Why Obama Will Make a Better President

Approximately eighty percent of the Jewish-American community votes Democratic in presidential elections. Despite this fact, both Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain are courting Jewish voters. The Democrats are not taking us for granted, and the Republicans are not writing us off. Both parties are taking the usual steps of pledging support for Israel, but there is so much more to Jews and Judaism than that. What about compassion and health care for the poor, and equality for all citizens, regardless of race, orientation, or belief?

Those of us who take our heritage seriously and who feel Jewish morality is best explained by those great Conservative rabbis Milton Steinberg and Abraham Joshua Heschel can easily see why Obama will make the better U.S. president.

ECONOMY: John McCain is a hypocrite. He describes Obama as a "socialist." He says Obama's plans for the economy amount to socialism and his running mate Sarah Palin says continuously that, "this is not the time to experiment with socialism." And yet McCain supports nationalizing business, as evidenced by his support of the recent government bailouts. He also supports tax cuts for the ultra-rich, and his official site offers very little substance in the way of getting the U.S. economy back on track. His plan of action to help the middle class amounts to little more than bizzare soundbites about Joe the Plumber and Wendy the Waitress.

Obama is not a socialist, and--sadly--he would be an even more stellar candidate if his policies veered more in that direction. But in terms of capitalism, he has devised innovative plans to truly help the poor and improve our ailing economy, including creating jobs in fields related to modern energy sources. He wants to lessen the burden of higher education costs for students who make decent grades. His other sophisticated ideas inlcude, "investments in infrastructure, energy independence, education, and research and development." He wants to, "modernize and simplify our tax code so it provides greater opportunity and relief to more Americans."

WAR IN IRAQ: McCain says, "when Iraqi forces can safeguard their own country, American troops can return home." Unfortunately, that translates to many more years of occupation. This war will last indefinately under a McCain presidencey. The war is actually McCain's defining issue, and "winning" the war and displaying America's strength to "countries that don't like us much" are of the utmost importance to him. Obama supports a timeline for withdrawal and says the way Bush handled the war (unilateral engagement, preemptive strike) is wrong.


DEFENSE OF U.S. (AND ISRAEL): Obama states, "We have inherited a national security structure that was developed and organized in the late 1940's to win the Cold War." He wants to meet unconditionally with hostile world leaders (while still condemning those leaders' views and actions) in an effort to negotiate peace. He also wants to end Bush's stop-loss policies, develop a better weapons program, and provide more benefits for soldiers and veterans. Clearly, other countries' view of the U.S. will improve when Obama is President.

Both candidates support Israel as a U.S. friend and ally. But both men have a different definition of "support." McCain and Palin both fall into the right-wing trap of pledging undying, unconditional support for every expansionist Israeli policy, even those denounced by most Israeli citizens. McCain's and especially Palin's positions on social issues show they are not in synch with Jewish voters. And McCain's connection to Pastor John Hagee--a right-wing Zionist preacher who claimed the Shoah is G-d's punishment to Jews for not accepting Jesus--is at least as real as Obama's connection to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but very few people other than Jews made an issue out of it.

Obama supports Israel's right to exist, as well as the safety of its citizens. He has davened at the Western Wall while wearing a kippah. But he has also expressed sympathy for both Palestinians and Israelis who live in fear and who have lost loved ones in this tragic conflict. He is mostly untested on this issue, but his administration will hopefully be more balanced than Bush's was or McCain's would be.

CIVIL RIGHTS: Obama says he will pass the Matthew Shepard Act and expand hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation on a national level. He also wants to ban racial profiling, end Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy banning open gays, and "reinvigorate the Department of Justice's criminal section." He also describes a proposed Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman as "hateful."

McCain, on the other hand, says one thing and does another. He speaks for the most part in sane, civil language to appeal to undecided moderate voters, but his campaign is busy working its more fanatical base into a frenzy. His supporters have led a fear-mongering campaign based on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments. From the beginning, McCain supporters have tried to convince people (mostly evangelical Christians, Jewish senior citizens, and unaffilliated white people) that Obama is a Muslim. As Jon Stewart and Colin Powell both pointed out, this is offensive not only for being inaccurate but also for being unimportant. Why should a Muslim not run for office? Now there are rumblings among McCain's supporters that the New Testament claims the anti-Christ will be "of Muslim descent." Amazingly, the McCain campaign even silenced a Muslim Republican McCain supporter who was trying to defend McCain.

Moving from anti-Islam prejudice to outright racism, Obama's middle name Hussein has been used by McCain's campaign to suggest he is Arab. And while his supporters were quick to point out that McCain told an insane woman at his rally that Obama is not an Arab, his evidence to her was that he is a "decent family man." That was probably just a gaffe, but it's still the kind of gaffe that comes from not caring too deeply about racism in the first place. He is clearly out of his element when it comes to civil rights.

Just like he does with Arabs and Muslims, McCain also has other people do his dirty work when it comes to gays. In a transparent effort to court anti-gay religious bigots, his running mate Sarah Palin recently said she supports a Constitutional amendment banning gays from getting married.

