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Please
take
a moment to digest this provocative article by a Jewish Rabbi
from
Teaneck, N.J. It is far and away the
most succinct and thoughtful
explanation
of how our nation is changing. The
article appeared in The
Israel
National News, and is directed to Jewish readership.
70% of American
Jews
vote as
Democrats. The Rabbi has some
interesting comments in that
regard.
Rabbi
Steven
Pruzansky is the spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun
in
Teaneck,
New Jersey.
Perspective
of a rabbi
The
most
charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that
Americans
voted for the status quo - for the incumbent President and for a
divided
Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence,
economic
stagnation and avoidance of responsibility.
And fewer people voted.
But
as we
awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile
explanations
for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering
classes.
Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that
devastated
this area, nor did he lose because he ran a poor campaign, nor
did
he lose
because the Republicans could have chosen better candidates, nor
did
he lose
because Obama benefited from a slight uptick in the economy due
to
the
business cycle.
Romney
lost
because he didn't get enough votes to win.
That
might
seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost
because
the
conservative virtues - the traditional American virtues - of
liberty,
hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to
moral
greatness - no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate.
The
simplest
reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete
against
free
stuff.
Every
businessman
knows this; that is why the "loss leader" or the giveaway
is
such a
powerful marketing tool. Obama's America is one in which free
stuff
is
given away: the adults among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly
recognized
for whom they should vote, and so they did, by the tens of
millions;
those who - courtesy of Obama - receive two full years of
unemployment
benefits (which, of course, both disincentivizes looking for
work
and
also motivates people to work off the books while collecting their
windfall)
surely know for whom to vote. The lure of free stuff is
irresistible.
The
defining
moment of the whole campaign was the revelation of the
secretly-recorded
video in which Romney acknowledged the difficulty of
winning
an
election in which "47% of the people" start off against him
because
they
pay no taxes and just receive money - "free stuff" - from the
government. Almost half of the population has no skin in
the game - they don't
care
about
high taxes, promoting business, or creating jobs, nor do they care
that
the
money for their free stuff is being borrowed from their children
and
from the
Chinese. They just want the free stuff
that comes their way at
someone
else's expense. In the end, that 47%
leaves very little margin for error
for
any
Republican and does not bode well for the future.
It
is
impossible to imagine a conservative candidate winning against such
overwhelming
odds. People do vote their pocketbooks. In essence, the people
vote
for a
Congress who will not raise their taxes, and for a President who
will
give
them free stuff, never mind who has to pay for it.
That
engenders the second reason why Romney lost: the inescapable conclusion
that
the
electorate is ignorant and uninformed. Indeed, it does not pay to
be
an
informed voter, because most other voters - the clear majority - are
unintelligent
and easily swayed by emotion and raw populism.
That
is the
indelicate way of saying that too many people vote with their
hearts
and not
their heads. That is why Obama did not have to produce a
second
term
agenda, or even defend his first-term record. He needed only to
portray
Mitt
Romney as a rapacious capitalist who throws elderly women over
a
cliff,
when he is not just snatching away their cancer medication, while
starving
the
poor and cutting taxes for the rich.
During
his
1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai
Stevenson:
"Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!"
Stevenson
called back: "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"
Truer
words
were never spoken.
Obama
could
get away with saying that "Romney wants the rich to play by a
different
set of rules" - without ever defining what those different rules
were;
with
saying that the "rich should pay their fair share" - without ever
defining
what a "fair share" is; with saying that Romney wants the poor,
elderly
and
sick to "fend for themselves" - without even acknowledging that all
these
government programs are going bankrupt, their current insolvency only
papered
over
by deficit spending.
Similarly,
Obama (or his surrogates) could hint to blacks that a Romney
victory
would lead them back into chains and proclaim to women that their
abortions
and birth control would be taken away. He could appeal to
Hispanics
that Romney would have them all arrested and shipped to Mexico and
unabashedly
state that he will not enforce the current immigration laws.
He
could
espouse the furtherance of the incestuous relationship between
governments
and unions - in which politicians ply the unions with public
money,
in
exchange for which the unions provide the politicians with votes,
in
exchange
for which the politicians provide more money and the unions
provide
more
votes, etc., even though the money is gone.
Obama
also knows
that the electorate has changed - that whites will soon be
a
minority
in America (they're already a minority in California) and that the new
immigrants
to the US are primarily from the Third World and do not share the
traditional
American values that attracted immigrants in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
It is a different world, and a different America. Obama is part of that
different
America, knows it, and knows how to tap into it. That is why he won.
Obama
also
proved again that negative advertising works, invective sells,
and
harsh
personal attacks succeed. That Romney never engaged in such
diatribes
points to his essential goodness as a person; his "negative ads"
were
simple
facts, never personal abuse - facts about high unemployment,
lower
take-home
pay, a loss of American power and prestige abroad, a lack of
leadership,
etc. As a politician, though, Romney failed because he did not
embrace
the
devil's bargain of making unsustainable promises.
