Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I've just had "that conversation" for the umpteenth time with an employee here (not for the umpteenth time with this particular person, just the umpteenth time overall), regarding, now the results, of the election:
1. Isn't George Bush just the worst president ever? I mean, everyone thinks so.
2. How can you love George Bush anyway?
3. The economy is terrible. Everyone has lost all their money!
And I patiently explained, for the umpteenth time, that:
1. Mr. Bush was not running in this election, Mr. McCain was.
2. Mr. Bush is not the worst president evah. It doesn't matter what "everyone" thinks, there is opinion and there are facts, and I don't have to "love" George Bush not to like the alternatives less.
3. The idea that George Bush or even the Republicans generally are responsible for the stock or oil prices is astounding, especially in light of the fact that it's actually the other party that is, by and large, responsible for these massive fluctuations.
4. Too many people believe in the magical ability of the president to dictate these things. He has little to do with it. The market works if we let it work, as currently low gas prices indicate. Non-hysterical reaction to market fluctuations will allow the market to come back up to where it should be -- or we can over-tinker again and it will take much longer to come back and never come back the same way again. That's why it does matter who got voted in.
Anyway...
There's no question that the election of a Black man to the Presidency is exciting and will affect the American political dynamic in unpredictable and interesting ways. Some of us are unable to share in the same sort of excitement that Obama's supporters are experiencing, because Obama comes from the African-American leftist political tradition which many of us believe is so damaging to our nation. A Black man from the right or even the center would have really stirred the pot in unexpected and truly inspiring ways. That didn't happen.
At least he is not a Jesse Jackson. Obama is a political Zelig, and though his stated positions, and those of his party, are truly disturbing, it remains to be seen how political reality affects his specific direction. One thing is for sure, the pressure is going to have to be kept on the press not to give him a pass, and the right is going to have to work even harder on getting a coherent message out through other means. We all have to be careful about the lessons we take. At the risk of sour grapes let's not forget that there are a lot of people who remember how crass Obama's campaign has been (ACORN, etc...). Hard-nosed electioneering is only one part of success. It's important, but insufficient.
The Rorschach test of morning-after analysis will need to be taken with a grain of salt. Political conservatives will insist that the problem was McCain's inability to speak in the voice of "true conservatism" and pander too much to an ungrateful left. Others will blame the Palin selection (I don't). Others will blame the media, etc... Only one thing is for sure, a serious self-examination is in order, and a nimble enough strategy that can account for the unseen political terrain of the next four years that adapts as necessary will be essential.
It's not at all clear to me that any of the Republican candidates would have ended up with a different result last night. The stars were simply aligned for this, as I have been saying for months, as friends insisted that the nation would never elect a person this far to the left, and I just said, "Well, I hope you're right." So take solace in that if it helps.
This is just depressing. Jews voted in greater numbers for Obama than they did for John Kerry (at least it looks that way at this point). Jews have always supported the political aspirations of African Americans in great numbers, and with decreasing reciprocation. That's never seemed to matter. As for me, I won't be forgetting the establishment's craven partisan behavior any time soon.
Hey, at least we can expect our movies to get better.
What do you mean "decreasing reciprocation?" Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farakkan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton...they've always demonstrated their solidarity, right?
With decreasing reciprocation. Sounds profound, except that when push comes to shove, things don't always turn out that way. Just ask Steve Cohen, who won handily in a predominantly African-American district against an African-American opponent who ran a mudslinging campaign. That was an important moment, because it showed that things have moved far enough that African-Americans are willing to elect a white, Jewish guy over another African-American if they think he's the better candidate.
Things have changed, you know.
Look, my point is that this country desperately needs a decent conservative party. For the good of the country, we need a sensible, reputable, convincing, informed, judicious, credible, and grown-up conservative party.
