As John Tabin
points out, the Republican victory in New York’s 9th
congressional district suggests that the American Jewish
community’s love affair with Barack Obama might be over.
Commentary editor John Podhoretz, in fact, joked
on Twitter that in 2008, “hip young Jews took old Jews to the polls
to vote for Obama. Next year, they will be locking them in nursing
homes.”
And even though Jews account for less than 2 percent of the
overall U.S. population, this matters, Podhoretz
observes, because of Jews’ outsized influence in Democratic
Party politics.
“Democrats depend on Jewish givers for a wildly disproportionate
share of campaign funds,” he writes.
Even if Jewish disaffection nationally is less than in NY-9,
that would still be wildly harmful to the national party’s
interests. Tens of millions of dollars are at stake.
And the Jewish vote can make a difference in two key
swing stakes, Florida and Pennsylvania. Obama won both in 2008, but
is doing badly in recent polls. If he loses both, he loses the
election. Even if he loses just one, he probably goes down to
defeat as well.
Jews make up 4 percent of Florida’s population but probably
closer to 7 percent of the electorate (since they’re almost all of
voting age), and 2.3 percent of Pennsylvanians.
If, say, a third of the Jews who voted for Obama in either state
in 2008 decided to vote against him in 2012 — or not to vote at
all — that could be game, set and match for the president.
NY-9 also matters because it demonstrates the surprising
resilience of social and cultural conservatism. It suggests that,
despite tremendous (and often irresistible) cultural pressure,
America isn’t yet ready to abandon its Judeo-Christian heritage and
become just another declining secular Western country a la France
or Germany.
Indeed,
according to The Matzav Network, Weprin was defeated
for three reasons: the weak economy, Obama’s hostility to Israel,
and
third, the one that will get little if any play in the
mainstream media except frivolous debunking: The voters in NY-09
rejected David Weprin’s vote in favor of same-gender marriage. Yes,
yet again we see a reliably Democrat area rebel against Democrats
pushing same-gender gay marriage.
NY-9 is home to a significant number of politically engaged
religious or orthodox Jews for whom the institution of marriage
is fundamental and essential. And so, for them, Democrat David
Weprin’s vote to transform the institution of marriage in
accordance with modern-day notions of “fairness” and “equality” was
anathema.
“NOM played a major role in this election, helping to organize
the Jewish and Hispanic communities to coalesce with Republicans,
conservative and other pro-family voters,” explained Brian Brown,
president of the National Organizatin for Marriage (NOM).
We mounted the first and largest independent expenditure
campaign in the race to make marriage a key issue, and we
succeeded.
David Weprin is not going to Congress for one reason: He
listened to Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC) and a few billionaires on Wall Street, and went
along with them to redefine marriage.
Weprin foolishly believed them when they promised to protect him
from any fallout over his vote to redefine marriage… NOM is
responsible for defeating countless same-sex marriage advocates and
electing hundreds of candidates who have pledged their support for
traditional marriage…
Once again voters have said: ‘Don’t Mess With Marriage!’
