6 4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 18, 2004 OPINION 420 MAYNARD STREET U0ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 t dopinion.michigandaily. comr tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN .SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE " The American people will have a clear choice in the election of 2004 - at least as clear as any since the election of 1984." - Vice President Dick Cheney, referring to the 1984 election in which President Reagan walked away with 49 states, in a speech yesterday, as reported by The New York Times. COLIN DALY THE MICHIGAN DALY TM t~ONE TIM\E IN VIE.TNAMA 30Q%-WKRRY( RESCUED LIKE 20 BAN~ES AND N k-lITjEN T:gOM ENEMY FOCESV~iNG DNLY A SPAWhkc'ER KEFA H oNED ovF oF A, MCH-ANCAL._N? ENKT$I-TSAME INSTANT, Pg~RF~DNT GEORc W. BVSH WAAS ?RANCANG AkoaD vN A POLO PONY pATr YA LE. )NIV RSIt, i1! N' Jv L t v GKRZ 'A111! SLY'. t tae! " ! cc Nv t tioNJ'r s&LIEvE TVAE KYP . r, , t clot vnu'ch , edv ft ppott t at iivlu a is... RPMM8E WEN O~. NU i'F, vDET~ W. BUSH i 0U ND THPT ScvN1- 13mA tDDAAM1HlUSSI N OvveALNC, V~.RDMV.. NLT Y miGH T IN k SP ~I Df "DLe? PMWASN wAs-H hNw oME1,., Now M~kNY '1 rN4t4L... DlT'RzbRS M016 YOU ~ (-l DV- F~aM Po WE , 70-N PQV Jewish voting patterns: Tradition! JASON Z. PESICK ONE SMALL VOICE or decades, Jews have formed one of the country's most loyal Democratic voting blocks. Almost since the day many of them arrived in America, the new Jew- ish immigrants raced to assimilate, leaving the remnants of the ghettos in Eastern Europe. The community achieved great economic prosperity, becoming leaders in areas from science to law, to politics, to music. But for an ethnic group in such a hurry to weave itself into the fabric of Ameri- can society, Jews have maintained an identity as devoted Democrats. I'm not exactly sure why this is the case. If you ask five different American Jews why they have traditionally voted for Democrats, you'll probably get at least five different responses, but I think it has something to do with Roo- sevelt's New Deal, Democratic presidents defeating Germany in World War II, President Truman creating the state of Israel and the Jewish community's immigrant roots and desires to rise to the top of a society dominat- ed by Republican "WASPs." There's a history of Jewish devotion to education, and as poor immigrants, many Jews were educated in pub- lic schools, not in private or parochial institu- tions. American Jews are also liberal on social issues, and many have also been involved in professions, such as teaching and law, that tend to attract liberals. According to CNN, Al Gore won 79 per- cent of the Jewish vote in 2000, and Bill Clin- ton garnered between 70 and 80 percent in both of his presidential campaigns. This trend can even be detected all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century. But now, a num- ber of prominent Jewish Republicans believe President Bush has a fighting chance of revers- ing this trend. The executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matthew Brooks, cites a January poll the American Jewish Com- mittee released showing 31 percent support among American Jews for Bush. Thirty-one percent is not exactly a triumph for an incum- bent wartime president, but given that there are high concentrations of Jews in swing states like Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania, they could have an effect in November even though Jews make up less than 2 percent of the coun- try's population. It is a powerful minority that turns out to vote in high numbers. The conventional wisdom is that because Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon see eye-to-eye on Middle East poli- tics, Jews will flock to the president. The Detroit Free Press quoted U.S. Rep. Antho- ny Weiner (D-N.Y.) as saying, "Among the Democratic voter base for whom Israel is a seminal issue, there are many more who are writing checks to Republicans than I have ever seen." And Weiner is a Kerry supporter. But I don't buy this argument. Since that poll was taken, John Kerry has emerged as the Democratic nominee. And as the cam- paign continues, Bush's differences with Jew- ish voters will surface. His domestic agenda of going far to the right on social issues and his dismal economic record will not square with Jews in the fall. Bush's close ties to the oil industry and his family's cozy relationship with the Saudi royal family will also not help inflate that 31 percent number either. And more religiously observant Jews will be turned off by Bush's religious base in large part because of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." The Jewish "leaders" who claim their community is drifting toward the president have an interest in convincing the nation's political parties the Jewish vote is up for grabs. They want attention; they want the candidates to pander to them. But it's also time for legitimate Jewish leaders to fulfill their responsibility to lead the community. Many American Jews have strong feelings regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, but lack a sophisticated understand- ing of the situation. Rabbis need to educate their congregations on the conflict, as they encouraged their congregations to embrace the civil rights movement and not harass black families trying to move into predomi- nately white neighborhoods decades ago. In this year's campaign, Kerry will have additional support from Arab-Americans, as they have become disenchanted with a presi- dent that had significant Arab-American support in 2000. American Jewish and Arab- American interests have converged approaching the election. A successful Iraqi transition to democracy (which seems to be eluding Bush at this time) would delight both groups and especially Israel. A peace- ful, negotiated, two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has support in both communities as well. Jews and Arabs have had a contentious relationship for centuries. But in this year's elections, they will vote together. Pesick can be reached at jzpesick@umich.edu. 6 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 6 LSA-SG presidential elections need to remain democratic, not insulated TO THE DAILY: As a former elected representative of the Michigan Student Assembly, three-term MSA Student Rights Commission chair and Central Student Judiciary justice, I am deeply trou- bled by the ballot initiative appearing on the ballot of the LSA Student Government elec- tions this week. If successful, the initiative would make the president and vice president of LSA-SG inter- nally selected positions - only representa- tives would be elected. Although this newspaper alleged in your- editorial Monday (Reforming Government 03/15/04) that the proposal would "ensure that executives are elected based on compe- tence, not charisma," I think the real effect would further insulate student government from the student body. I view the proposal as a thinly-veiled reac- tion to the election of Monique Luse and Tim Whalen as LSA-SG president and vice presi- dent in winter 2002, both student government outsiders at the time. However, I think their elec- tion by a comfortable margin simply illustrated exactly how alienated and out of touch most stu- dents felt from the existing representatives; Luse and Whalen won the votes they received. As long as we profess democratic princi- pals, electoral upsets will happen. The proper reaction of the other members of student gov- ernment should be to educate and work with the newly elected candidates as much as pos- sible, not to seek to insulate themselves fur- ther from the electorate. The efforts of Stuart Wagner, Janu Lakash- man and Andrew Yahkind to oppose this elitist proposal should be commended, and in addition to voting on yesterday and today, LSA students should vote no on the ballot proposal. ROB GOODSPEED LSA senior Former MSA-LSA Representative Former Daily reporter University needs to do more to help Ann Arbor TO THE DAILY: artistic importance is staggering - Students for a Democratic Society, the ONCE music festivals, the Free John Sinclair Rallies, the Ann Arbor Film Festival itself. Yet monu- ments are fading, and the community that supported them is in strife as well. In the last year, in addition to the Technology Center, we have seen the loss of The Del Rio, the Ann Arbor Tenants Union, the Student Wood- shop and Decker Drugs. Rent costs have forced Schoolkids Records literally under- ground and Fantasy Attic Costumes has, like the 555 Gallery of the Tech Center, fled the city. In their place we are seeing more and more of Starbucks, Sprint Cellular and luxu- ry condominiums. Hash Bash and the annual summer Art Fair are now laughable. The town's gentrification isn't only a threat to low income artists; as student housing prices escalate, it's a threat to community members, business owners and the student body. Tonight, you could feel this in the theater. While the citizens are upset with the changing face of Ann Arbor, the film documented the city's utter indifference to the shift. As we all know, the University is Ann Arbor. We are still made up of Anti-War Action!, affirmative action and the newly re-emerging SDS. But what are we doing for the town? Who is leading the fight for our right to afford to live in our own town? The students of the University are responsible for demanding an end to the exploitative deteri- oration of Ann Arbor. The death of the Tech Center signifies a crossroads. We can either demand that the University works to end the city's homogenization, or smile as the condos set in to pick clean the bones of a once vibrant city. JOHN NOTARIANNI LSA sophomore MSA president, et al: support Trotter House TO THE DAILY: Your article (Bringing down the house, 03/15/04) proposes that students vote no on the Trotter House ballot question that is being voted on this yesterday and today during Michigan Student Assembly elections. We stand as stu- dents who maintain that the best action for stu- dents to take is to vote yes on the ballot proposal. The Daily was right when it said the William Monroe Trotter House's infrastructure knows negotiations with the administration center around numbers, especially for issues important to student services. There are cur- rently students organizing, working and talking to the administration about the dire need for renovations to Trotter House. While we can meet and lobby and ask for the administration to address our concerns, all we have gotten in the past 10 years is a consultant hired for one year to write the "student vision." It is important that the administration put money toward this facility, especially with its claim that they have a commitment to diversity. It is also important that students be conscious and aware of the way the administration works here at the University. Students should be pre- pared and ready for the administration to stall on issues important to the students that fall under the Division of Student Affairs. If this measure were voted down, the University administration would be given a mandate to continue ignoring Trotter House indefinitely. Experience has taught us that without statistics and numbers to back us, our pleas mean little to the administration. We have power in numbers. The Daily should know that the students who brought this ballot question do not intend to abandon this issue after the elections. This is not a "stop-gap" measure. This ballot question is one step in a much larger process. If this ballot question does not pass, it will be detrimental to the develop- ment of the Trotter House. Even if it were voted down because students feel more University resources need to be allocated to the renovations, these distinctions will be lost in the Fleming Administration Building. Students will be saying they actually do not care for the condition of our multicultural center. We urge students to vote yes on this ballot question. Let's tell the administration that we value multi- culturalism and the Trotter House. ANGELA GALARDI President, Michigan Student Assembly MONIQUE PERRY Vice President, MSA ELLIOTT WELLS-REID Treasurer MSA JASON MIRONOV Student General Counsel, MSA PETE WOIWODE MSA representative SAM WOLL MSA representative I:AY4Li1~U UG~. iJ~I -T i~ -~'.1'.J'J- vina a