Oy vey! Why do people believe individuals can't think for themselves?

Oy vey. I just read an article by a "brilliant" writer lamenting that Jews are too liberal for their own good and vote liberal because they have to. Ha ha ha! The assumption about Jews falling in line and voting liberal because they are supposed to are as asinine as the comments people make about conservative African Americans. If you want to see a real debate don't watch the GOP on TV, come to a Oneg after services.

Some people can not ever realize that there are many people who don't just drink Kool Aid and can think for themselves. In my temple there are liberals and conservatives. In many congregations, we don't just blindly follow our rabbis. I can agree or disagree with mine as I feel is necessary. I can learn from him over Torah story and he can ask me to help him write the next Purimspiel with my own sarcastic bits (that came about after a recent board meeting where we were discussing the GOP field and, after I made a less than flattering mark about Perry praying for rain, I suggested that God was the ultimate prankster in sending fire to Texas while sending the rain to the Northeast).

Jews tend to be more liberal probably because we are big on education and generally, especially among the young, the more educated you are the more liberal you are. As far back as I can remember the question among my Jewish peers wasn't whether you were going to college but what college we wanted to go to (and this was in elementary school). Knowledge is power, even if that leads you to question what you were taught in religious school. Close mindedness and ignorance has led to disaster far too often.

I vote in what is best for my self interests and what I feel is my community, state or nation's self interest. Sometimes that means I vote Democratic, as I did in 2008 for Obama and then vote Republican as I did in 2009 for Gov. Christie (NJ). And while the increasing hostility to Jews (aka Israel) from the left is forcing me to take my own self interests into account, none of the potential GOP candidates for president who seem likely to get the nomination (Perry, Bachman and other Tea Party candidates), instill me with any confidence for a variety of reasons.

The "Kool Aid" writer would have done well in her lament that too many Jews are liberal, in her opinion, to note the anti-semtism from the left that is rampant on campuses. To me, it is frightening and will probably cause our children to vote for the GOP. Hopefully this liberalism from our children will free the GOP from those who cling to their guns (or whatever Obama said) and make the party once again a party that welcomes liberal minded people who just happen to also believe in a progressive small government that lives within its means while investing in the country's future.

Finally just because I am liberal on some things doesn't mean I don't have more traditional family and fiscal values in my home. As our children can attest, it may be 2011 outside, but it is 1971 in our home (though with internet and video games).