Why Do My Jewish Brethren Vote liberal?
       By Dr. David M. Berman                                                                     www.wakeupandsmellthetruth.com
I have always found it interesting to discover the reactions that people have to circumstances.  As one who knows all too well the power of the human condition, I understand that rational thinking is often trumped by an over taxing of the emotions.  Fear, past experiences, and a failure to rationally think about a situation often causes a reaction that is in effect contrary to what is best.  Our modern culture in particular has become emotionally based with little to place our feet on.  This move from reason and thoughtful examination of history to a politically correct emotionalism has caused us to lose our way. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
History is replete with examples of oppression however in this piece I wish to examine my people. I am in no way saying that other groups have not suffered persecution however this article is not about other groups. This article is about the Jews. I find the history of the Jews to be extremely interesting. I know you are saying "of course you do, you are a Jew". Well yes that is true and has strong barring on my interest and yet that is not the only reason.
Let's look at just a bit of this interesting study.
1)   No people group in the history of the world have been scattered with a loss of language, and then 2000 years later regained their nation and language again. This has never happened before and the odds against it were astounding.
2)   I can think of no other people group that has been persecuted more over the two thousand years of their displacement from their land.
3)   No other group with such small numbers has been the object of so much negative attention and blame throughout history.
4)   400 years of slavery in Egypt.
5)   Conquered by foreign forces during most on the Inter Testament period. (approximately 400 B.C. – 70 A.D)
6)   The attempt to totally erase the Jews from the world by the Nazis.
7)   All this and yet Jews not only survived but have often thrived in the midst of the hatred that seems to permeate almost the entire gentile world.
8)   Interestingly, in modern history the Jews have tended to gravitate to promoting the establishment of more centralized power.
Jews began to become politically active in Europe in the mid to late 1800's in an attempt to establish protection of the Jewish people through those political actions. Many Jewish people worked hard to own businesses and thrive as active members of European societies. We all know how Hitler used their success as a wedge to create the same old hatred that they experienced in other Nations (I.e. Spain, France etc.) Jewish people were once again the scape-goats for the problems of a European nation. Most people do not know that Martin Luther, the main figure of the Protestant Reformation hated the Jews. Here are just two examples of how he expressed that hate when speaking of the Jewish people with the following vitriol;
"If however we are afraid that they might harm us personally, or our wives, children, servants, cattle etc., then let us apply the same cleverness as other nations, such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., and settle with them for that which they have extorted from us, and having divided up fairly let us drive them out of the country for all time"
"To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains. If this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free from this insufferable devilish burden –the Jews" (Source of quotes. Final Dawn over Jerusalem, Hagee, Nelson publishing,1998, page 56)
I am never going to understand the stupidity of his remarks since he claimed to follow and worship Jesus. Someone should have given him a News flash, Jesus was a Jew. (Although only God knows, I am not sure how Martin Luther could be considered a Christian with those views but that's another article) Martin Luther's sick words were used by Hitler and served to strengthen his claim that Jews were less than human and the cause of all the problems in Germany. This led to more central power for the Nazis and we all know what happened in those concentration camps. There were indescribable atrocities committed against the Jewish people as they were forsaken by the rest of the world. Although America and its allies freed the remaining Jews, no one would suggest that America or its allies entered the war for the expressed purpose of freeing them. Let's face it, no government cared about what was happening to the Jews.
When many Jews immigrated to the United States of America in the mid and late 1800's, they established political news papers. Many Jews became active in the American society and quite successful in business and the professional world. There was plenty of discrimination here with Jews not allowed to join organizations, overlooked for jobs, and generally treated as many other minorities. Jews were doing business with each other. They worked hard to overcome the prejudice by standing together.