HEALTH CARE: Obama says, "I . . . believe that every American has the right to affordable health care." McCain and Palin would say this is yet more evidence that Obama is a socialist, but if he were a socialist he would have said "free" in place of "affordable." Instead, Obama supports allowing qualified citizens who are not insured through their workplaces to tap into government health care. Anyone who takes ethics seriously can tell you the child of poor parents deserves the same health care given to the child of rich parents, but Jewish ethics would go further and say those poor parents also deserve the same health care as those rich parents. It would be nice if Obama supported socialized health care, but the capitalist program he does espouse is still infinitely better than McCain's. Obama says, "It's time to let the drug and insurance companies know that while they'll get a seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair."

If all being Jewish means to you is that you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, buy Manishewietz, and work hard to get your spoiled kids into Harvard, then there's no telling who you should or will vote for. But if you live to practice Jewish ethics--if the moral codes of Rashi, Steinberg, and Heschel are embedded in your heart and soul--it is clear Barack Obama is the better choice for U.S. President.

Correction: I can find no evidence that Sarah Palin was ever business partners with the member of Jews For Jesus who visited her church, as I originally wrote. I apologize for the mistake.

Why Jews Dislike Palin

Here we go again. Every few years, some big media-saturated event lights up the internet with right-wing anti-Semitism, and the always-fragile level of tolerance the right grants Jewish people due to Israel and Jewish-American wealth and success begins to fade. Because no matter how much money Jews make, at the end of the day they still refuse to completely assimilate (read: vote Republican)

It's always strange to see the disparity between the right's support of the right wing of Israeli politics and their hatred and contempt for actual Jewish people. Evangelist Billy Graham is a right-wing Zionist, but he counseled Nixon about Hollywood Jews who subvert morality and promote liberalism. The Catholic League's Bill Donahue supports the Israeli right, and he also thinks "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who only care about anal sex." Ann Coulter can fellate the Likud party all she wants, but she revealed her true feelings about Jews to Danny Deutche last year, saying they need to be "perfected" like her. (I guess that means become crazy bigots with horse-faces.) It's easy to see why she and her buddies are mad at us. The old saying that Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans is true and must be baffling to anyone who wonders why someone wouldn't vote with her pocketbook. Usually these Jew-baiting events involve Mel Gibson, but this time it comes from a surprising source: John McCain's camp.

McCain has made a Herculean effort to court Jewish voters. Whereas most Republicans in the past have written off Jews because they vote mostly Democratic, McCain has directly appealed to them. And some of his supporters have tried to capitalize on the anti-Muslim sentiments of some (especially older) Jewish people with aggressive, false propaganda about how Senator Barack Obama is secretly a militant Muslim.

That's why the turnaround is so shocking. Here's what happened: First, McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. She is a nut-job who believes dinosaurs and humans once coexisted. She can't be bothered to read newspapers. She is against gay rights. She is against reproductive choice. We get it. Loves guns, hates gays. Really into hunting, but not so much into reading, learning, or science. So we (Jews) don't like her, naturally. That's the second stage of the turnaround. We reject this weirdo and make fun of her mercilessly in our fancy, city-folk jobs as reporters and Daily Show writers. That is all really predictable. If McCain thought Jews would warm up to a crazy Alaskan governor who hangs out with Jews For Jesus leaders, he must be as insane as she is.

But now the internet is awash with racists claiming Jews hate Palin because she is a Christian, and that this is further proof that Jews are anti-Christian bigots. Some are saying Jews are repeating the racism that was dealt to them by Christians in the past. This Jew-baiting claim is even making its way (in a nicer tone, of course) to mainstream sites like Beliefnet. Let's get three things clear:

1. Christianity is not a race, so it's impossible to be racist against Christians. Christianity is a CHOICE, like Scientology or Reform Judaism. Because we live in a civilized society, we should be civil towards each other and refrain from ridiculing someone's religion for no reason, but criticizing a religion is not racism. Anti-Semitism is racism because it is hatred against someone because of her ethnicity. Hating someone because her last name is Cohen is racism. However, criticizing Conservative Judaism is not racist because that's a religion. Therefore, criticizing Christianity is not racism.

2. Uh, we don't hate Christians. Most of us don't, anyway. According to Ha'aretz, Jewish voters favor Obama, and he is a Christian. Jews voted overwhelmingly for Bill Clinton and John Kerry, and they are both Christians. I'm pretty sure most Jews think Oskar Schindler was a good guy, and he was a Christian. We dislike Palin because she is crazy!!

3. If you want to strike a chord with Jewish voters, support legislation we can get behind. Most Jews want gay-straight equality, reproductive rights, socialized health care, and support for education and the arts. And a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palistinian conflict that respects the humanity of both peoples will make Israel more secure than just giving its right wing unchecked support.

Well, I hope that clears things up for you anti-Semites. I've got to get back to the cabal now. We've got some world-domination plans to draw up.