Jewish voters waking up to GOP’s appeal

Election Day 1984 is regarded as a historic moment in my family. It’s the day my grandmother of blessed memory, Ida Miller, went into the voting booth with my father and told him in Yiddish to cast her vote for Ronald Reagan.

My father was stunned, to say the least. He asked his mother, a lifelong Chicago Democrat who voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt four times and like so many Jewish immigrants, was loyal to the Party of FDR, “Why did you vote for Reagan?”  She responded, “This is not the Democrat Party of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. This is not the Democratic Party I came of age with. ”

{mosads}Grandma Ida was certainly ahead of her time. Thirty years later, Jewish voters still primarily vote Democratic, but the party is no longer the heir to FDR and JFK. The ideals of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson dominate the modern day party. Even though the majority of American Jewry is still in denial, 21^st century elections reveal more Jewish voters are no longer blindly voting for the “D” next to the name on the ballot.

Election Night 2014 will go down as one of the worst moments in Democrat Party history.  By the time the final votes and runoffs are completed, the GOP will control 53 or 54 U.S. Senate seats and President Obama will continue to display his disconnect from reality, refusing to believe that his policies are being overwhelmingly rejected by the American people.

And its reality that is driving more Jews to the GOP.

A poll released after Election Day, sponsored by the far-left political action committee J Street, revealed that Israel is still an important issue to American Jews and favorability for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is higher than President Obama.

Two intriguing numbers that undoubtedly impacted how Jews cast their ballots on Election Day is that 57 percent surveyed said the country is on the “wrong track.” 80 percent of voters polled supported Israel in this summer’s war with Hamas, “Operation Protective Edge.”

During the 50-day escalation, the Obama administration harshly criticized the Jewish State at what seemed like every opportunity. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki often sounded as if she was on Hamas’ payroll, and the administration’s decisions to stop flights into Tel Aviv and to delay delivery of defense weapons further alienated Jews, many of whom had voted twice for Obama.

Compared to the White House, Congressional Democrats and Party leaders undoubtedly offered more public support for Israel during the conflict; but very few were willing to criticize the administration. That might have made the difference in areas such as Illinois 10^th, where Republican Bob Dold defeated Democrat Brad Schneider in this heavily Jewish and pro-Israel district.

But just like the rest of the country, the economy and health care were the most pressing issues for Jewish voters.  Of all those sampled in the J Street poll, 75 percent said those were their top issues, respectively.

There are jokes that I won’t repeat that allude to Jews tending to vote against their best interests. This is the result of more secular and Reform Jews corrupting the meaning of Tikun Olam (repair of the world). Under the mantra of “social justice” Jews today regard supporting the big government social programs of the Democrat party as the right thing to do. But six years of growing government, increased poverty and the creation of a dependent class, have resulted in many Jews discovering they are causing more harm than good.

The irony of this “pro-progressive, not pro-Israel” J Street is that its very own survey demonstrates that Jewish support for Democrats has dwindled below 70 percent.  Having no love for Republications, it’s safe to say that J Street’s results will be a best-case scenario for Democrats. Additional polls show Jewish support for the GOP climbing to near 35 percent. Not since 1988 has the GOP been this popular among American Jewry.

With Mitt Romney receiving 30 percent of the Jewish vote in 2012 and John McCain and George W. Bush garnering well over 20 percent in their last presidential campaigns, it is indisputable that more Jews are consistently supporting Republicans; and that will impact voting patterns in urban areas in which Democrats have traditionally relied upon Jewish and African American support to combat big GOP gains elsewhere.

With African American unemployment and poverty at deplorable levels, it’s only a matter of time before they start taking off the blinders and reconsider the “R” next to the name on the ballot.

Miller is an op-ed contributor to the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. He serves as principal of Pauliegroup LLC, a Chicago-based new-media and political consulting firm.