A Radical Reset

Republican Fringe and the Jewish Vote: It's Not About the Money, Honey

• Herby • Season 1 • Episode 31

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The looming conflict with Iran raises pressing questions about American national security, global stability, and the complex dynamics of domestic politics. Why should Americans care about Iran's nuclear ambitions? The answer transcends simple allegiances to Israel—it's about preventing a regime guided by religious extremism from acquiring weapons that could ultimately threaten American soil.

When examining Iran's capabilities, we must recognize the critical difference between their leadership and other nuclear powers. Unlike North Korea's pragmatic dictatorship, Iran's theocratic leaders embrace martyrdom as virtuous. This religious zealotry makes traditional deterrence strategies potentially ineffective. Meanwhile, disrupting Iran's oil exports creates strategic leverage against China, which depends entirely on Middle Eastern energy—revealing how Middle East policy connects directly to our competition with Beijing and broader national interests.

Against this backdrop, I explore why Jewish Americans predominantly vote Democratic despite many holding economically conservative views. The answer lies in the persistent anti-Semitism from figures like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who perpetuate dangerous tropes about Jewish power and influence. While problematic voices exist on both sides of the political spectrum, right-wing anti-Semitism is perceived as more mainstream within Republican circles, explaining why "when push comes to shove, we value our lives far more than money." This political reality demonstrates how identity and security concerns often transcend economic interests in shaping voting patterns. As military action in the Middle East unfolds, these intersecting forces of national security, geopolitical strategy, and domestic politics will continue shaping America's response to global challenges.

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Speaker 1:

Hello, ladies and germs. Ladies and germs, listen to me, it's me, herbie, your host on a Radical Reset Today. Well, I'm going to opine on what's going on in the Middle East and the impending attack on Iran, but from, I think, a little different angle, and I want to talk about the reason most Jews are Democrats. Now, I know this sounds like it wouldn't be connected to the subject matter at hand directly, but it is, so. Stick with me, I want to talk about it and I want to focus on a couple of personalities. So let me just start up. There is no rational case to be made, no objective case to be made, not to attack Iran. If you're the president of the United States, I'm just going to make that as a flat statement, and that's for a very simple reason For the people who cannot understand why it's in America's interest not just Israel's interest, but America's interest to take out the Iranian nuclear capability and possibly decapitate the regime, and why this is not a war of regime change. I'm going to explain that briefly and then I'm going to talk about anti-Semitism in the context of why Jews in America are mostly Democrats. When you would think, with a guy like President Trump who has Jewish grandchildren and a Jewish daughter and son-in-law and is a great friend of Israel, in fact the best friend Israel has ever had in the Oval Office. Why aren't Jews flocking to the Republican Party and joining up? And it's going to all be part of this discussion today and I'm going to go quickly, but so first let's talk about why. It's in US interest, not just Israel's interest. Israel's not pulling us into this war. Folks, I hear a lot of armchair generaling by people who have never served a day in the military nor have any understanding of global perspective and issues and military strategies and what goes on. I know I've said in a previous podcast that war is the last step of diplomacy, is the ultimate step of diplomacy, and that without war diplomacy means nothing. I stand by that and in this case we tried to talk them out of it. But here's the thing they have ballistic missiles.

Speaker 1:

Let's put aside the nuclear question for just one moment. Nobody really argues that if Iran wants to have a nuclear missile, there is no disagreement, not between the United States or France or England or Germany or any other. There is rare world unanimity that Iran is a state on the edge of developing a nuclear weapon and nobody wants them to have it. There is an odd unanimity. Even a country like France, who has been weak on the issue of Hamas and Gaza, from Israel's point of view, is incredibly strong when it comes to Iran. They have all seen the intelligence. There's no doubt about it. There's been a lot of intelligence sharing going on, as you can tell by the precision of Israel's attacks. They know everything that's going on in that regime and there's simply no doubt about it.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you add that to a ballistic missile ballistic means guys, that word gets thrown around a lot it means that the missile gets to outer space before it comes back down again. So it means that the missile gets to outer space before it comes back down again. So it's really just a question of power and aerodynamics If you can make a missile, and they have one. It's a Persian name that starts with an S. I think it's an S, you know, shobashadeh or something like that. That's not the name, don't write me, I just made that up, but it's some Iranian name like that. They already have one that can go 3,000 kilometers and there's approximately 1.8 kilometers per mile. So you're looking at a missile they have now that can shoot about 2,000 miles Now that still won't get to the United States by a long shot.

