The Jewish press can’t stop running anti-Trump pieces. The latest fashion is to get them from concern trolls all worried about the well-being of the Republican party.
Yishai Schwartz, a student at Yale Law School:
Many Jewish conservatives are adrift, impotent and uneasy. Their intense opposition to Trump is not only based on policy but also the anti-intellectual, vulgar and angry culture he represents.
For many of conservatism’s most prominent Jews, the choice is already made. Over the last months, some of Trump’s most vocal and vociferous Republican opposition has come from Jewish figures. Writing in Commentary, Max Boot has labeled him “the single biggest threat to U.S. security” and announced that he “would sooner vote for Josef Stalin.” In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens compared Trump to Mussolini and denounced those who reconcile themselves with him as “appalling” and lacking “mental maturity.” The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol’s Twitter feed has featured a storm of anti-Trump pronouncements that is positively Churchillian. Even the cautious and unflappable Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs and the GOP’s brightest intellectual, announced he “would never vote for Trump.” Instead, he is praying that “a serious conservative alternative emerges and makes it onto the ballot around the country.”
Over the course of the primary campaign, Trump made significant inroads into nearly every pocket of the Republican primary electorate. Despite his ideological fluidity and his playboy lifestyle, he won support from tea partiers, evangelicals, conservatives and moderates alike. Jews however, have remained — with near unanimity — implacably opposed.
There is, of course, one notable breach in this wall: Sheldon Adelson. Already months ago, Adelson signalled he could support Trump if he became the nominee. In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, Adelson and some of his associates — including Ari Fleischer — seem resigned to doing just that. But the contemptuous response they have elicited, and the eccentric magnate’s biographical similarity to Trump, simply highlight that Sheldon-land is the exception that proves the rule.
So what explains Jewish Republicans unyielding, overwhelming antipathy to the GOP’s presumptive nominee? In part, it is a matter of policy. The Jewish community’s leading conservatives are overwhelmingly foreign policy hawks. Many gravitated to the Republican Party inspired by Reagan’s confrontational stand against Communism. And many stayed because of the modern GOP’s continued commitment to American global leadership, a morally-grounded internationalism, and strong support for Israel. This is not the diplomatic vision of Donald J. Trump.
But the special opposition of Jews goes deeper than policy. Trump is not an ideological candidate; he is a cultural phenomenon. And the culture he represents — anti-intellectual, vulgar and angry — is not a Jewish one.
Jews are relative late-comers to the Republican Party. It was not until the 1960s, with William F. Buckley’s purge of the anti-Semitic Birchers, that the GOP could become a conceivable political home for even a significant minority of American Jews. Those who swung right during this era — including, most famously, many so-called “neo-conservatives” — were political converts; but they were never cultural assimilators. So Jews have, somewhat awkwardly, tried to find their place among wealthy Mayflower patricians, evangelicals and Second Amendment activists. But the coalition has always been a strange one, and I wonder whether Jews have ever felt fully at home. In a campaign that is about identity instead of policy, Jewish conservatives are left adrift and uneasy.
That unease is compounded by Trump’s independence. This nominee has burst onto the political stage fully formed. He is beholden to no one, and has no record to which he can be held. To a community that counts on its relationships with those in power, this is particularly disconcerting.
It is a feature of our political system that institutional leaders and prominent donors spend years educating and feeling out candidates on the issues that matter to them most. By the time politicians reach real power, interest groups know who they are, where they stand, and to whom they turn for advice and expertise. Within conservatism, those concerned with Israel and Jewish issues have been among the most successful at building such relationships.
The up-and-coming generation of conservative politicians — Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, and Ted Cruz, for instance — have each counted the support of prominent Jewish backers. But with Trump, the Republican Jewish establishment finds itself strangely impotent. The candidate does not need them…It is that public that, channeled by Trump, has stirred up old Jewish insecurity and fear. For at least a generation American Jews have happily buried their eternal feelings of political vulnerability. But Trump’s candidacy has unleashed a wave of aggressive populism that includes a non-trivial anti-Semitic element. As Jamie Kirchick, a younger Jewish conservative implacably opposed to Trump, has written: “He is the candidate of the mob, and the mob always ends up turning on the Jews.”
