I'm not sure what kind of personal rationalization Douglas Bloomfield is engaged in here - "I only carried water for an obvious anti-Israel partisan because I couldn't get over my personal distaste for the GOP base" - but as an empirical matter it's stupid and as a personal matter it's kind of pathetic.

During the election Bloomfield was at the forefront of smearing Jewish Obama opponents as narrow-minded bigots. He actually got pretty excised about it the whole thing, screeching with outrage about the "concerted hate campaign," that was "coming largely from the Jewish right."

Now in rhetorical theory we have a well-established account of what happens when someone gets self-righteously invested in something but later turns out to be spectacularly, demonstrably, obnoxiously wrong. They can either come to grips with whatever made them go awry or they could scapegoat some readily-identifiable and easily-demonized group. So while Bloomfield is being a lot less honest with himself than Marty Peretz - at least he's not also predictable!

The Republican Party has a Jewish problem. And a Hispanic problem. And an Asian problem. And a black problem. And a female problem... As the nation becomes more ethnically and racially diverse, the GOP is becoming more monochromatic - white, rural, Christian, conservative, male and angry. That's not the minority group it needs to take back the Congress or the White House...

For 20 years or so we've been hearing predictions by Jewish Republicans of a mass migration of Jewish voters from the Democratic party, but the GOP has never recovered from the damage done by George H.W. Bush's questioning the loyalty of American Jews and trying to block loan guarantees to Israel in 1991... I believe it is in the interest of the Jewish community - in both foreign and domestic policy - to be well represented in both parties, but so long as the Evangelicals and social conservatives set the Republican agenda, Jews will keep voting overwhelmingly Democratic.

Let's be very, very precise here: according to the very best social science we have American Jews vote Democratic simply because that's how they've always voted. It's a party ID issue. Jews aren't the only minority group where that happens. But - despite the thin pretexts they give themselves by reading echo-chamber Jewish media and listening to talks by liberal "expert speakers" - they're undeniably one of them.

That means that "so long as the Evangelicals and social conservatives set the Republican agenda," Jews will keep using that excuse to vote Democratic. If Evangelicals and social conservatives suddenly stop setting the Republican agenda, Jews will find some other excuse to vote Democratic.

As for American Jews being moved by issues revolving around loan guarantees - please. The Obama White House has been leaking for months that cutting Israeli aid is on the table. I don't remember a steep drop in Obama's Jewish support when he threatened to freeze $1 billion over settlements back in January.

Though I was glad to learn that the GOP has systemic dynamics that prevent it from attracting Jewish voters. During the election the pathologically dishonest hacks at outfits like the NJDC were insisting that Jews had been considering McCain, but that Sarah Palin had ruined it. So any wayward Democratic Jews who still felt uncomfortable about Obama could hang their hat on left's venomous Palin hatred. Smart!

References and previously after the jump...