Speaker 1:

But Korea was in that very same position and now has ballistic missiles that can reach the United States and Iran. It will not take them long to develop a ballistic missile that can reach the United States. It'll be much easier for them to do that than to actually make a nuclear warhead itself. So they could easily have a similar brain within range, and Iran would be the worst state actor in the world, worse than North Korea. And the reason that they're worse than North Korea is the North Koreans are atheists and Kim would like to be in power and enjoy the fruits of his work and enjoy his life here, because he has no belief in afterlife.

Speaker 1:

But we have a fanatic regime run by Islamist fanatics who really believe there are 48 virgins. I might have the wrong number of virgins there. It might be 46. It might be 46. It might be 49. But I believe it's 48 virgins waiting for them in the afterlife to celebrate their good fortune. And if you really believe that and you really believe that the United States is the great Satan and they really believe it, there's nothing that would indicate otherwise. Don't think like an American. Don't think to yourself where they're just saying that they don't mean it, they absolutely mean it.

Speaker 1:

You know, one of the interesting things that came out about the Soviet Union after it fell and no, I'm not changing the subject is that in 1992, when Boris Yeltsin opened up the archives of the KGB and we got to see all the private notes and conversations and things of the inner circles of Soviet power, from Lenin all the way to the very end, and Gorbachev, of all of those guys, they believed it. They were committed communists. It wasn't lip service, they weren't making lips. You know, in private, stalin was a committed communist and believed basically and this is how a sociopath thinks, but you've basically got to break a lot of eggs to make an omelet so he understood that he had killed millions of people but it was in service of the greater good. He was a committed communist and socialist.

Speaker 1:

Well, we have people that are 100 times more dangerous than that in the Iranians because they're committed Islamist fanatics and believe that they'll be rewarded for doing this very thing. And there is, and they have been very consistent. Don't try to read in your American values into an Eastern religious mind. You're going to get very, very well, you're just wrong. Okay, so that's that, that's number one. But now let's trend. And the oh, by the way, the other thing that's in the US interest, besides, sparing this nuclear attack ultimately and you can't wait for this to happen you can't wait for the day when they actually have the ballistic missiles, because then they can blackmail us. It just takes a launch and one to get through and, as you can see by Israel's vaunted best-in-the-world missile defense, sometimes ballistic missiles in particular get through. So that's number one.

Speaker 1:

Number two is China. Now, not that the Chinese are going to come to the aid of the Iranians, but this puts us in a terrific position in our negotiations with the Chinese, because the Chinese derive 100% of their oil, not part of it. All of it from the Middle East and almost all of that from Iran. And because of that, if this is the reason, by the way, the Karg Island, which is the Iranian facility where they refine and ship their oil overseas and where the ships come to pick it up, the tankers, has not been destroyed by Israel, and that's strictly, I'm certain, at the request of the United States, who wants to use it as a bargaining chip against the Chinese. It would only make sense and think about it.

Speaker 1:

So the Chinese who right now, by the way, are in a desperate situation economically if you've been following it at all, I mean really desperate, like as bad as it could possibly be it's at the brink of economic collapse and I believe, as a side note, a year from now China will not resemble the China we know today. Just in one year from today, if it isn't a full-scale civil war, the unraveling will have obviously begun of the country. And there are collapsing demographics and horrible, horrible economic statistics going on and all of the things that can go wrong with. Central control has gone wrong and they're digging themselves in deeper. But on top of all of that, they import all of their energy or all of their oil that they need. They do have, by the way, coal and nuclear plants, but they can't live without oil. And there you go, live without oil, and there you go.

Speaker 1:

So it's enormously in the US interest to back Israel and to be with them in this fight. It's as much as we could. We have as much on the line. We have more on the line in some ways than we did in World War II, because Hitler couldn't launch a nuclear ballistic missile at us Just saying, okay, so why?

