J.J. Goldberg is my favorite left-wing intellectual. He makes an effort to understand different points of view and when he makes an argument, he usually treats the other side fairly. <\/p>\n
He writes in the Forward<\/a>:<\/p>\n We Americans aren\u2019t who we thought we were. That\u2019s why our presidential contest, like the rest of our politics, is so incoherent. We argue about jobs, immigration, abortion and guns. But those aren\u2019t really what\u2019s at stake. In reality we\u2019re fighting over the nature of American society, and our problem is that we\u2019ve become a nation of tribes. We know it, but we act, each of us, as though we\u2019re above it. As though our neighbors are savages, but we ourselves are high-minded Athenians. Alas, we\u2019re all tribesmen.<\/p>\n Our tribes are amalgamated into two great confederations, rather like the old Iroquois federation. Each side debates internally over issues, but unites around group loyalty. Each side thinks it represents the best of the nation and only the other side is a band of hunter-gatherers. It would be comical if it weren\u2019t so tragic.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s reached crisis level. And if it\u2019s a crisis for America, it\u2019s a double-bind for American Jews. Jews are a tribe among the tribes, but we\u2019ve planted our feet in both camps. It\u2019s an untenable position. It\u2019s tearing us apart as a community. And it could get worse.<\/p>\n For the past half-century, Republicans have been the party of white people. Democrats \u2014 who haven\u2019t won a majority of whites since 1964, and only once broke 45% \u2014 have become the party of minorities, bohemians, rebels and dreamers. Each party knows it about the other, but denies it in itself.<\/p>\n Democrats see Republicans as people who believe that we\u2019re not all the same, that difference is an innate human trait and that we should value solidarity with those who are like us. Republicans see Democrats as people who believe that everyone is basically the same under the skin, that we\u2019re all free to construct our identity and that we shouldn\u2019t favor those who seem most like us on the surface. These contrasting ways of understanding difference go a long way toward explaining why so many white voters are lining up behind Donald Trump. It also explains a lot about voting habits among Jews…<\/p>\n If my reading of the cultural difference between the tribes is correct, the Republican Party is the natural home for Orthodox Jews. It goes way beyond Israel. Belief in innate difference and tribal solidarity has deep roots in Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n By that token, non-Orthodox Jews belong in the Democratic Party. The idea that we\u2019re all the same under the skin is Jewish Americanism\u2019s foundational doctrine. But as the parties polarize and Democrats become more committed to minorities and dissenters, the place of Israel \u2014 and, increasingly, of Jews \u2014 becomes strained.<\/p>\n Democrats talk about their commitment to wages and workers, but in a crunch those issues nearly always take a back seat to race and gender. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" J.J. Goldberg is my favorite left-wing intellectual. He makes an effort to understand different points of view and when he makes an argument, he usually treats the other side fairly. He writes in the Forward: We Americans aren\u2019t who we … Continue reading