What does all this have to do with the title of this article? It has everything to do with it. It is not hard to understand that people when pushed over and over will begin to push back. When people are persecuted they begin to demand justice. Sometimes the way of thinking is wrong even if the reason for thinking that way comes from understandable circumstances. When the Jewish people began to make headway in American society, they fought for protection in the Law.  I understand it personally. I grew up in the late 1960's and early 1970's. I remember having to physically fight regularly against those who hated me simply because I am a Jew. I remember anti –Jewish slogans were painted on the Synagogue I attended as a kid.  I remember the slurs hurled at me for the first 16 years of my life. I remember being 16 years old and having all my tires slashed because I am a Jew.  Having said that, just because something is understandable does not automatically make it fruitful. By putting faith in big  government to protect us we make a grave historical error.  Socialism (whose ultimate aim is more and more central power) promises to defend the individual by giving power to the central government. Liberalism is just that. It is the idea that central government will protect the individual from discrimination and hardship. It is not hard to understand why a group of people who have been so mistreated throughout the last 2000 years and before would react instead of examine rationally what history teaches.
Many Jewish people have bought the lie that more government will make us safer from the terrible acts of the past against us. The facts of history teach something quite different. The fact is that it has never been individuals who have had enough power to impose tyranny over any people group. Individuals have power to affect other individuals but do not have the power to affect an entire people group without big centralized power. History teaches us that the only way for there to be enough power to bring about tyranny is for there to be big intrusive centralized government. The reason so many (not all) of my Jewish brethren are liberal is because they do not understand that it has been central powers in government that have caused the most death, destruction, and pillage of their property. Hitler took away the guns from the Jews. Why would any Jew want only the government to have the guns as Germany did? Have we forgotten that "Nazi" stands for "National Socialist?" Hitler then took away their political positions. He continued to take away their voices from the press and other societal institutions until all the power was centralized. Many of my people do not understand that liberalism leads to central government power and central government power has always been the Jew's enemy!
Why would any Jewish person believe that the government should be bigger and waste more of our hard earned money? Why would we want to support higher taxes when the history of our own country speaks of the absurdity of trusting central power fiscal policies? Taxes collected for anything more than the most basic functions of government as limited by Constitutional restraints, it nothing less that extortion. It is the illegal confiscation of that which belongs to the individual. Although cloaked in the picture of the greater good, there is no difference between the government confiscation of what the Constitution does not allow, and the common thief who takes what is not his.
The truth is that you can enshrine a law in a document all day and at the end have the central power completely forsake those laws. When we Jews give our power to the central government we are trusting what has been showed throughout history to be our worst adversary. The Soviet Union had all kinds of "rights" enshrined in its "constitution" but what power was that to the individual? With all the "laws" of said document establishing "rights", were any taken seriously? The answer is no! What could then be done about it? Nothing could be done for 70 years of pain and tyrannical trampling on those "rights" that were infringed upon with no recourse. Remember the Soviet citizens had no guns to fight.
With the history of tyranny by central governments, With all the killing of Jews by governments, With all the governments in the world today that hate Israel, with all the blame for the world's problems being put on the Jews by governments, why, I ask my liberal Jewish brethren why do you continue to push for more liberal, socialist, centralized government? I know our history. I know firsthand the persecution, and I know that the founders of America understood the terror of big, expansive government.  The reason most Jews vote liberal is because most Jews have not thought out what history so powerfully exposes. If any people group should want small government and individual liberty, it should be the Jews. If any people should believe in true conservative principles, it logically should be the Jews.  There are more conservative Jews now than there has been but still Jews as a group tend to vote liberal. I hope that changes because the truth is that central power corrupts and protects its own interests. If central power is then threatened, it will not remember who gave it all that power. It will do what is necessary to hold on to its oppressive grip no matter what the expense to individual liberty.  That is the lesson of human nature and history that broadcasts to our eyes and screams in our ears. Empty promises of socialist Utopia have failed and yet many are blocked by blinders and ear plugs. The next time you hear Michael Moore and Hillary Clinton speak about centralized healthcare power, or John Edwards, and Barak Obama speak about expanding government please remember that history repeats itself. The next time you hear a liberal Republican speak of a "big tent", remember that is code for more failed compromise of the founding principles of this great nation. If you want to live in freedom and pass that freedom on to your children, vote small government, vote individual constitutional liberty. Vote Conservative.