We’re accustomed to politicians courting the Black Vote, or the Jewish Vote, or the Youth Vote. But what about the Antisemitic Vote?
CNN correspondent John King asserted on July 21 that “there could be some risks” for Kamala Harris if she chooses Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate because “he’s Jewish.”
In other words, antisemitic voters would not cast their ballots for a Harris-Shapiro ticket. That may be true. The question is whether courting the votes of bigots should be an acceptable political strategy.
There was a time when America’s major political parties were reluctant to nominate a Catholic for president, for fear of alienating anti-Catholic voters. The Democrats shattered that taboo by nominating New York governor Al Smith for president in 1928.
But some prominent Democrats, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, continued to court the votes of other bigots. From loudly denying that he invited African-Americans to a 1929 luncheon, to refusing to support anti-lynching legislation in the 1930s, FDR repeatedly sought to show white racists that he deserved their votes. So did Jimmy Carter, when he declared during the 1976 Democratic primaries that he supported the right of whites to safeguard the “ethnic purity” of their neighborhoods against the “intrusion of blacks” and other “alien groups.” READ MORE
