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The Democratic Process

The Moral Majority, anti-abortion and other
single-issue groups are hard at work to advance
their agendas in the upcoming presidential election.
But are Jewish voters sitting it out?

RABBI DANIEL B. SYME

N

Michael Dukakis

George Bush

ow that the Democratic and
Republican conventions are
over and the ofttimes comic
and carnival atmosphere done with,
it is time to remind ourselves that
elections are a serious business.
Those who can command our votes
will soon have the capacity to change
our lives as Americans and as world
citizens.
Yet most American voters are in-
herently lazy. Frequently, our in-
tellectual flabbiness allows potential
leaders of genuine substance to fall by
the wayside. By the time election day
rolls around, many of us profess sur-
prise at the paucity of "top level"
choices.
Part of the problem is the system
itself — too many speeches to analyze,
debates to view, position papers to
study. Candidates' appeals are
deliberately reduced to the simple
messages they know we want to hear

Rabbi Daniel Syme is vice president of
the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations.

like "I will not raise taxes. Period!";
"Quality education for your children
will be one of my highest priorities";
"We must win the war against drugs
and stop crime in our streets"; "Every
American must have a job and decent
place to live"; and "Israel is our
greatest friend in the Middle East.
The security of the Jewish state will
be one of my highest priorities!'
If we are honest with ourselves we
will acknowledge that these are the
things we remember most as we enter
the voting booth — recollections
tempered, of course, by the can-
didates' most glaring gaffes and
misstatements. That's the reality.
With all its flaws, the system has
worked fairly well over the years.
Most of the time, American voters re-
ject extremes and generally elevate to
office candidates who have a healthy
respect for democratic values.
But this election may be different.
I have a gnawing fear, fed by casual
comments I hear all around the coun-
try, that the 1988 contests are not be-
ing taken as seriously as they must

be. I am deeply concerned lest the
Jewish community become victim to
this ennui.
We Jews, whatever our party
preference, are active participants in
the election process. We have voted in
large numbers, and the impact of our
ballots often has made the difference,
praticularly in states with large
numbers of electoral votes, the states
where most Jews live. Politicians take
us seriously, for we are a key factor in
their quest.
In 1988, however, a growing body
of evidence leads me to believe that
the Jewish community and Jewish
voters might be "sitting out" the 1988
presidential and congressional elec-
tions, reflecting an uncharacteristic
apathy about the next occupant of the
White House and the Senate and
House with which he will have to
work.
One red flag has been raised by
Graham Allison, dean of the Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard
University. Allison warns that the
downtrend in voter turnout that set

in after 1960 will continue in 1988.
In 1960, Allison says, 62.8 percent
of eligible voters went to the polls to
choose between John F. Kennedy and
Richard Nixon. By 1984, only 53 per-
cent exercised their vote in Ronald
Reagan's triumph over Walter Mon-
dale. And, Allison says, this
November "up to 90 million people of
voting age are expected to shun the
ballot boxes, assuring that the United
States will remain last among in-
dustrialized democracies in voter par-
ticipation."
Other groups are working
assiduously to advance their own
agendas. According to People for the
American Way, the radical right is
alive and well, raising huge sums of
money through direct mail, compiling
its "hit list" of congressmen targeted
for defeat in November, registering
voters sylmpathetic to its goals and
making sure that all its adherents
will have transportation so they can
vote in every primary and in the
general election.

Continued on Page 10

LETTERS

My first question to her is,
"Where do the Democrats
draw the line?" since she in-
fers the Republicans' accep-
tance of Nixon's slur because
a high-ranking Jewish
Republican introduced Nixon
as "my good friend!'

I for one, do not accept
either slur, nor do I accept her
foolish argument that I would
find one slur more palatable
than the other out of party
'loyalty. And let me point out
that the issue is not between
Nixon and Jackson. The issue
is between Jews and Jackson,
who, unlike Nixon, is current-
ly in a strong position of
power within the Democratic
party and, who is guilty of

more than one anti-Semitic
offense.
For me, the biggest issue is
the lack of outrage by the
Democratic party against
Jackson . . . Why do they put
up with the racism of
Jackson? A Jewish candidate
of such prejudice would be
massacred and banished
forever from political life! A
Jewish politician speaking
against blacks with such un-
checked hatred? Never! But
it's okay for a black presiden-
tial candidate to debase and
vilify Jews!
I draw the line when an
American citizen becomes a
presidential candidate even
though he is an avowed racist.
I draw the line when the par-

ty he represents is not outrag-
ed, but after some grumblings
accepts him as a legitimate
candidate for political gain. I
draw the line when any can-
didate can spew anti-Semitic
remarks and still be con-
sidered presidential material.
I draw the line at a
presidential candidate who is
grossly underqualified for the
job. I draw the line when a
racist candidate is accepted
and is pandered to by his par-
ty because of the fear of los-
ing his influence and power
over his ethnic group. It is an
insult to the people within his
ethnic group who are outrag-
ed at his racism . . . To the
writer of that letter, I want to
say that once a racial slur

against any ethnic group is
treated as a mere indiscretion
by either political party, we're
in for troule. It is the first step
to the debasement and
destruction of our society
where the precept of equality
is an indictment against
racism for all Americans.
This is a hard election, and
there are issues in the
Republican platform with
which I do not agree, but none
is as evil, odious, obscene,
vulgar and repugnent to me
as the pandering to Jesse
Jackson by the Democratic
party. It is despicable and
cowardly behavior and
against all decent people who
look for good leadership .. .

Dorothy Mahlin
Southfield

Judah Benjamin
Was No Hero
Being on vacation, I did not
catch up until now with
Joseph Cohen's enthusiastic
but skewed review, "Judah P.
Benjamin Supported the
South," in your issue of July
22. Benjamin was a supporter
not only of the South but of
the slave system and, after
the defeat of the Confederacy,
of the original Ku Klux Klan
that terrorized the freed
slaves and their white
supporters.
Cohen hesitantly reports
that Benjamin "kept many
slaves" but refrains from giv-
ing the known number of

Continued on Page 12

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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