WP: Jewish Membership in Congress at All-Time High

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The House includes one Muslim, two Buddhists, and 30 Jews. There are 42 African-Americans (including two non-voting delegates), and 74 female Representatives. There are also 27 Hispanics, 4 Asian & Pacific Islanders, and 1 Native American.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/110th_United_States_Congress

Sounds like we're more diversified now than ever before. Not that we don't still have a long way to go, but it's an improvement.

Here's the best part. Look at the distribution of Dem vs Rep across the US:


That's what I call progress!

Not if they all arrive at the same opinions via different routes. All these faith based politicians. Where are the ordinary ones?
Too bad about the episcopals as they tend to be more tolerant, in general. Mind you - I would feel safer if they were all atheists.

He was a Baptist.

No Martin Luther King (another Baptist).

No Malcolm X (a Muslim).

No JFK (a Roman Catholic).

No Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Tom Lantos, Russ Feingold, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, John Edwards, Robert Byrd, Barbara Boxer, or Harry Reid. How on Earth are you going to find people to vote for?

You ask, "Where are all the ordinary ones?" Do you mean it is the generic human condition to have no identifiable faith? Does that mean you shun the company of anyone who has not proclaimed his/her atheism?

I also said we still have a long way to go.

I don't discount a politician due to their spiritual belief, or lack there of, unless they spill over into their jobs where they don't belong.

It would appear that JoFerret regards politcians of identifiable religions as something other than "ordinary." JoFerret also expresses the wish for a Congress of 100 percent atheist membership. Neither view was yours, and I apologize for the confusion.

Sorry for any confusion. I was responding to JoFerret's reply to my previous post.

us from humanity.

Robertson's & Falwell's plans to turn this into a Christian Nation seem to be hitting a snag.

Snag away, Please!

Aside from that pesky Independent from Vermont ("Go Bernie!"),
who are the other three non-Democrats?

Ahh, there's the answer in the story:

> The House has one Jewish Republican, Virginia's Eric Cantor.
> In the Senate, Republicans Norm Coleman (Minn.) and Arlen
> Specter (Pa.) are Jewish.

Tesha

....more than other Rs? I know Specter tends to be more centrist if not, at times, downright D in his legislative trends, outlook, commentary and quite often votes, too (unless the R coalition is twisting his arm). OK-- I'm just talking out of my hat, so to speak, since I have not done a vote analysis or anything.

Maybe we can trade him for Lieberman? That way, the balance
of power in the Senate doesn't shift much and both men would
feel more at home in their new parties.

Tesha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Coleman

Coleman is a turd. Anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-stem cell research, anti-anything-progressive; and he had a campaign worker who had been published in a rabidly anti-semitic newspaper.

Tucker

I hear mostly white people in this country say racism no longer exist.Take a look at the military,the congress,and all of the other institutions,someone out there in race free america just ain't tell it like it is.Jewish members of the senate 13,Black member 1,house of reps 43 blacks,Jewish members?,but you can bet your bippy,there are more Jews than blacks.The percentage of Blacks to Jews in the military,many more blacks than Jews,all of you people that think I am an anti-simite,I say stuff it.Lets get real people,Religion and Racism still exist,and will continue until we face the facts.

Of course racism still exists. Everyone on DU knows it.

But this is good news - more diversity has got to be better than less!

Here's to all minorities getting fair representation, everywhere! :toast:
:dem:

Sound like a load of religiosity to me. All ice cream, different flavors.

They've been shit on by everyone for at least three millenia now. Pogroms, holocausts, invasions, slavery, segregation -- this stuff was old news to the Jews before Jesus was born. Thirty or forty percent of black Americans may live in the ghetto, but it was Jews who invented the word "ghetto."

That's why so many Jews helped found the NAACP, the ACLU, and the SPLC. That's why so many of the Freedom Riders were Jewish, and why so many Jewish organizations are dedicated to rooting out intolerance in ALL its forms. Notice that most of those Jews in congress (and in the public) are Democrats? It's for the same reason that most black people are Democrats.

Racism and bigotry are indeed alive and well, granted, but shouldn't we be HAPPY that a minority group has finally gained some ground in American politics? Isn't that a good sign for other minority groups? Instead of claiming that one group is more discriminated against than another, perhaps this story is an indication that we should be putting aside our differences and working together, and working to see that no one is discriminated against.

For the record, I grew up in a racist South not that long ago, and even attended a segregated school for a while (Reagan was president when it was desegregated). I ended up in Las Vegas because my mother remarried a Jewish man who had moved here in the early fifties. His reason for moving to Vegas? Because as a musician in New York in the 40s, he wasn't allowed to enter the venues through the front door. "Negroes and Jews Must Use Service Entrance" read the signs.