It
turned
out that it was not possible for Romney and Ryan - people of
substance,
depth and ideas - to compete with the shallow populism and
platitudes
of their opponents. Obama mastered the politics of envy - of
class
warfare - never reaching out to Americans as such but to individual
groups,
and
cobbling together a winning majority from these minority groups.
If
an Obama
could not be defeated - with his record and his vision of
America,
in
which free stuff seduces voters - it is hard to envision any
change
in
the future. The road to Hillary Clinton
in 2016 and to a
European-socialist
economy - those very economies that are collapsing
today
in
Europe - is paved.
For
Jews,
mostly assimilated anyway and staunch Democrats, the results
demonstrate
again that liberalism is their Torah. Almost 70% voted for a
president
widely perceived by Israelis and most committed Jews as hostile to
Israel.
They
voted to secure Obama's future at America's expense and at
Israel's
expense - in effect, preferring Obama to Netanyahu by a wide
margin.
A
dangerous
time is ahead. Under present circumstances, it is inconceivable
that the US
will take any aggressive action against Iran and will more likely
thwart any
Israeli initiative. The US will preach the importance of negotiations
up until
the production of the first Iranian nuclear weapon - and then state that
the
world must learn to live with this new reality. But this election
should be a
wake-up call to Jews. There is no permanent empire, nor is there an
enduring
haven for Jews anywhere in the exile. The American empire began to
decline
in
2007, and the deterioration has been exacerbated in the last five
years. This
election only hastens that decline. Society is permeated with sloth,
greed,
envy
and materialistic excess. It has lost its moorings and its moral
foundations. The
takers outnumber the
givers,
and
that will only increase in years to come.
The "Occupy" riots across
this
country
in the last two years were mere dress rehearsals for what lies ahead -
years
of unrest
sparked by the increasing discontent of the unsuccessful who want
to
seize the
fruits and the bounty of the successful, and do not appreciate the slow
pace
of
redistribution. If this election proves one thing, it is that the Old
America
is
gone. And, sad for the world, it is not coming back.
Robert
A. Hall is an actor. He plays the coroner on CSI if you
watch that show. He also is a Marine Vietnam War veteran, but does not
mention
that he had his legs blown off in that war.
This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in the
United
States of America .
"I'm 63 and I'm Tired" by Robert A. Hall
I'm 63. Except
for one
semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I
was
between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked hard since I was 18. Despite some
health challenges, I still put in
50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I
make a
good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to
get where
I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired.
Very
tired.
I'm tired of
being told
that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work
ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I
earned, by
force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
I'm tired of
being told
that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure,
if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they
bought Mc
Mansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on
one-third
of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed
Fannie and
Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble use
their
own money to help them.
I'm tired of
being told
how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George
Soros
and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the
opportunities
America provided to them. In thirty years, if they get their way, the
United
States will have:
1.
the economy of Zimbabwe,
2.
the freedom of the press of China
3.
the crime and violence of Mexico,
4.
the tolerance for Christian people of Iran
5.
the freedom of speech of Venezuela ..
I'm tired of
being told
that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read
stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for
their
family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of
Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers";
of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape
victims
to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little
girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Sharia’s law
tells them
to.
I'm tired of
being told
that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when
it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college
admission and
graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government
contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and
fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the
appointment of U.S. Senators from
Illinois.
I think it's
very cool
that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her
homework at
the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish
the
black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom
and the
individual and less arrogantly in an all-knowing government.
I'm tired of
being told
that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must not complain when
Saudi Arabia uses the money we pay for their oil to fund mosques and
madras
Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is
allowed
to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to
teach love
and tolerance.
I'm tired of
being told I
must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is
allowed
to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool
together
five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our
daughter
and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's,
and if
you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.
I'm tired of
being told
that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat
them, and
pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley,
grab
them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight
it off? I
don't think gay people choose to be gay, but I #@*# sure think druggies
chose
to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from "cool" people
treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.
I'm tired of
illegal
aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially those who
aren't working, but living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling
drug
dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against
Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years
since
Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track
citizenship for any Hispanic who can speak English, doesn't have a
criminal
record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who
serves
honorably for three years in our military. Those are the kind of
citizens we
need.
I'm tired of
the trashing
of our military by latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear
the
uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their
entitlement-handicapped kids
near a recruiting station. They and their kids can sit at home, never
having to
make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad
mouth
better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do
our
troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities
that
were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are?
Not even
close.
So here's a deal
for those folks. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation
and abuse
that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, while the critics
of our
military can be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and
beheaded
Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who
tortured
and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims
who ran
the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or
the
Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia because the
girls
were Christian --
MORE ON YOUR FUTURE HEALTH CARE.
The shoes continue to drop. See two articles in recent WSJ
editions. Incidentally, twenty minutes per day with the WSJ will
make you
more "healthy, wealthy and wise" than hours on Facebook, My Space,
Twitter and all the other e-crutches.
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