Dear Lieberman Ad, Kindly Shut Up

In the relative lull that comes immediately after sending an issue to the printer, I generally try to scurry around, doing all the odd jobs that don't get done when everyone's operating on deadlines, especially as we're currently internless. Some of these things, like recrafting certain campaigns and writing Susan Schnur's hilarious manuscript rejection letters, are diverting; I spent two hours today scanning backlogged J-press from around the country for relevant articles, which is less diverting. (Additionally, I got newsprint all over my keyboard. Yuck.)

I've been surprised by the number of Republican ads appearing in these papers, from San Fransisco to Indiana to NY's very own Jewish Week. There's the Jimmy Carter ad, which I think is silly because it's so decontextualised, although I understand why it upset people. (Check it out here: http://www.rjchq.org/news.asp?FormMode=Detail&id=1154. If you're looking for some really wacky Carterisms on Israel, read his book, The Blood of Abraham, written while he was still the governor of Georgia; be prepared to wade through a metric ton or two of evangelically flavored observations.) But what really pisses me off are the ads that seek to tie the Democratic Party's dismissal of Joe Lieberman into some sort of anti-Semitic whatever. It's not even that--it's the implication that since you, dear reader, are of the yidn, and Joe is of the yidn, clearly he should have your support. My Landsman (Lieberman?), right or wrong. Except, wrong, because that's not how things ought to function in a democracy. (Mostly because that sort of nonsense might best be described as tribalism.) Might I be more inclined to listen to what a candidate has to say because he or she is Jewish? Maybe--at least my eye will be momentarily caught. But beyond that, I have to, you know, AGREE with the candidate.

The Republican Party may not appreciate the emerging Democratic consensus that, at the very least, Iraq has been mishandled, and needs a new plan. (There is not, of course, that much difference between a dove and a chicken. They're both birds, right? With feathers? And funny noises?) Joe Lieberman has, for an extremely long time, taken a different stance on this, an issue that promises, like in the '04 race for the presidency, to be a huge one for all Congressional seats. Dear Jewish Republicans, we're operating the system the way it's meant to work. (Voting with our brains and not our tallitot.) Please desist.

We're a cohort who's number-one question might very well be, "But is it good for the Jews?", but I'm hoping we vote smart enough to think, long-term, of what's best for everyone. If we're going to choose an issue to stand out as knocked about by the Left, it's Israel and Diaspora Zionists (although come on down to some of the Israel rallies at the UN plaza--and watch the politicians of every ilk make political hay while the sun shines). Maybe it's that I live in New York and am perfectly comfortable that I am safe as a Jew here, but this Abe-Foxman-ication feels like it diverts away from the real issues.

Sorry you lost the Dems, Joe, although if you're surprised, it just shows that you should come up for air from George Bush's tush a little more often. Rock out as an independent, and I hope you have an easy fast.

Kol tov...