By Alvin J. Ziontz , , Bellevue
Robert Wilkes begins with the strange assertion that “America is British, not French” (“Why Jews Are Democrats, and Why I Am Not,” Oct. 31), praising the glories of British government and denouncing French political philosophers.
Sorry, Mr. Wilkes, our form of government owes as much to the French as to the British. It was Montesquieu who gave us the principle of separation of powers, Voltaire who taught the importance of freedom of thought and expression and religious freedom, and Rousseau who articulated the principle that the legitimacy of government rests on the consent of the governed — all ideas that underlie the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Why does Wilkes so vehemently attack French ideology? Because he equates it with revolutionary democracy. Conservatives are deeply distrustful of democracy; perhaps that is why the Republicans bend every effort to disqualify voters in our country.
The form of government forged by our founding fathers was uniquely American. The British Bill of Rights does not remotely resemble ours. Indeed, in England the need for a Bill of Rights was debated hotly for years and was finally enacted by Parliament in 1998.
Historically, England was a relatively tolerant country. Yet before the 20th century, life for the English working man or woman was brutal and unjust. As for the Jews, they could not vote until 1867 and complete equality was only granted in 1890.
Wilkes explains the overwhelming preference of Jews for the Democrats by telling us that, coming from “Slavic areas,” they had no understanding of a society based on law and were therefore attracted to radical Socialist or Marxist ideas. This is nonsensical; it ignores the oppressiveness of the Jewish experience in the shtetls of Russia and the Jewish passion for justice. They could easily grasp the injustice of a government run by and for the interests of the wealthy.
Wilkes scorns the achievements of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs and, for that matter, all government interference with free markets. But Franklin Roosevelt’s administration interfered with the free market by enacting the child labor laws in 1938. Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, public broadcasting on radio and television and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to list only a few.
Finally, it was the conservative movement that brought us Bush and Cheney and led to the most disastrous period in American history. Jews are not stupid. We recognize that it has been the Democrats who have brought this nation just and humane government.