb in what is now the short term.

My intention is not to make a broad argument for Donald Trump, nor is it to erect an argument for either the conservative movement or the Republican Party.

In fact, I am not mounting an argument at all. I am merely asking a question. It is this:

Why is it that of all the minority constituencies of the Democratic Party only the Jewish minority is thought to be morally obligated to sacrifice the well-being of their own children in deference to that party and in deference to progressive-left ideology?

The answer to that question has two interrelated parts.

The first is in the rise of democratic socialism on the coattails of Bernie Sanders. The second is in the rise of "intersectionality theory" within the universities and among the activists.

Democratic socialists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Linda Sarsour are increasingly coming into prominence. These young up-and-comers tend to be friendly with the likes of racist Louis Farrakhan, much like some of their seniors in the party, and generally favor the hostile Arab majority against the Jewish minority in the Middle East.

They also tend to favor "intersectionality theory."

The fundamental idea behind "intersectionality" in practice is that the world is comprised of the oppressors and their oppressed. Thus the oppressed must join together in opposition to the oppressors who persecute them through "White Male Privilege" and cold, hard cash. They are presented as oppressed in a common fashion grounded in "white" imperial racism and various forms of gender-hate. It is for this reason that they connect Ferguson, Missouri to "Palestine" because they see their concerns about both as derived from the same malicious source... you.

Furthermore, intersectionality has created a loose hierarchy of oppression with Arab men, strangely enough, at the top. Arabs and Muslims and "people of color" and Gay people and transgender people and Black people are near the summit of the hierarchy.  White women have actually dropped a few rungs in recent years, presumably due to their unfortunate association with white men.

The oppressors are generally understood to be white people, the wealthy, and "Zionists." Much of the American-left considers the Jewish people to be all three. I like to say that we have hit the politically-incorrect trifecta!

{Good for us.}

But this leaves those American Jews who care about their brothers and sisters in the State of Israel in a serious political dilemma. Those of you who are American Jewish Democrats or "progressives" are essentially being told that you need to choose between the Jewish people and the Democratic Party and the political ideology that drives it. On the campuses, if Jewish students dare to stand up for themselves and their people, they are shouted down as Nazis and shunned by many of their peers.

The irony is that those doing the yelling and screaming like to think of themselves as the ideological children of Martin Luther King, Jr. who's foremost message was that we should judge people as individuals, not as representatives of an ethnicity or gender. Thus what we are witnessing in the rise of progressive-left intersectionality is an ironic insistence that the Jewish people cease to defend themselves in Israel out of moral consideration for minority groups. And, furthermore, we are to do so based on a blatantly hypocritical political ideology that has given up its fundamental liberal core as represented by Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, why not vote Republican?

At least it may teach the Democrats not to take the Jews for granted.

Los Lonely Boys - Heaven

Michael Lumish

I love the tunes on the right side of the screen.

That is why I put them up.

And this song strikes to my heart.

It is because of the longing for something better.

And I honestly do not care what religion it comes out of.

Michael Lumish

I am considering registering as a Republican.

Tell me why I should not.

Mobilization vs. Persuasion

Sar Shalom

One of the debates running in electioneering circles is whether campaigns should focus on mobilization, that is ginning up excitement among loyal supporters to make sure they feel compelled to show up at the polls, or persuasion, or trying to convince swing voters. For promoting support of Israel, there is a similar choice between whipping up passions on the side that of the domestic debate that currently is more favorable to Israel or directing arguments to the side that is less supportive. Bringing these options to mind are two recent articles linking the recent Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to discourse about Israel, one by Melanie Phillips and one by Caroline Glick.

Both of those articles are examples mobilization. Both take as a given that there was no substance to the accusations against Kavanaugh and thereby compare the media's treatment of Israel to the left-wing conspiracy against Kavanaugh. Earth to supporters of Israel, how many people who engage in the necessary motivated reasoning to dismiss the charges against Kavanaugh without a bona fide investigation are there who do not already support Israel? If there are not that many, what is there to gain by canonizing Kavanaugh?

On the flip slide, how many people are there who see the whole process as steamrolling Kavanaugh through who are not solid supporters of Israel? Does declaring Israel as innocent as Kavanaugh help endear Israel to such people? A persuasion approach would take an opposite reading of the Kavanaugh confirmation process. I'll give two examples.

Following a hamstrung investigation that explicitly limited who could be interviewed, the FBI failed to find any corroboration of Dr. Blasey Ford's allegations. Similarly, following a hamstrung inspection that allowed Iran to declare certain sites off limits, the IAEA failed to find any violations of the JCPOA.

During the pre-hearings stage of the confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh gave Sen. Susan Collins that he accepts Roe v. Wade as settled law. Similarly, there is a widely held narrative that while Hamas and Islamic Jihad reject Israel's right to exist and are committed to terror, Fatah recognizes Israel and have renounced terrorism. This narrative is held solely on the basis of Yasser Arafat having said so in the 1990's and Mahmoud Abbas repeating that assertion.

If you want to convince America's liberals to support Israel, instead of justifying the steamrolling of Kavanaugh's confirmation, ask those who view the FBI investigation that failed to confirm the allegations (as opposed affirmatively finding anything exculpatory) as a sham and who excoriate Collins for her willful blindness to Kavanaugh's ruse, why do they take the IAEA's certification of Iran's compliance with the JCPOA and Fatah's recognition of Israel/renunciation of terror at face value?