Speaker 1:

Let's address the initial question I asked why are Jews in the United States and there's no doubt about this Jews are overwhelmingly Democrats, when Democrats are clearly the power of what's the word I'm looking for at this point in time. They are wasteful. They are, I mean, all the things that gross all of us out about progressive politics grosses out all the Jews too. So why did they remain in the Democratic Party? And I'm going to give you two names that are emblematic of the reason why, and those two names are Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are clearly anti-Semites. On the right there is a strong.

Speaker 1:

Historically, the Republican Party was the party of the country clubbers and the anti-Semitic Gentiles for many, many decades. It went without saying, and there used to be a question asked among Jews and I know this, being Jewish which is basically why are we capitalists that vote like communists? And the answer is when push comes to shove, we value our lives far more than money and therefore we as a group not me personally, but we as a group have always and continue to side with democratic politics because the Republican Party was historically the party of anti-Semites. That has changed dramatically in the mainstream of the Republican Party. But that fringe has simply morphed itself. That anti-Semitic Republican country club fringe has morphed itself to become part of MAGA. But they can't help themselves but allow their nascent anti-Semitism to come squeaking out, as it did this week with Tucker Carlson this past week and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who over and over and over, refer to Jews controlling the defense establishment, having inordinate control of the American government.

Speaker 1:

These are all anti-Semitic tropes. And for those of you who are even inclined to believe nonsense like that, jews represent—and Let me see, there are in the whole world. There are about 12 million, about 15 million Jews worldwide in the whole world and half of those are in Israel, and all the rest are spread out all over the planet. There's just not enough of us. You know, if we were running everything, how come we keep getting our heads crapped on over and over and over again throughout history? I mean, it's an old anti-Semitic trope, over and over and over again throughout history. I mean it's an old anti-Semitic trope and yet it's one that Tucker Carlson repeats. He is the living embodiment of everything that is repulsive about that old brand of right-wing anti-Semite man. He doesn't wear socks with his loafers. He went to Lawrenceville Academy and Elitist Prep School in New Jersey. He went to the Ivy League. He is born and bred to be an anti-Semite. Even his name, tucker Carlson Okay, could there be a more Gentile anti-Semite name? And probably not. And as for Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, on top of her being an anti-Semite, and who said many, many things, guys I'm not going to list them for you here in a podcast Just Google on Marjorie Taylor Greene anti-Semitic comments, and you'll find plenty. And Tucker Carlson too.

Speaker 1:

They just disguise it in this opportunity to make claims like Israel is forcing the United States into a war. That's just an anti-Semitic trope. Israel has 9 million people. 2 million of them are Israeli Arabs, so 7 million Jews. If you believe the Jews are so powerful. So you'd have to believe that this little teeny country of 7 million people is telling a country of 340 million people that you have to do what we tell you. It's just mind-boggling. And then you know. You see posts like Marjorie Taylor Greene posted. I saw a post earlier.

Speaker 1:

We give $3.8 billion a year to Israel and they should do it. Folks. We don't give Israel $3.8 billion. We give Lockheed and Northrop Grumman and Boeing $3.8 billion a year that we funnel through Israel. So Israel doesn't have a choice. They're not even asked about this. This $3.8 billion that goes to Israel immediately must be spent as per the deal, so to speak, for American arms, whether Israel needs them or not. So all that is is $3.8 billion creating a lot of American jobs. If you have a problem with that, then by all means be my guest.

Speaker 1:

But there's a lot more to these issues, and these simplistic anti-Semites know that they pick and choose their facts. You know figures lie and liars figure. Just remember that Figures lie and liars figure liar's figure. Just remember that Figures lie and liars figure. And Jews are Democrats and will continue to be until people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Now you would ask yourself, with people like Ilhan Omar and AOC, why aren't Jews leaving the Democratic Party in droves? And historically, by historic standards, they are About a third of Jews now are Republicans, but the other two-thirds they still. It's hard, it's, you know. You look at AOC and Ilhan Omar and they're a joke. They're not even taken seriously by the mainstream of their own party, where Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene are extremely seriously taken within the Republican ranks and they are part of the woke right. Let's call it, call it whatever you, I don't know if that's even the right term for it, but they're part of that right wing. They've insidiously infiltrated MAGA and brought their filthy anti-Semitic ideas with them.