I mean, look at what the Democrats were reduced to after the election in 2000! They had awful Michael Moore movies stoking conspiracies about stolen elections and secret flights for Saudis. They had no shot at winning until they dumped all that, and in the interim, we had Republicans believing they were electorally invulnerable. Look at the disaster that thinking led to! It's an instructive example. The Obama campaign learned from all of this. Whatever your opinions of the man or his policy positions, his was the most disciplined and smoothly run operation in modern political history.
If the conservative party doesn't ditch the politics of conspiracy mongering (the Corner at the National Review is strewn with claims of birth certificates and even claims that Bill Ayers secretly wrote Obama's memoir--no joking!), name-calling, resentment, anti-elitism, and know-nothing-ism, and fast, they're going to continue to stay out of power, and the Democrats are going to lose their fear. And without that fear, the Democrats are not going to feel accountable, and they're going to do a lousy job.
Now, if the goal is just to get the Democrats voted out, in any way possible, then maybe that's what you all want. But if patriotism really motivates you, then you can't let that happen. You need to do your part, small though it may be, to help conservatives reform themselves and turn their party into a credible alternative again, both for the sake of the party itself, and so that, in the interim while the conservatives are waiting for the next election, the Democrats are motivated by fear for their livelihoods do a decent job and keep the country healthy and safe. (And maybe even make it healthier and safer.) Heaven forbid the Democrats should be in power for at least the next two years without any fear that they'll be held accountable for anything!
So hold the Democrats accountable. Keep track of their mistakes and foibles and missteps. Establish a record, and do your small part to hold them accountable. But only the legitimate stuff. Encourage your compatriots not to devolve into conspiracy-mongering, fear-induction, and name-calling.
You know full well that it's the patriotic thing to do.
Matt as a Jew, and by the way a Democrat, I'm a lot more concerned about the behavior of us Jews and our tendency to display little sense of reason or logic in our quest for self preservation.
As far as your example of "how far things have moved" in African American/Jewish relations... one exception certainly does not make a rule.
I'm a Jew, too. And who's more sensible than us? Jews, almost entirely on their own, built a whole new country, a thriving democracy in the same decade as they suffered the worst genocide in modern history, and their nation has defeated multiple attempts at post-Holocaust genocides against the Jewish people. Who in the world understands better their quest for self-preservation? What other people has done it better? I think our track record is one of the best out there.
Just because 77% of American Jews disagreed with you (and the percentage was high even for older Jews who remember those years long ago) doesn't mean they don't have sense or reason or logic, or don't comprehend the gravity of the situation. Please don't be so patronizing and condescending. They all know what you know about Obama and all the trash that's out there about him.
It could be, just maybe--and I know that this is an infinitesimal possibility--that you are the one who is incorrect. (I know, it's impossible to fathom!)
As for one event indicating that the ethnic dynamics in America have changed, well, you're obviously correct. It could just be the exception that proves the rule. But just because things are changing slowly, gradually, doesn't mean that we're in just as bad a place as we were two decades ago.
And what you all have to understand is that Obama is an African-American politician who came of age politically in the Chicago Jewish community. The power brokers and his mentors were Jews, like Lester Crown and Penny Pritzker and Abner Mikva and David Axelrod. He couldn't get elected in the beginning because everyone thought he was too close to the Jews. And now his chief of staff will likely be a Hebrew-speaking son of an Israeli Irgun member. Between David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Robert Rubin, Paul Volcker, Lawrence Summers, Jeff Liebman, Dennis Ross, Anthony Lake, Daniel Kurtzer, and Dan Shapiro, this may well be the most Jewish White House in American History!
That's a pretty stunning thing.
The its-not-so-bad 80% of American Jews who were not bothered by Obama's 20-year membership in an anti-Semitic organization would have made good its-not-so-bad Warsaw ghetto Jews [Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ and the United Church of Christ, UCC, denomination].
New York's 9thCD had the lowest turnout in NY, only 111,000 people voted. That is at least 200,000 Jews who stayed home.
The ADL probably made sure the exit polls came out so that no one could blame the Jews for not supporting the Democrat by having the exit polls taken where the liberal Jews live.