And we should also be proud. Jewish skepticism of the mob is not simply a product of self-interest. Jewish conservatives, no less than Jewish liberals, have adopted a politics of moral commitment born from the lessons of Jewish history. For the left, those commitments are to a certain vision of social justice; for many Jewish conservatives, it is to “never again.” We were all once strangers in the land of Egypt. For some, the lesson is to support Black Lives Matter; for others, it is to demand American intervention in the Syrian slaughter. But for none of us is the vulgar vilification of Muslims and Mexicans an acceptable method of political mobilization. For we have borne that burden too.
…The real focus will shift to protecting the core of the party whose values Jews can share. Energy and dollars that would have once been spent on the presidential campaign will flow to vulnerable long-time community allies, like John McCain and Mark Kirk. The struggle is no longer simply against Democrats, but to preserve an alternative vision of what the GOP should stand for. And despite the miracle of America, after millennia of diaspora, Jews are still experts of political triage. If the White House is already lost, perhaps the party can still be saved.
Here is the key phrase: “He is beholden to no one.” That’s what makes elites so uneasy. They are used to political candidates that they control. They do not control Donald Trump. He does not need their money. He does not seek their edifying education and guidance.
This election is about identity. Jewish identity is different from white gentile identity. Different peoples have different interests. That’s why Jews for 200 years have largely sided with the coalition of the fringe against the core. Donald Trump reflects America’s white gentile core.
This essay also mentions Jewish fears of populism. Jews have rarely been popular. They’ve relied upon alliances with elites to protect them from the mob. Yishai Schwartz is right that “Jewish skepticism of the mob is not simply a product of self-interest.” It is just 99% a product of self-interest. Neither the left-wing or right-wing concerns that the author mentions are part of Judaism’s concerns. They are simply tactical concerns of the various facets of organized Jewry.
As for the sentiment about saving the Republican party, saving it for whom? For the Jews? The Republican party should be the tool of Jews? If the Republican party should be saved for the preservation of universal human values or of conservative values, these sentiments are meaningless. There are no universal human values, unless you subscribe to a particular religion, and then those “universal human values” are simply the dictates of your particular religion.
“The Jewish community’s leading conservatives are overwhelmingly foreign policy hawks. Many gravitated to the Republican Party inspired by Reagan’s confrontational stand against Communism. And many stayed because of the modern GOP’s continued commitment to American global leadership, a morally-grounded internationalism, and strong support for Israel.”
Because Israel. That’s shorter, more truthful and more to the point. Because Israel.
“Trump is not an ideological candidate; he is a cultural phenomenon. And the culture he represents — anti-intellectual, vulgar and angry — is not a Jewish one.”
Because anti-intellectualism, vulgarity and anger are rare among Jews? Give me a break. The culture Trump represents that repels many Jews is gentile America, and yes, that is not a Jewish culture. The more you identify as a Jew, the more likely you are to find non-Jewish culture distasteful, even frightening just as the more you identify as a Christian or a Muslim, the more likely you are to find culture outside of that distasteful, even frightening.
This is basic social identity theory.
“Those who swung right during this era — including, most famously, many so-called “neo-conservatives” — were political converts; but they were never cultural assimilators.”
Yes, if a Jew assimilates, he ceases to be a Jew. As long as he identifies with his Judaism in any way, the Jew stands apart. He’s a stranger to his non-Jewish society. And not even angels like strangers.
“So Jews have, somewhat awkwardly, tried to find their place among wealthy Mayflower patricians, evangelicals and Second Amendment activists. But the coalition has always been a strange one, and I wonder whether Jews have ever felt fully at home.”
As long as you identify as a Jew, you will only feel at home in Jewish culture and religion. As long as a Muslim identifies as a Muslim, he won’t feel at home in the West. The West is largely the product of white gentiles of Christian origins.
“He is beholden to no one, and has no record to which he can be held. To a community that counts on its relationships with those in power, this is particularly disconcerting.”
Bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Jewish survival and prosperity has long depended upon cutting deals with the elites to protect Jews from the mob.
“For at least a generation American Jews have happily buried their eternal feelings of political vulnerability.”
Not really. If American Jews were so secure, why would they make the Holocaust their primary religion?
