NationStates Jolt Archive

All groups and cultures have demographics. For example, the young tend to be more liberal and the elderly tend to be more conservative. In America, minorities and the lower class tend to be liberal, while the upperclass tend to be conservative. Seculars and atheists tend to be liberal, while extremely religious people tend to be conservative. People with Ph. Ds, especially in the humanities, tend to be liberal, whereas people with business or economics degrees tend to be conservative.

The American census cannot, by law, ask political affiliation, although voting polls show trends. But even with such statistics, I've never seen any statistics on Jews. so I'm curious.

What is the political demographic of Jews, do you think?

I've recently heard that American Jews, while traditionally somewhat liberal in their politics, have begun to swing a bit to the right.

Bah. Another sheep who lives by the liberal/conservative spectrum - what about us Jews who don't want either social or economic control?
I guess that makes us 'Liberetarded,' or libertarian to everyone else. Oh and I'm not paying $20 just coz I said that.

Bah. Another sheep who lives by the liberal/conservative spectrum - what about us Jews who don't want either social or economic control?
I guess that makes us 'Liberetarded,' or libertarian to everyone else. Oh and I'm not paying $20 just coz I said that.
$15.

Depends on the Jew.

I'm a screaming liberal leftist hippie. Joseph Lieberman is pretty conservative. I'd say it's a broad spectrum without tendency.

I advertize for my thread here :
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=442825

From my point of view, liberals are conservative, so the question is void.

Depends on the Jew.

I'm a screaming liberal leftist hippie. Joseph Lieberman is pretty conservative. I'd say it's a broad spectrum without tendency.
He seems socially conservative, but economically liberal.

He seems socially conservative, but economically liberal.

Meh ... economically centrist, socially conservative. Frankly, I'm not sure why he hasn't crossed the aisle yet. Party loyalty, I suppose.

Come on, Super Power, haggle. $15.

Isn't 80% of America's Jewish community card-carrying liberals?

Europe on the other hand is a different story. There aren't many famous Jewish people over here but Michael Howard and Melanie Phillips are VERY right wing while Alan Sugar is a big contributor to the Labour party, which lets face it, is well right of centre in just about every way nowadays. Also in my area of England, the North East, I don't no any Jews who aren't orthodox so I guess all I can say is that it depends on the place. For instance, if you took 100 jews at random from a small town in Israel and 100 Jews at random from a cosmopolitan kalaedoscopic area of New York, rest assured they'd be nothing alike.

Jews tend to be Jewish, and any other labels you might add are going to be generalizations at best.

There, see, I can be politically correct and happy and fluffy and loving if I feel so inclined. My soul isn't not pure evil, its more just 98.9% evil, with 1.1% from saturated fat.

Well, from my experience, 100% of Jews are...people.

I'm not willing to be drawn into any more specific an answer than that, because the whole concept of the poll is fallacious :)

Isn't 80% of America's Jewish community card-carrying liberals?

I don't think that they carry cards, but your percentage is correct.

It may have to do with geographic distribution. For example, New York City has a gigantic Jewish population. New York City is also overwhelmingly Democrat (which typically translates into liberal, but just roll with it).

But yeah, Jews tend to be more liberal. Even Henry Kissinger (who was Nixon's Jewish Secretary of State, if you don't know) wondered, "why do Jews vote for Democrats?" I don't know either, Henry.

I've only known a few, but the one's I knew are/were socially liberal, and economically conservative (best way, IMO.) My dad is like that, his dad was like that (as far as I know; he died when I was 8), and the two others that I've known where like that.

My grandpa was a great business man. Had lots of money, lots of women, and LOTS of cars, including a '57 Chevy Bel-Air, a '59 Corvette, and '67 Jaguar E-Type, a mid '90s Nissan 300ZX, a late-model V8 Camaro, an Oldsmobile Toronado, and many more- about 20 in total.

I only knew him for a few years, but he seemed nice.

Isn't 80% of America's Jewish community card-carrying liberals?

Europe on the other hand is a different story. There aren't many famous Jewish people over here but Michael Howard and Melanie Phillips are VERY right wing while Alan Sugar is a big contributor to the Labour party, which lets face it, is well right of centre in just about every way nowadays. Also in my area of England, the North East, I don't no any Jews who aren't orthodox so I guess all I can say is that it depends on the place. For instance, if you took 100 jews at random from a small town in Israel and 100 Jews at random from a cosmopolitan kalaedoscopic area of New York, rest assured they'd be nothing alike.
This is at least somewhat true (not the part about the cards, of course). Israeli Jews tend to be more of what Americans would be considered "right wing." As an American who is Jewish, I myself tend to be left leaning, as are most of the other Jews I know. In fact, I had a Jewish friend in high school who was a republican, and he is the only one I have ever known. He still hated Bush though :D .
I am not sure that Jews throughout the country are all or mostly liberal. I'm not saying they aren't, just that I don't know that they are. I also don't know they are not. I live in New England, and most of the Jews I know live in New England, or the New Jersey/New York area. Most of the people in those areas are liberal, although a higher proportion of Jews are than the rest of the population.

As for Earopean Jews, I don't about them either. I would add, though, that in many cases, what would be considered "Right wing" in Europe would still be "Left" or center in the US, thats how far right our nation has mostly been over the last 50 years.

That is something that has clearly changed in different societies and at various times throughout history just as it would for any other group of people. It is however a fact that the Jewish people have made a very admirable contribution to the struggle for Communism and well known Communists of a Jewish background include Karl Marx, Vladimir Illyich Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Leon Trotsky and Bela Kun.

I don't think that they carry cards, but your percentage is correct.

It may have to do with geographic distribution. For example, New York City has a gigantic Jewish population. New York City is also overwhelmingly Democrat (which typically translates into liberal, but just roll with it).

But yeah, Jews tend to be more liberal. Even Henry Kissinger (who was Nixon's Jewish Secretary of State, if you don't know) wondered, "why do Jews vote for Democrats?" I don't know either, Henry.

Maybe because it's the most tolerant out of the three monotheistic religions? Bare in mind also that you can be atheist and still be considered Jewish (Marx, Lenin, Woody Allen) because it's an ethnic identity too.