Blame it on the Jews

Blaming it on the Jews is not a new strategy for politicians.

In Pirkei Avot, an important component of the Mishna, itself part of the interpretive work known as the Talmud, the Sages advise not to trust a ruling power, “They will befriend you when they need you, but they will turn their back on you when they don’t.”

Recently, Presidential Candidate Donald Trump stated that if he lost the election, it would be the fault of the Jews who tend to vote more for the Democrats than the Republicans. Trump predicted that 60% of Jews would vote for Democrats.

Let’s just get some facts straight.

The population of the United States in 2022 was 333.3 million and as of 2024, is said to be 345,849,331.

The Jewish population in the United States is estimated to be approximately 7.5 million people, 2.4% of the total US population. This estimate includes 5.8 million adults. Probably the number of Jews who vote, and Jews do have a high margin of voting, would be something like 4 million, at most.

Approximately 66% of the voter eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election. That was a high rate.

There is no doubt that if 100,000 Jews vote for one party as opposed to another, they could affect the result. However, the diversity of the United States means that dozens of different groups could affect the election.

Not every ethnic and religious group vote as a block, and the Jews are no different.  According to Pew Research Center, the United States is made up of Buddhist, Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, Hindu, Black Protestant, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish, mainline Protestant, Mormon, Muslim, Orthodox Christian, and then Pew goes into racial groups such as Asian, Latino, Mixed, and well, you get it.

Any one of those groups can change the election result.

Why do politicians, whether it be Donald Trump or Vice President Harris, have an obsession with the Jewish vote, telling stories, lies, and misrepresentations that would make a used car salesman blush?

Both candidates eagerly play the “identification card.” People in every country, in all lands, and throughout the world tend to identify with a group, religion, tribe, family, philosophy, or spiritual reckoning. Psychologists, sociologists, and people who write advertisements for politicians, understand that if people identify with a particular group, culture, or society, they tend to stay with that herd.

Ever watch a herd of deer? If one deer starts to run, usually all the others do as well.  Politicians and others hungry for power become experts at using fear to herd the votes that provide them power in a democracy.

I remember one time being involved in some election campaigns. They were relatively “low level” as far as politics go. One was for a state office holder and the other was for a Congressman. In both scenarios, the amount of negative advertising money was close to, equal, and sometimes in excess of the “positive” money. I refused to take part in the negative advertising, and I only worked on the “positive.”  However, it was quite clear that negative advertising, even with respect to the most honorable politician, is a narcotic drug that politicians could not stop taking. Their handlers, those who provided them the money, the organizers in Harrisburg or Washington, demanded and insisted upon the value of negative advertising and fearmongering. I saw it firsthand.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have attempted to instill fear in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people. Donald Trump has threatened Jews that if he loses it will be their fault and that if he is not president, Israel will be destroyed within two years. The Democrats, for their part, have a more subtle approach. They make the argument that Jews, Blacks, and other minorities owe their vote to the Democrats.  The Jews are told, by the Democratic Party, that they will assure a cease fire in the Middle East, and that somehow (we don’t know how) they will prevent Israel from being repeatedly attacked by terrorist states in the regions such as Gaza, Yemen, and Iran. We do not know how that will happen, just as we do not know how Donald Trump would deliver on  his promises to somehow create peace, harmony, and love throughout the Middle East.

Neither politician have their respective feet held to the fire when it comes to factual accuracy or promises.

As many people like to say, we are faced with a lousy choice between presidential candidates. However, that is not particularly unusual. The best and the brightest do not wind up being our candidates. Perhaps the problem is the primary voters who are both manipulated and in turn manipulate. We tend to vote for the person who makes the biggest promises, the most outrageous commitments, and the least doable agenda. We are easily scammed by the used car salesmen who neglects to tell us that the odometer has been replaced or sawdust placed in the transmission.

Trump’s threat to the Jewish people, and not so incidentally to the State of Israel, is both disgusting and smells of classic, ancient antisemitism. The Obama, Harris approach to Israel and the Jewish people, taking their vote for granted, and suggesting a solution to Middle East problems which would empower terrorists is equally dangerous. What is a Jewish voter to do? The answer is, not be owned by anyone. There are great people in the Democratic Party like our very own John Fetterman and marvelous Republicans such as Lindsey Graham.

It is the job of the Jewish people, and every voter, to inform themselves, to avoid factual inaccuracies and to vote our conscience. While I, along with many others, have given some thought to not voting at all or writing in somebody, I will do what I have done in the past which is to hold my nose and vote.

The choices in this election, like many others in the past, are not easy or palatable but at least we have some choice. We should not waste the opportunity to preserve our democratic alternatives.