What's wrong with the world

[james_davis_nicoll]

Commies. Definitely Commies.

Comments

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

It's not my group, but my sense is that reflex support of Israel has almost no impact on the votes of American Jews younger than forty. Those who vote Republican would vote Republican anyway; those who vote Democratic would vote Democratic anyway.

By the same factor, though, it would take a lot of open anti-Semitism to make Republican Jews under forty shift their vote. But that would be 2% * (1/4) Jewish Republican * (1/3) under-40 Republicans ~ 0.2% of the voting public, and to the extent that they're geographically concentrated, they're completely overwhelmed by Democratic Latina women, to choose a not-entirely random example.

So there won't be much of an internal check to the slow bubbling up of money-grubbing Christ-killer rhetoric. I saw a dedicated mainline Protestant Republican from a Southern state that went blue make an half-step beyond questionable anti-Semitic Soros joke on the FB.

But I guess it's not really anti-Semitic if you don't use the word "kike."

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think the post-9/11 distortion of American politics gave reflex support of Israel and foreign-policy neoconservatism some extra life. I also think that distortion is getting close to its sell-by date, though obviously Americans weren't pacifists or anti-imperialists to begin with and aren't going to become such now.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

I've been watching Turkey ease into the role of local Great Power again. Turkey has three times the GDP as Israel on what's looking like a transition curve -- per capita, it's roughly where Israel was in the 1970s. Turkey spends 2% of its GDP on the military. Israel spends 7%.

Don't have to be a genius to figure that one out.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness from Israel's point of view that Israel and Turkey have generally been amicable and that there are no inherent reasons Israel should want to piss Turkey off. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Turkey_relations#2010_Gaza_flotilla_raid)

[avram]

I doubt any national-level Republican politicians care much about Jewish votes, but they do care about wealthy Jewish political contributors.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Not named George Soros.