- Banned
- #1
Education, social responsibility and science are why American Jews will not vote republicans and will vote with other minorities
While Jews represent just 2 percent of the American population, surveys indicate that more than 90 percent of Jews who are registered to vote make it to the polls, compared to 74 percent of all Americans. Additionally, in 2013, 70 percent of U.S. Jews were living in New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania—states whose combined 167 electoral votes make up more than half of the 270 electoral votes a presidential candidate needs to win the election.
Why do Jews vote overwhelmingly Democratic?
Ahead of Passover, Dr. Leonard Saxe—director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, both at Brandeis University—cites the holiday as the orienting story of Judaism that explains the Jewish voting mentality.
Jews, Saxe told JNS.org, “have always been a group concerned about the general social welfare, because we were the objects of discrimination and prejudice, the target of the horrific actions of the Nazis. We’ve always been social-liberal and that’s been associated in this country with the Democratic Party.”
Sheskin argued that the Republican Party has shifted a great deal to the right over the last 20 years. He said it used to be “possible to be kind of liberal on issues like birth control and abortion, and the death penalty, and then be conservative on economics and be a Republican. It is very difficult to do that today.”
Another reason Jews lean Democrat, he said, is that they “are very pro-science.” For example, many Jews support the scientific consensus on climate change and may dislike when Republican candidates commonly deflect that issue on the grounds that they aren’t scientists.
Demographics and decisions: projecting the Jewish vote in 2016
While Jews represent just 2 percent of the American population, surveys indicate that more than 90 percent of Jews who are registered to vote make it to the polls, compared to 74 percent of all Americans. Additionally, in 2013, 70 percent of U.S. Jews were living in New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania—states whose combined 167 electoral votes make up more than half of the 270 electoral votes a presidential candidate needs to win the election.
Why do Jews vote overwhelmingly Democratic?
Ahead of Passover, Dr. Leonard Saxe—director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, both at Brandeis University—cites the holiday as the orienting story of Judaism that explains the Jewish voting mentality.
Jews, Saxe told JNS.org, “have always been a group concerned about the general social welfare, because we were the objects of discrimination and prejudice, the target of the horrific actions of the Nazis. We’ve always been social-liberal and that’s been associated in this country with the Democratic Party.”
Sheskin argued that the Republican Party has shifted a great deal to the right over the last 20 years. He said it used to be “possible to be kind of liberal on issues like birth control and abortion, and the death penalty, and then be conservative on economics and be a Republican. It is very difficult to do that today.”
Another reason Jews lean Democrat, he said, is that they “are very pro-science.” For example, many Jews support the scientific consensus on climate change and may dislike when Republican candidates commonly deflect that issue on the grounds that they aren’t scientists.
Demographics and decisions: projecting the Jewish vote in 2016
, Ain't gonna happen..
