Cruz's "New York Values" is code for Jewish

[Cyrano]

I spent much of my life in New York. And last week, when Ted Cruz accused Donald Trump of having "New York Values," I heard it as a code word for "Jewish." It seems I'm not alone in hearing this dog whistle. Here's an excerpt from Dana Milbank's column from today's Washington Post.

When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) last month mocked Donald Trump’s “New York values,” it wasn’t entirely clear what he was implying.

This week we got a clue: For Cruz, “New York” is another way of saying “Jewish.”

At an event in New Hampshire, Cruz, the Republican Iowa caucuses winner, was asked about campaign money he and his wife borrowed from Goldman Sachs. Cruz, asserting that Trump had “upward of $480 million of loans from giant Wall Street banks,” said: “For him to make this attack, to use a New York term, it’s the height of chutzpah.” Cruz, pausing for laughter after the phrase “New York term,” exaggerated the guttural “ch” to more laughter and applause.

But “chutzpah,” of course, is not a “New York” term. It’s a Yiddish — a Jewish — one. And using “New York” as a euphemism for “Jewish” has long been an anti-Semitic dog whistle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nastiness-of-ted-cruz/2016/02/05/2cfbfde0-cc2c-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html

[underpants]

1. I took it as 90% YANKEE and 10% Jewish

But that's just me. Cruz's goal is the Super Tuesday SEC Primary

[Igel]

7. Doesn't matter.

What Cruz intended doesn't matter, what you or I perceive doesn't matter.

Somebody with far more acute perception and detection skills has spoken, and to even hint that he might be wrong is, all by itself, prima facie evidence of ingrained, pervasive institution racism by the hinter.

Hinters should go home to their Hinterland. I guess.

[Cyrano]

9. I really don't have a clue as to

what you just said. Could you please be more explicit.

[B2G]

10. I thought it was just me.

Maybe LanternWaste is giving lessons now.

Lol.

[randys1]

2. Jerry Falwell and Ann Coulter had a baby, it is Ted Cruz. Combine the SEVERE

hatred with religion and some intellect, and you have a guy not unlike that popular fellow back in the day in Germany

[awoke_in_2003]

46. That is a picture

I wish you hadn't painted.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

3. Yup.

For all their blathering about how they support Israel, the right wing sure likes to throw these dog whistles up all over the place.

This isn't even a current thing with them. Aaron Sorkin keyed into it in the pilot for The West Wing:

[Aristus]

5. I was just going to post that.

You beat me to it. Well done.

We can always count on The West Wing to reveal conservative dog-whistles. The first four seasons should be required viewing for liberals who want to be able to counter right-wing idiocies.

[elleng]

29. Ditto but I DID post it!

[Aristus]

38. Great minds, and all that...

Hi, ellen!...

[elleng]

42. YES, Aristus, I think you got it!

[Aristus]

45. Hey, I've always known you have a great mind...

[tabasco]

12. They support Israel the country because that means more war

Last edited Sun Feb 7, 2016, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

but they do not support Jews because that means liberalism.

[SwankyXomb]

28. They support Israel

because they need it for the End Times part of their Bronze Age Mental Illness.

[Hekate]

30. Dominionists support Israel for one specific war: Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the End Times.

It's time to bring back discussion of Christian Dominionism and Theocracy to DU. Research is easy, but I recommend Right Wing Watch and Theocracy Watch.org to start.

Ted Cruz's daddy is a Dominionist preacher, and they have a lot of influence in the US most of us have no idea about. They take the long view, they love home schooling and hate public schools, they now have their own colleges and a pipeline for sending pages and interns to Washington to be schooled in politics -- it really is the long view.

For Cruz and his audience, "New York values" is indeed an anti-semitic dogwhistle. They don't "love" Jews who can't be converted to Christianity, and in fact can hardly wait to consign Jews and 99% of the rest of humanity to the flames of Hell for eternity. But Jews are special, because of Jesus.

Jews also live in the Holy Land, and the modern State of Israel exists. When you hear references to "restoring Biblical boundaries" -- that's a cockeyed scheme dreamed up by people like the Dominionists. Look at a modern map of the Mid-East. Then look at an antique map. Gosh, what do you think would happen if anyone tried that?

Cruz is a theocrat, and he believes Christians are meant to rule the world.

Go! Have fun with the research! I did it back in the early days of BushCheney, and it gave me nightmares.

[elleng]

27. I re-posted, as it's late here on the right coast!

[Hekate]

33. +1

[smirkymonkey]

4. K&R

[B2G]

6. Maybe, but

I tend to think he's referring to Liberal values.

IMO.

[Cyrano]

8. Watch the video in post #3 above

Cruz meant Jewish. And if you don't buy it, ask any liberal Jew in NY what Cruz was saying. (Don't ask a Republican Jew. They refuse to "get it.&quot

[B2G]

18. Or we can just read what he said he meant.

MARIA BARTIMROMO: Sen. Cruz, you suggested that Donald Trump, quote, embodies "New York values."

Could you explain what you mean by that.

TED CRUZ: I think most people know what that means.

BARTIROMO: I'm from New York, I don't.

TED CRUZ: You're from New York so you might not...

Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media.

My friend Donald has taken to playing at his events, "Born in the USA."

And I was asked what I thought of that. If he wanted to play a song, maybe he could play "New York, New York."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/01/14/trump_parries_ted_cruzs_new_york_values_attack_with_passionate_911_reference.html

Not too many years ago, Donald did a long interview with Tim Russert, and in that interview he explained his views on a whole host of issues, that were very, very different from the views he’s describing now. And his explanation, he said, look, I’m from New York, that’s what we believe in New York. Those aren’t Iowa values, but this is what we believe in New York. And so, that was his explanation.

I guess I can frame it another way, not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I’m just saying.

