Rosen: "[S]o many Jews" are "merchants at the retail level and don't have ... a good grasp of the big economic picture"
Summary: Interviewing author David Paul Kuhn about his book, The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma, Newsradio 850 KOA's Mike Rosen asserted on September 27 that "so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have ... a good grasp of the big economic picture." On a previous broadcast, Rosen characterized Jews as having "a tendency toward pushiness and ostentatiousness."
In an interview with Politico senior political writer David Paul Kuhn on his September 27 Newsradio 850 KOA broadcast, Mike Rosen asserted that "so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have ... a good grasp of the big economic picture." As Colorado Media Matters has noted, on a previous broadcast Rosen asserted, "From a personality standpoint, it's probably fair to say Jews have a tendency toward pushiness and ostentatiousness." On yet another Rosen program, guest David Horowitz stated that Jews "went to the ovens" because of "psychological denial" ... "and that's the way I see the Democratic Party today."
Kuhn was discussing his book, The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2007). Rosen's characterization of Jews came in reply to a caller's question to him and Kuhn about "why it is that the Jewish population ... vote[s] for Democrats when the Democratic Party would let Israel slide off the face of the Earth." Rosen contrasted what he represented as Jews' general lack of a "good grasp of the big economic picture" to "exceptions like Milton Friedman," the late economist, whom Rosen called "one of my all-time heroes."
From the September 27 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:
ROSEN: Our guest is David Paul Kuhn. His book The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma. Let's take a couple of phone calls. In Littleton, [caller], you're on Newsradio 850 KOA. Hello, [caller].
CALLER: Hi.
ROSEN: Hi.
CALLER: Yeah, I'd like to ask you and the author why it is that the Jewish population -- 75 percent -- vote for Democrats when the Democratic Party would let Israel slide off the face of the Earth.
ROSEN: I've done hours on this topic. Go ahead, David.
KUHN: [Laughs] Well, I mean, we can -- it, in some sense requires hours, it's complicated. They don't -- obviously Jews have not voted just based on Israel for a long time because Israel, Israeli policy position on Palestine pre-World War II -- the United States and right after World War II -- was unclear and Jews were still voting heavily for FDR and sort of for Democrats then, and it reaches back to that. I think the answer to your question is, Jews -- in part it's demographic, in part it's cultural. Jews, you know, have always identified as sort of an -- as a minority, a cultural and literal minority. They, their values have always sort of identified with social justice now, and at the same time --
ROSEN: And social justice from a very leftist perspective.
KUHN: From the left, absolutely.
ROSEN: Jews were, were at the heart of the labor movement. Think of Emma Goldman and people like that. Karl Marx, for example, was Jewish.
KUHN: And the civil rights movement. I mean, so I don't want to put in purely -- there's certain movements that we now commend beyond party politics. I mean, I don't want to -- but you're right. And so, I think you could argue that, as with many would argue -- anyone who's liberal -- sometimes it had really good manifestations, sometimes it had pernicious and bad manifestations. But nonetheless, Jews for cultural reasons have been Democratic for a long time, and I do inroads on Israel and sort of the anti-Israeli sentiment -- the vitriolically anti-Israeli sentiment within the left of America -- is still far smaller than in Europe. So I also think that it doesn't -- as visible as it is to us in America, it's so much less than in Europe that I also don't think it's been enough to sort of shift their party allegiance. But it has, I think you could argue, made small inroads within at least the orthodox community.
ROSEN: The current situation involving Israel.
KUHN: Yeah, but even the Orthodox, they're culturally conservative, so it's hard to even say that's the reason why Orthodox Jews are, you know, vote more prevalently Republican.
ROSEN: Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big economic picture like the people like Milton Friedman did.
KUHN: Yeah, it's complicated, because, I mean, they're also the only American demographic group who votes against their economic interests. So then you have to -- and when I say that I mean on tax policy -- the only upper-class demographic group in the United States that votes for the Democratic Party, and inevitably that means --
ROSEN: Except for --
KUHN: [unintelligible]
ROSEN: Except for the rich Hollywood left.
KUHN: Yeah, but even them -- so many of them are Jewish.
ROSEN: Are Jewish.
—E.B.
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Comments (13) Show
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Damn. And conservatives still wonder why many Jews vote Democrat.
To very loosely and inaccurately paraphrase Lewis Black:
"Ther are Jews among you. Just stop one of us going about our Jew Jew JEWY day and ASK us!"
under this rationale, may we assume that the repub base is now reduced to the 2 demographics of white rednecks and the "top 1%"? i surely do hope so. at those percentages even repub Sec's of State, caging, supression, rigged machines, fear, smear and jimmy job dobson's rants won't be up to rigging the '08 election the way of the bad guys. keep up the alienating, rosen. you do it so well!
Funny, Im almost 100% sure this guy is jewish, and coming from him as a jew, It dosent offend me one bit. If put to context, then ir is a fine statement, but taken out of context it is made to look horribe.The caller is right its horrible that Jews vote Democat, historicaly, democrats have had a shakey stance on Israel, but Hilary seems like an exception to this.
Let's see, where to start?
1. Making the assumption that all Jewish voters in the United States vote according to what they think is best for Israel is ignorant and insulting. I know LOTS of Jews, most of them Orthodox, several of them Rabbis (I work at a Yeshiva) who cast their votes first and foremost for candidates who they think will be good for the UNITED STATES.
2. Suggesting that "business sense," etc. is somehow genetic and found more often in certain racial groups than others is beyond ignorant. It's such retrograde thinking, which made it a bit shocking to hear it on television in the year 2007. What's next? Do white people lack the "sports" gene? Are black people deficient in the "common sense" department? I can't believe we are even discussing such things in this day and age.
