Wrong And Strong

I don’t think I have to assert anyone my staunch support for Preserve Ramapo. Any resident of Rockland county with an IQ higher than 21 should support them, unless they want to end up living in a swamp and paying a very high price for it. One article on their site caught my attention. With all due respect to the author, he totally misses the point. I reproduce an abreged version here, (in italics) responding to his points one by one. Read the original here.

Ramapo’s Hasidic bloc vote provided victory for DA Zugibe and for Sheriff Kralik's re-elections." That "margin of victory" would be the villages of Kaser and New Square…
New Square Deputy Mayor Spitzer explains that neither New Square nor any other group that votes together has anything to apologize for when it comes to taking care of their own interests. Other ethnic and racial groups, as well as unions, traditionally vote for one party or another.” Spitzer suggests that New Square is just like other groups - taking care of their own interests. It is impossible to find an equivalent insult to truth.

1. Kaser and New Square are not an ethnic group; they are sects. There are no racial groups or unions that repeatedly vote 100% to 0. The only other 100 to 0 or 99 percent to 1 percent elections occurred in Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.

This is circular reasoning – the very reason they reason as one is that they are a sect. One cannot leave his race, but dissidents do leave Square and Kaser (albeit too few). The comparison to Communism is disingenuous because in Russia and Iraq there was only one candidate. In unions elections are also pretty much self-rigged: those who vote are the interested parties. Those who don’t are those who joined their union because unions have every major organization by the throat, and you can’t get a job without signing on. For such people the vote is meaningless as the Union leaders make high six figures to cut sweetheart deals with big corporations on the backs of workers who get low hourly wages. The reason Kaser and Square vote in bloc and en masse because they know that each vote counts, and they know their little parasite paradise is at stake – and they know how to ensure it. As George Benson said - never give up on a good thing.

2. "Other groups" hear the pleadings of many candidates. Whom to vote for is not dictated by a community's leaders, who decide how the village would vote. "Other groups" do not obediently submit to the orders of "community leaders." They think for themselves. A community's interests may be similar but voters are never 100 percent in agreement about which candidates will best serve their interests.

Kaser and Square also heard all candidates, and systematically sell their souls to the highest (read: most corrupt) candidate. As per your caims that others think for themselves… we’ll get back to it. But according to my observations hardly anyone thinks at all. If anyone thinks for themselves, these are the Sqverers who know exactly what’s good for them, and don’t need the Rebbe (=ADMO”R , Shaman) to tell them what and how to get it.

3. More people vote in presidential and gubernatorial elections than in local elections, an indisputable fact. Not so in New Square and Kaser. The combined tally for the two villages in the local elections of 2003 and 2005 was 5,085. In the presidential and gubernatorial elections of 2004 and 2006, only 4,626. In the presidential and governor's elections of 2004 and 2006, 200,051 voted in Rockland, compared to 125,509 in local elections of 2003 and 2005; 60 percent more for president and governor. In New Square and Kaser, turnout is 10 percent higher in local elections.
Why are New Square and Kaser so distinguishably different from the rest of the county and the entire nation? As an editorial in this newspaper asked, "Are all the voters registered in the area living in the area?"

Now now. You just touched on a very painful topic. This country was originally conceived and built from the bottom up, and specifically opposed to the other possibility. This has, sadly, changed over the past several decades, because most people became addicted to comfort and entertainment. If not for people being so busy with Lidsey Lohan shaking herself and A-Rod clutching his ball or gulping another Bud, the Hassidim would not have nearly the weight they carry now. Any citizens’ first duty is to be well acquainted with local politics and politicians, even if MTV doesn’t tell you so.

As to why they are so different – because we live in a Democracy that allows Larry Flint and Summer Redstone to become millionaires, Nazis demonstrating openly and blacks rioting with impunity. So too, nutty groups like Amish, Mormon, Davidian and Hassidic sects are tolerated. What should not be tolerated is their fraudulent enterprises, bribery and government-milking frauds.

Your last question hits the nail on its head – we’ll come back to this later.

