OPINION
16
Hey, Jews Should Be Conservatives, Not Liberals: Podhoretz
Following 'false messiah' Obama is bad politics, bad religion: Podhoretz
By Jason Farago
|
Posted Sep 10, 09 8:43 AM CDT
|
Share
(Newser)
–
Jewish voters backed Barack Obama over John McCain last year by a staggering 57 points—the most resounding mandate from any group other than African Americans. That bewilders neocon Norman Podhoretz, who argues in the Wall Street Journal that both Judaism and the Jewish experience endorse "the infinitely precious virtues of the traditional American system." Alas, Podhoretz writes, for many fellow Jews, liberalism "has superseded Judaism and become a religion in its own right."
On questions from abortion and gay rights to assisted suicide, Jews are the most reliably liberal group in America—despite the fact that Jewish law opposes all of them. But more broadly, the flourishing of poor immigrants into one of the richest ethnic groups should make Jews conservatives, he writes; they, more than anyone, should defend America's "moral values and socioeconomic principles." Hopefully, Podhoretz writes, "the exposure of Mr. Obama as a false messiah" will drive Jews away not just from the president, but from liberalism itself.