3. It was especially disturbing to hear these comments from two guys named Kuhn and Rosen. Self-hating Jews, anyone?
Anyway, this whole story was really odd. Amazing that there are still people out there willing to openly spout such nonsense.
Soxfan, just about all of our major politicians from the Democratic Party and Republican Party support Israel. It is political suicide to not do so because of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.
Weird comment, but when that black guy from Syrcause University called Juan Williams a "happy negro" on CNN, which went UNCHALLENGED no one over here was offended--why is that? Because the left is only against racism when it comes from conservatives--left wing racism is fine with them.
I'm a liberal, and I was plenty offended by the characterization of Juan Williams as a "Happy Negro." It would have been more appropriate to call Williams a Sellout who will say anything to keep his check from Faux News coming in, or a phony liberal (like Alan Colmes) who makes his living providing cover for the Right. I thought "Happy Negro" was out of bounds.
You are VERY rare amongst the people who blog on here. I appreciate your honesty.
As another indication of the dangrous times we live in when both the dysfunctional left and the dysfunctional right wing share one thing: Anti-semetism.
Every RECOVERING alcoholic and adult child thereof (where the operative word it RECOVERING) struggles with an inablity to see that nothing in life, NOTHING, is black and white.
This as opposed to the fact that Jews are --- (and not withstanding people Milton Friedman) are GENERALLY true centrists (WHERE NUANCE LIVES). It comes from a preponderance for knowledge, in addition to a belief that it is in life that one repairs the world (and not for a benefit for some future heaven or stuffing ones pocket) along with the knowledge that SURVIVAL includes the SURVIVAL OF ONES CHARACTER.
isrealis (With their 1 million arab citizens in Israel proper) are forced to do nuace as they struggle to live in a mainly Jewish state that IS ALSO DEMOCRACTIC...
But the dysfunctional Radical right is apparently incapable of seeing that someone can be an EXCELLENT soldier while having the BRAINS TO OPPOSE the absurd policies of the Radical Right Wing Totalitatiran Republicans (and their codependant libertarians) who hate the government of the United Statesa and agencies Americans pay to protect their interests when they are busy working. Radicals who divided us when we needed to be untited, are looting the US treasury, who excellerated the worldwide arms race to a level not seen before AFTER the demise of the Soviet Union. Cowards who whose forieng policy consists of Mooning the bad guys.
The charge that Jews do not have a bird's eye view of economics is made by Republican cult victims whose largest contributor was Enron.
Radical lunatics who Do not believe time proven Capitalist Business practices but rather equate then with Communist Cenral Planning. These include:
1) Negotiating Volume Discounts, which Walmart does every day of the week (wasting tax payer dollars and forcing our government -- the largest customer of the pharmaceutical companies in the world -- not to negotiate for such volume discounts.
2)The detest the Spreading of risk: which ensures sustainble profits for insurers
3) Or Contingency planning and setting Milestones against timelines -- without which no product would miraculously appear on our shelves.
4) Maintaining an well trained workfore that can afford to buy procts:
The Radical Righ Wing Totallitarians hate all of the above and equated then with Communist Central Planning while filling our air/cable and TV waves with intellectual dishonesty and bigotry.
As for what these radicals consider left wing...they are so radically right wing that everyone else looks left wing to them. Idiologs who will go to any extent...even hate crimes and bypass education...to hold on to their intellectually dishonenst belief systems ..and conflicts of interests that hope for WW 3 in the Middle East.
To say that Jews vote against their economic interest is yet another smear against Jews, the stereotyped idea that all Jews are wealthy and should be Republicans.Most Jews are middle class liek the rest of Americans. Middle class people are concerned about college tuition, health care, and retirment, among other issues, for which the Republican policies are poison.This is leaving out the significant numbers of Jews who are at the poverty level or close to it.
So it's not at all true that Jews vote against their economic interests.
Actually, there are many other people who vote against their economic interests, particularly the salt of the earth working-class midwesterners, many of whom are evangelicals, who vote for the Republicans on "value" issues while underminign their economic self-interest--well document in What's the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Franks.
It's not always a "smear" to say that someone votes against his or her own economic interest. If you are very rich, it isnt in your own economic interest to vote for candidates who want to increase taxes on the rich, but many wealthy people do just that, because their social conscience trumps their sense of individual economic interest. The Right wing is constantly bashing the Hollywood Liberal Elite for supporting things like tax increases that would hurt people like THEM, virtually calling these people "traitors to their class." But the truth is, economic interest is not always the final determining factor in how people vote. If it was, all wealthy people would vote exclusively for Republicanss and all middle class and poor people would vote Democratic, and obviously this is not the case.
Why is it that other liberals are very myopic regarding anti-Semitism, as long as liberal Jews agree with them? Then when Israel is involved, they trash this tiny, less than one percent of Middle East, area as if its self-defense is in some way illegal vis-à-vis its neighbors, et al. Liberal Jews…yes; Jewish liberals…they don’t want to go there because that’s not on their own [non-Jewish] terms and they are not about to try and understand...as if that’s not a fashionable thing to do. For me, it’s embarrassing and at times shameful. When I’ve pointed this out, sometimes a wee bit forcefully, the response is usually some sort of, “What me? I never stated that. You must be mistaken, ‘we’re not myopic at all…and it’s not anti-Semitic…nope not us.’” It’s as if it’s their personal definition of “liberal” and anything that’s contrary to theirs is offensive to them. ¶Regarding Rosen’s absurdist screed, he sounds more like a shanda who doesn’t daven. Heaven forbid he’s a closet apostate…oy
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