4. Rocklanders believe the county's poorest communities are Spring Valley and Haverstraw, where the median family income is $45,000. Not true! The county's poorest communities are Kaser and New Square where the median family income is $12,000 to $13,000, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. How do those village families with four, five and six kids exist? Is it a self-imposed poverty or are they victims of an unsympathetic economy? Please Deputy Mayor Spitzer, explain.

Again, a little more examining reality instead of J-Lo’s cutlets, and thinking for oneself instead of reading the Cosmopolitan wouldn’t hurt anyone. Poverty and richness aren’t defined by median income but by de-facto income, something John Zogby never told you and never will. Neither will Hillary, Pelosy or any pseudo-Republican sellouts. Have you ever walked the streets of New Square or Kaser? Have you ever been in their homes? They have huge, lavishly furnished houses, late-model fancy cars, not six but sixteen kids, all outfitted in matching European designer clothing, and the workweek averages 22 hours of schmoozing in the mikva. So where does the money come from? From you, idiot. Take out your last paystub, and look at all those deductions – where do you think the money goes? These people are “victims” of an economy that’s all too sympathetic to dependency, selling votes against turning a blind eye to corruption, racketeering and defrauding the treasury (how do you think that wild turkey Teddy Kennedy stays in power so long?). Of course half the voters come from Brooklyn! Where do you think all the residents went once (actually twice) they voted in Rockland? They went to reciprocate in Brooklyn! So why aren’t they investigated and prosecuted? Again, because as long as there’s running water and the beer is cold and Britney is hot, the Jones won’t do a thing.

5. Young people from all "other groups" are in the armed forces. Dozens of kids from Haverstraw and Spring Valley are, but none from New Square and Kaser. If this absence were due to a religious abhorrence to war and killing I would shout my support. Sadly, that is not the case.
I anticipate this view will trigger accusations of anti-Semitism or "self-hating Jew." I preempt the allegation. I am a very proud secular Jew. Proud of the contributions to humanity of secular Jews like Einstein, Freud and thousands of others in the sciences, literature and arts.
In my 83 years I have felt the searing sting of anti-Semitism, as has my extended family in a more tragic way. I saw with my own eyes, as a U.S. combat soldier in Germany, the holocaustic consequences of Nazi anti-Semitism. If this preemption doesn't shield me, I say to the accusers, if I am anti-Semitic and a "self-hating Jew" then so are millions of Israeli Jews who resent the "haredim"'s (Hebrew word for ultra-Orthodox) perversion of their democracy.

I hear this idiotic argument all too often. Recruitment in suburbia is usually 0%, except for the pockets of poverty (someone’s gotta do our dirty work, ain’t they? Can’t make ‘em commute from Rednecktown). Why do you think you mentioned Spring Valley and Haverstraw, not West Nyack or Bardonia?
The Charedim in Israel refuse to join the army because they are ideologically opposed to a secular, [anti] Jewish state. This is quite a complex issue, but to put it simply, you wouldn’t expect the Indian tribes to join Cortez’s army, would you? And yes, the “millions” of secular Israelis who hate Charedim are, in fact, racists and Anti-Semites. The bulk of IDF soldiers (not the fat armchair generals who have fun with the girls and have high salaries) come mostly from traditionalist homes, and are far less resentful of Charedim. In short, don’t confuse the media with the population.
Those who reject our Law, the Torah, and view themselves as “Jews” based on nothing but race, are, indeed, nothing but racists. Resentment of Charedim is really blatant mostly among the ultra-secular, leftist elites, who, for the most part, dodge the Army under different excuses.

Being a Jew has nothing to do with Einstein and Freud. They were secular-western people who contributed to modern society, but their Jewish lineage was accidental, and irrelevant to their accomplishment. If you credit Judaism with Einstein’s discoveries, shouldn’t you credit Judaism with David Twerski’s (ADMO”R of Square) evil and corruption?

In short, there’s nothing undemocratic with bloc-votes or belonging to a nutty sect. There is everything undemocratic with corruption, fraud and theft – as well as tolerating them. Those who listen to Lindey Lohan who tells them “don’t go to vote – look at my wares” are a thousand time nuttier sect that those who listen to a corrupt rebbe who tells them where to bet more bang for their buck.

© Joseph Izrael 2007