I'd nominate yours. Very nicely said and it captures what I wanted to say but could not have expressed as eloquently as you did.

n/t

Thank you.

I remember growing up as kid in Ambridge PA back in the 50s. They had a borough swimming pool, but Jews and blacks were not allowed to use it.

There were plenty of Moose, Elks, Odd Fellows and other clubs that were "RESTRICTED" and didn't allow Blacks, Jews, and sometimes Catholics into them.

There was a J C Penney store in the middle of town that Jews and Blacks were not allowed to go into.

The black part of town was at 1st street. They weren't allowed to live anywhere else.

And the Quebecois who came to work in the steel mills were just as isolated too.

Mind you this is Pennsylvania, which made Missisippi look like West Hollywood.

At least in private, the racism I've seen from the Chicago PD is far worse than anything I've witnessed from the police in East Texas (the South) or even in LA. Really scary stuff. I know that fairly recently, there were still more segregated school districts in the North than in the South.

Prejudice isn't limited to region, or race, or religion, or anything else. It's truly an AMERICAN problem.

I have many students who use anti-semitic epithets, and most of these kids have neither met a Jew nor even know what a Jew is. They also differentiate between "good" niggers and "bad" niggers. Bigotry is alive and well.

as late as the early 60's

When my mother once asked as an afterthought if there were any other Jews who were renting in an apartment we were looking at, the agent didn't hear the word 'other' and said, "Of course not, Ma'am, we wouldn't let them or N-----s in here, you have no need to worry." That's b/c my mother was blonde.

Wotta world..

My parents (Protestant mom and Jewish stepdad) were buying a piece of property. The realtor said, "Thank God the sellers aren't Jews. You know how Jews can be!"

Of course my stepdad, a Jew, said, "Uh, yeah. Sure. We're lucky for that, aren't we?. That here aren't any Jews involved? The fewer Jews involved, the better. I'd feel guilty for even buying property from a Jew. The asking price is still a little high, though..."

It was the first time since early childhood I'd witnessed outright racism, when they bussed me and a few other kids to the "black school" on Tuesdays only, because Tuesdays where when the observers came in. While I'm at it, fuck President Reagan and his "Justice" department.

We bought that property for less than the asking price, though, just like a Jew would have done. Revenge is sweet when best served cold, even if it feeds stereotypes :evilgrin:.

Even LIEberman was involved in the Civil Rights movement before he sold out.

:yourock:

Jews did not make it at the expense of blacks, and you damn well know it. Don't blame us for the system set up by the majority.

and i trust our good Goode made certain every one of them were "sworn in" on the christian bible? :sarcasm:

(Chirp. Chirp.)

Just none with the cojones to say it.

So?

This thread is delete-tastic. Someone needs to do some discussion DNA-splicing to create a hybrid Israel-Palestine/smoking/SUV/gun/gay marriage/spanking/whaling/veganism thread. It would be so volatile as to break the laws of space and time and be locked before the OP finished typing.

Just sayin'. ;)

Not bad at all, considering they're only 2 to 3 percent of the population.

Jewish or not most members of Congress and Senate take money from AIPAC and vote accordingly. This should be the real issue. Ethnic background and religion are irrelevant IMHO.

A perfect opportunity to show that the Israeli government doesn't have the influence some think it does by telling the Israeli government to go pound sand, especially on Iran.

if they don't tell the Israeli government to "go pound sand" then that is because the Israeli government has undue influence?

Sounds like a logical fallacy to me.

is somewhat overstated IMHO. The Israelis are already pounding sand which is why Likud is technically out of the seat of power. Even Ariel Sharon realized the errors of his ways before the he "died." I'm still pissed at him for sparking the timber the Second Intifada though; no one is perfect.

My point is, this is a chance to both do something right (tell the Israeli government to fuck off on attacking Iran) while using that to ALSO underline that lots of Jewish people (IIRC, a majority of Jews worldwide) don't support what the Israeli government has been doing these past few decades.

and stop being so incendiary?

Just saying...you're really a great guy, you know...

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I sure hope not.

At least he seems to be under the (mistaken) impression that they do.



But for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either. Yet those secular officials did not demand to take their oaths of office on, say, the collected works of Voltaire or on a volume of New York Times editorials, writings far more significant to some liberal members of Congress than the Bible. Nor has one Mormon official demanded to put his hand on the Book of Mormon. And it is hard to imagine a scientologist being allowed to take his oath of office on a copy of "Dianetics" by L. Ron Hubbard.

He's speaking and all the while you're trying to figure out how he remembers to breathe.

but when do we get some athiest and agnostic congress people?

:silly:

:sarcasm: