A Reader Contributes

Yesterday we wrote about Jewish voters' firm-but-unhealthy attachment to the Democratic Party. Subsequently a non-Jewish friend who has traveled to Israel several times wrote to me as follows:

Enjoyed your comments on William Levinson's article about Jewish voters. But I doubt being an "abused spouse" will change the majority of them to a more conservative stance. I think one of the defining differences between LibProgs and Conservatives is that much of what the LibProgs do politically is symbolic; it has far less to do with what is right in principle and far more to do with them thinking of themselves as "good" people doing what's best for others whether the others willingly hold still for it or not.

The focus is on how LibProgs feel about themselves. As such, those Jewish members will continue with the program, desperately trying to rationalize the lumps they take from their own (throw in a touch of "schuldig", Jewish guilt for existing) with the good intentions they think they have for their fellow man and it comes off exactly like a wife who makes excuses for a husband who bludgeons her because she thinks it may be her fault and she wants to be seen as a "good" wife in public. The motivation for loyalty has nothing to do with reality in such cases, me thinks.

He describes "virtue signaling" as it is now being called by the pundit class. And it explains, sort of, why progressives view conservatives as "evil." If one believes virtue signaling is an important and noble behavior, those who don't do it must lack virtue, must be evil.