Speaker 1:

Tucker Carlson is a low. I knew it, by the way. Put all the anti-Semitism aside. And for those of you at this moment saying, there goes the Jew with all of his victimhood story, you just haven't listened to me long enough to understand. But let me cite another instance Tucker Carlson metaphorically performing fellatio on Putin when he went to Russia and would point out how great everything was and how much better and cheaper they were in the stores, with no understanding of what he was looking at, no understanding of what Russian per capita income is. Yeah, things are cheaper in Russian stores because Russians make about a fifth of what we do per capita. I mean, tucker Carlson's ignorance was on display and yet he's never backed up, backed off, although he's been told he's a pig. I don't often say that about people, but Tucker Carlson might be the biggest mainstream pig of all. In fact, he's definitely the biggest mainstream pig of all he had on the other day.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if you saw this Ted Cruz Now, ted Cruz is not a popular person, even among his fellow senators. I'm going to blow this joke, but there's some kind of joke that goes around Washington that says one senator asked another senator why did you instantly you seem to instantly hate Ted Cruz? And the other senator's response was it saves time. I know I blew that, but everyone hates him. That knows him, so that doesn't surprise me. But you have to hand it to the to him. He's he's the furthest thing from stupid.

Speaker 1:

And he went on Carlson's show, I think, suspect, I think, probably believing he was going to have a friendly interview or a semi-friendly interview. Anyway, carlson starts playing gotcha with him and asking you know what's the population of Iran and the names of the provinces, and so you know things that are not really relevant to the decision-making of what's in the interest of the United States. How many people Iran has unless they're going to swim all 92 million of them at us only points to why Israel would be afraid of them. Imagine that you're a country of 9 million people and you're surrounded at one point by a billion hostile neighbors. Now, thanks to the Abraham Accords and thanks to making peace with Sunni Islam, israel does not have as many hostile neighbors as they once did. But Iran still has more than 10 times the population of Israel. So you know, like in a land war it would be a real big problem. But you know, of course it's an irrelevant consideration in the era of modern weaponry.

Speaker 1:

So why did Hunter Carlson play gotcha with Ted Cruz? To give him a cover to go ahead and move on with his anti-Semitic crap. So I know I wouldn't. Really. That's about as nasty as I get, guys. You just heard me at my nastiest Cause.

Speaker 1:

I really really find Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor green repellent, human reptilian slugs, putrefying maggots, of mendacity. I mean, they're absolutely the most. I just I cannot put into words how little I like these people and why they have a following. I've tried to listen to Tucker Carlson long before the Israeli issue and long before his anti-Semitism came out so clearly and I have never respected. He's of weak intellect and you know he's a man that puts on a good show of being bright when in fact he's not bright. What he is is a snob from a snob's background.

Speaker 1:

And anyway, I've made my point. How do I close by saying something nice, okay, so today is June the 18th. I'm just going to make a prediction. I believe that the attack from the United States will come sometime between now, when I'm recording this podcast, it's 5.30 in the evening. I'm a little bit late today for other reasons. I had some other stuff I had to take care of Between now 5.30 in the evening on the 18th and the morning of the 20th. This will all be over because that would be six days, the 13th through the 19th and I believe, for symbolic reasons alone, israel will wrap this puppy up in six days, in other words, the six-day war I'm alluding to, where Israel mopped up the ground with the combined armies of the entire Arab world back in 1967. Okay, that's all of the history lesson. That's all of my rant for today.

Speaker 1:

This is a fairly brief podcast. I've made my point. To summarize Jews are still Democrats because of people like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are using the Iran issue, where clearly the United States has a national interest in its own defense, as an excuse to let their anti-Semitic freak flags fly. And that's it for today. Thanks very much. Have a beautiful rest of your day. I'll talk to you on Friday and hopefully we'll be talking about the aftermath of this and we'll spend some time on that, or who only knows what happens between now and Friday. Things happen so fast these days, who knows. Have a beautiful rest of your day. God bless you and God bless America.