From: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu (norman miller)
Subject: Where are we?
Organization: Trinity College, Hartford, CT.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:29:56 GMT

Stan Krieger, in his comment on Bob Werman's post about
anti-Semitism in America, asks:

     Come on Bob, why are you wasting bandwidth this
     posting?  Aren't things like the Jewishness of
     Conservative converts or which heckshers are more
     kosher than others the really important issues that
     affect us?

Well said.  Now my contribution:

******

A piece in today's New York Times (11-18-92) should
interest most readers of s.c.j..  The author is Richard L.
Berke.  Here is an excerpt.

At a news conference concluding the meeting of the Republi-
can Governors Association, a reporter asked the governors
whether they could succeed in holding together a diverse
conservative coalition without alienating the religious
right.

"There's reasonable ground that most of us agree on,"
replied Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. of South Carolina. 
"And so we don't seek to divide.  We may have differences
and debate on the individual issues, but not on the general
philosophy of the party."..

But then Gov. Kirk Fordice of Mississippi, a staunch conser-
vative who is opposed to abortion, took issue with the
questioner.

He said the question "seemed to infer that there is a demise
of Christianity in America," adding, "I totally reject
that."

[He] went on to say: " The [USA] is a Christian nation,
which does not in any infer at any time that religious
intolerance or any kind of particular dogma is being forced
on anyone else.  It just is a simple fact of life in the
[USA]."

[He] also said that "the less we emphasize the Christian
religion the further we fall into the abyss of poor charac-
ter and chaos in the [USA]."

Gov. Campbell then strode to the platform and said: "The
value base of this country comes from the Judeo-Christian
heritage that we have, and that is something we need to
realize."  ...

When Mr. Campbell returned to his spot on the dais next to
Mr. Fordice he said, "I just wanted to add the 'Judeo'
part."

Mr. Fordice responded tartly, "If I wanted to do that I
would have done it."

*****

None of this can be particularly surprising or upsetting to
most readers of s.c.j.  To the extent that we have ethnic
politics on the national scene, it's pretty clear that
white Protestants are more likely to identify themselves as
Republicans, etc. And for a Mississippi governor to talk
the way Fordice does is even less surprising.

But there's a second quote, this one from the Republican
National Convention, that's another story entirely.  The
speaker was party chairman Richard Bond: "We Republicans are
the only real Americans.  The other Party is not."  

And this time the speaker is a Jew.  And not only a Jew but
a New York Jew.

How can this be?

*******

I guess it's my age showing, but one of the things I find
hardest to understand is why there has been such an attenua-
tion of _interest_ in politics among American Jews, let
alone support for people like Reagan.  And while the Jewish
vote this go-round was more to my liking, the virtual
absence of discussion here on s.c.j. still troubles me,
especially in the light of what we all know lies ahead.

Am I mistaken?  I hope so.

Norman Miller



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