There are some cracks showing up in the armor of the supposedly “resilient” Democratic Party after their “highly successful” Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. To be sure, the fundraising for the campaign has experienced a strong surge, but that was to be expected after so many major donors and bundlers publicly declared that their wallets were snapping shut if Joe Biden remained the nominee. Harris has also seen a longer-than-expected “honeymoon” period in the polls and she can’t be written off as potentially winning at this point. (With apologies. We call ’em as we see ’em around here.) But the Democrats are also losing some of their oldest and most widely respected supporters. One example of this was seen a couple of weeks ago when well-known Jewish legal scholar and political commentator Alan Dershowitz told a radio host that he was leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent. He said his decision was prompted by the DNC, which he described as “the worst convention in American history.” He simply could not abide by all of the anti-Israel, anti-zionist speakers who were invited to appear at the event. (NY Post)
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Renowned legal scholar Alan Dershowitz recently announced that he is leaving the Democratic Party, after being “disgusted” by what he witnessed at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
The retired Harvard Law School professor, who is a longtime self-described liberal Democrat, told radio host Zev Brenner on Aug. 23 that he felt the Chicago gathering was “the worst convention in American history” because of the number of speakers who have publicly expressed opposition to Israel.
“They had more anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist people who were speaking, starting with [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] – a miserable, anti-Zionist bigot,” Dershowitz said during an appearance on “Talkline with Zev Brenner.” “Then of course they had [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren, who is one of the most anti-Jewish people in the Senate. Then they had Bernie Sanders, one of the most anti-Jewish people in the Senate.”
For those of you who may have never delved that deeply into Alan Dershowitz’s background, this isn’t some random Jewish activist who just came out of the woodwork. He’s 86 years old and he’s been a Constitutional scholar and professor for as long as most of us can remember. He’s written countless books on the law and is a frequent opinion contributor in the media. He has always described himself as a lifelong liberal Democrat. He opposes the Second Amendment and fits in with nearly every traditional liberal stereotype you could imagine.
Dershowitz also isn’t some closet MAGA Trump supporter who suddenly decided to come clean. It’s true that he was hired to help defend Trump in one of his recent trials, but Dershowitz has made a career out of protecting people’s right to the best defense possible when they are accused of crimes. He’s defended everyone from O.J. Simpson to Jeffrey Epstein. Despite his deep-seated liberal views, there is a lot to respect about this guy.
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His main complaint with the DNC was the lineup of anti-Israel speakers who were paraded in front of the crowd to great applause. They included AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. He described both of the latter as “the most anti-Jewish people in the Senate.” The convention was apparently a bridge too far and he bid farewell to his former party.
But even after he signaled his exit, virtually no prominent Democrats stepped up (at least in public) to offer an apology or try to find some middle ground with Dershowitz. This clearly seems to have been a calculated trade on the part of the Democrats, but it appears to be a very short-sighted one. Kamala’s party is obviously ready to throw reliable Jewish voters under the bus in the interest of mopping up every last pro-Hamas, Islamic, antisemitic vote in Michigan and a handful of other places. But when the election is over – no matter who wins – why would these Jewish voters suddenly come migrating back home to the Democrats? Jews everywhere, particularly in America have valid reasons for maintaining long memories. When antisemitism suddenly bubbles over, the results are uniformly horrifying, and they are always vigilant against it. Trading those votes away for those of a relative handful of young people marching in the streets today while screaming for “Intifada” is a self-inflicted wound that likely won’t heal anytime soon.
