tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post6139171391530507490..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: Of Santorum and CamembertPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-49175206813048385782012-01-11T00:13:25.434-05:002012-01-11T00:13:25.434-05:00PG,
"he's not setting up Jews as somehow...PG,<br /><br />"he's not setting up Jews as somehow opposed to LGBT rights or otherwise bigoted."<br /><br />I don't quite agree, because why else is he bringing the existence of - forget Israel for the time being - LGBT American Jews? Why, if not to suggest that the Republican's implied Jewish constituency is somehow diminished by LGBT numbers that include - and why wouldn't they? - Jews.<br /><br />But the Israel remark is more than "clumsy." His point is that there are enough LGBT folks out there for the LGBT vote to count. He's suggesting not only that Jews care about Israel with the same intensity as gays do about SSM, but also that Jews care about Israel <i>in such a way as to like Republicans' stance on Israel, and to vote accordingly</i>. <br /><br />And I don't think there's much danger of Jews voting Republican en masse. For one thing, among moderates, there's been a lot of 'I supported the Iraq war initially but am so over that.' I can't imagine more Jews voting Republican now than in that post-9/11 moment. <br /><br />For another, the more heavily Republicans lay on the I'm-the-most-Christian-no-I-am stuff, the more Jews are going to vote Democrat. It's important to remember that even if we're just looking at the ways Jewish voters vote <i>as Jews</i>, and not at other issues voters who happen to be Jewish care about, Israel's not everything.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-43257697785955619272012-01-11T00:02:25.803-05:002012-01-11T00:02:25.803-05:00While I take your general and previously-noted poi...While I take your general and previously-noted point about how it's rhetorically questionable to always be dragging Jews into debates that have nothing to do with them, I think Savage's intent with the comparisons to the population of Israel, of American Jews and of American Mormons was clear in the next paragraph after your quoted grafs:<br />'LGBT Americans, in short, are not "too small in number", or too insignificant a portion of the American electorate, to be equal under the law – or to be taken seriously as a political force. There may "only" be 9 million of us, if the Williams Institute got it right, but here's a fun fact: Barack Obama beat John McCain in 2008 by 9,000,000 votes and change.'<br /><br />The reference to the population of Israel was clumsy, but he's not setting up Jews as somehow opposed to LGBT rights or otherwise bigoted. He's instead saying that if there are enough Mormons to fund Romney and enough Jews to influence one's speeches about Israel, then there are more than enough LGBT folks for Republicans to be cautious about using them as a punching bag.<br /><br />As for how Jewish Americans will vote, I hope you're right and think you probably are, but I certainly encounter Jewish opponents of Obama on a frequent basis who gloat over how their community is turning against him.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.com