The Dems may be licking their wounds after Tuesday, but the Jews (with the exception of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold and a few others) fared very well during the midterm elections.
Senator Barbara Boxer trounced challenger and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in California and Chuck Schumer overwhelmingly reclaimed his Senate seat in New York. Feingold may be out, but Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal is in. Ron Wyden of Oregon garnered another six years as a senator, but New Hampshire’s Paul Hodes did not make the cut.
Queer Jewish congressmen Jared Polis (representing Boulder among other places) and Barney Frank are heading back to the House and will be joined by another twice-blessed U.S. representative, David Cicilline of Rhode Island.
Also from my state, Senator Michael Bennet (he’s got a Jewish mom) edged out Ken Buck (definitely no Jewish mother there) and Ed Perlmutter gained another term in the House.
Chris Coons beat out the crazy gay-baiting witch lady who hasn’t read the Constitution and used to campaign against masturbation. That’s Christine O’Donnell for those of you who have been living under a rock. No heebs in that race, just thought I’d mention it out of sheer pleasure.
Good old Democratic firebrand Alan Grayson lost his House seat in Florida (perhaps due to his reference to his opponent as “Taliban Dan,” talk about chutzpah) along with Ron Klein, but Ted Deutch retained his newly appointed seat in the same state. So did Debbie Wasserman Shultz.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor kept his seat in the “Republican wave,” and will likely gain some new responsibilities when John Boehner (not a Jew) takes the top spot as House majority leader.
Non-Jew Jan Brewer clobbered fellow non-Jew Terry Goddard in Arizona (somebody please tell me how that happened!?) and the high Republican turnout there has Democrat and Jew Gabrielle Giffords (the first Jewish congresswoman out of that state) fighting to keep her seat. As of now she’s ahead of her challenger.
Congressmen Steve Kagen of Wisconsin and John Adler and New Jersey both went down in the “wave” to goyim, but Philly’s Allyson Shwartz managed to resist. As far as I can tell, the wave of Republican representative-elects who took seats from Democratic incumbents contains not a single Jew. But, it looks like most Jewish congressfolk have survived.
This all makes me ask myself, does it even matter? I think to myself that the last century was not entirely pleasant for Jews in certain parts of the world, especially in terms of political empowerment. On the other hand, Jewish enfranchisement in this country isn’t really in question. Jews are well represented in America’s halls of power (ahem, David Axelrod; cough, Rahm Emanuel). The Supreme Court is a third Jewish. The president holds annual Passover Seders for Moses’ sake.
It makes me curious. How much do Jews of my generation take into account a candidate’s Jewiness when heading to the ballot box? Do they care?
A candidate’s religious affiliation can certainly serve to make me wary especially after the massive influence of the Mormon church in passing Prop. 8 in California two years ago. But, a candidate’s cultural or secular or ethnic or national or religious or whatever Jewishness doesn’t usually hit my radar. I didn’t actually realize Jared Polis was a Jew until after he was elected. Same with Michael Bennet (yes, I discovered he was a Jew as I wrote this post).
I suppose I like seeing Jews in positions of political power, but ultimately most of the politicians I listed above probably have far different politics than my own. For that matter, they probably have a far different conception of Jewish values than my own.
When JFK was running for the presidency, there was such a hullabaloo over his Catholic persuasions. For most voters today it would likely be a non-issue. They’re more worried that the president might be a Muslim. Gasp!
It’s not that religion is no longer an issue in terms of our political candidates. It is.
Religious/cultural identity can serve both to formulate unwarranted, bigoted prejudice against potential politicians or it can give us significant insight into how these candidates might legislate (I’d like to know, for example, if a candidate is a devout member of, say, the Westboro Baptist Church).
But, when it comes to Jews, perhaps we are so integrated into American culture and politics that a candidate’s Jewishness just doesn’t much matter anymore. I’m not entirely sure.
So, go Jews! I guess…
