The Republican Party has a two-sided albatross around its neck, an unpopular president who is trying desperately to keep an unpopular war going past Election Day so that its disastrous ending can be on the next president\’s watch.
\”I feel blessed to have been chosen by the people of Beverly Hills,\” Delshad said in a phone interview. \”As a Jewish youngster in Iran, I was a second-class citizen and kept running into closed doors.\”
On Nov. 8, the voters of California will have the chance to vote in a special election most of them did not want. That\’s no reason to stay home. After all, whether we like it or not, the election will take place, and all of California residents will have to live with the consequences.
Philip Roth was born to a generation that believed in America, and although some of them were like the undertaker in the first scene of \”The Godfather,\” who also believed in America, but went outside the courts for justice — Roth\’s parents love their country, or what they remember of it.
After kvelling about how thrilled he was to have been introduced before Republican Sen. Arlen Specter — his Jewish colleague from the Keystone state — Rick Santorum commanded the crowd to go back home and sing the gospel of President Bush.
America\’s Jews face a difficult choice in this year\’s election. For many, the Bush administration symbolizes the kind of yahoo Republicanism — shaped by evangelical Christianity and the South — that grates on the sensibilities of a highly urbanized and socially liberal community.
The 2000 presidential election was a referendum on the future — who did Americans believe could lead them forward. 2004 is a referendum on the past –who do Americans believe can prevent Sept. 11, 2001 from happening again.
It seems like we\’ve been on the verge of 2004 for ages —
presidential election years always seem to distort the space-time continuum —
but now it\’s really upon us, and a lively year it is certain to be.
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