[JHB]

11. That's part of it, but not all of it

To the people Cruz was playing to, New York is Sodom & Gomorrah on the Hudson, a den on iniquity and corruption. The People's Republic of Escape From New York. It's a deep dank forest full of immigrants and Catholics and Jews, oh my!

For Cruz it's a bogeyman to conjure with.

[Cyrano]

14. If you say "Boston," you think Irish

If you say "Newark," you think black.

If you say "Selma, Alabama" you think KKK.

If you say "Hawaii," you think paradise.

If you say "Fargo," you think of the movie.

If you say "New York 'Values'," you think Jewish.

Code words ain't that deep.

[hatrack]

31. Jewish, Black, Urban, Gay, Wealthy, Yankee, Northern, Liberal, Immigrant, Foreign . . .

But yeah, Jewish is a big chunk of it.

[ericson00]

13. no its not! Fact is everyone knows Trump is a gentile

so therefore, Cruz wasn't being anti-Semitic. In fact, Cruz gave a very courageous speech at IDC, one of the few good things he's ever done. He's more pro-Jewish than the BDS/anti-Israel crazies who largely support Bernie Sanders.

[Cyrano]

15. Oh, please, stop it. Stop it.

You're making my head hurt.

[B2G]

17. Actually, I think he was referring to Trump

not Jews.

But that's just me. YMMV.

[Hekate]

34. Did you forget the sarcasm thingie?

[Marrah_G]

16. I dont think so

I think he was just using the republican code words for godless liberals. but I DO think he is a bigoted, racist, antisemetic asshole.

[Mariana]

41. That could be it.

It's a natural continuation of many Republican voters' idea that the East and West coasts in general, and New York in particular, aren't "real America" and therefore the people that live in those places aren't "real Americans".

[starroute]

19. East Coast elites, liberal elites, Hollywood elites, media elites ...

All of these have a somewhat slippery meaning. Sometimes they just reflect an abiding tension within the GOP between the people of "flyover country" who consider themselves to represent the American heartland and the wealthy, cosmopolitan financial and entrepreneurial interests on the coasts.

But the same terms can also be used in dog-whistle fashion -- depending on the audience and who's being described -- to refer specifically to Jews.

And if you dig just a little deeper, you get to the most rancid right-wing conspiracy theories in which Jewish bankers are financing Jewish communists in a (possibly Satanic) plot to destroy the moral fiber of Western civilization by promoting abortion and gay marriage.

That's why the word "values" is as much of a dog-whistle as the "New York" part. It carries overtones of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that are easily overlooked by anyone not on that wavelength.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion is an antisemitic fabricated text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The forgery was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers, the Protocols are the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting where Jewish leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world's economies.

[Hekate]

32. +1

[libodem]

20. The Creep factor just increased Exponentially

And the visceral ick factor a 1000 fold. Disgusting POS.




Bet he looks foreward to some end times, Israeli conversation to Christianity, when Jesus pulls up in his private jet to Zion wearing a tux, for Armageddon.

[Cyrano]

22. There's a liberal Rabbi in New York who

I have known for many years. And though I've lived in FL for quite some time, I still email him and speak with him often.

It was perhaps about 20 years ago that he told me that "Jews have a sixth sense when it comes to antisemitism." I wasn't sure what he meant so he went on to explain that "After the Holocaust and countless centuries of pogroms and oppression, most Jews can quickly pick up on those who wish us ill." (I'm paraphrasing here, but that's the gist of what he said.)

I wasn't sure about this because I knew Jews who always voted for Republicans. He told me that there are always those who are blinded by greed, or denial. "They're just ignoring their instincts," he said.

When Cruz made that statement about "New York values," I sent him an email a few days later and asked him what he thought about it. He said that it could be a reference to Jews, but that it could also be a reference to middle America's "Sodom and Gomorrah" opinion of NY.

Perhaps it's both. But I have no doubt that Cruz was spitting on the millions who live in and around NYC. I doubt if a slime like him could be "President of all the people." And I personally believe that his "New York values" was code for "Jews."

[Hekate]

35. +1

[Paladin]

21. It's been an anti-Semitic dog-whistle phrase for decades.

Don't let anybody tell you differently.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. pretty much

[flamingdem]

24. Not just Jewish but a history of union organizing and immigration and tolerance

and intellectual excellence.

New York is way more than Jewishness though of course that's one of its strengths.

[Hekate]

25. That's exactly how I heard it as well. Millbank is spot on.

[elleng]

26. Yes, we all (I hope!) learned this from The West Wing!

[TipTok]

36. That is a crazy far reach...

[branford]

37. I am a born and bred New York Jewish attorney currently living and working in Manhattan.

Last edited Sat Feb 6, 2016, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Cruz is many things, virtually all of them politically toxic, but I and great many others find the suggestion that Cruz is antisemitic to be ludicrous.

Cruz is a typical evangelical conservative. References to the evils of New York, Los Angeles San Francisco, etc. are fairy common and banal examples of bastions of very strong liberalism, including support for same-sex marriage, abortion, affirmative action, undocumented immigrants, and opposition to conservative positions like gun rights. Jews and group tend to be more urban and liberal, but so are gays, African-Americans and other minorities, etc. in places like New York.

There is ample material to criticize Cruz, and reaching to find yet more objectionable material, no less when it appears little more than confirmation bias, is not helpful or productive. It also raises the issue of support for Israel where Cruz shines, and a matter that galvanizes Republicans and gets them to the polls yet often divides many members of the Democratic coalition.

[Hekate]

39. It's his theocratic Dominionism that's the tipoff. He's no friend...

...to anyone who happens not to be a straight white fundamentalist Christian male.

[Major Nikon]

44. The article is an opinion piece written by an author born and raised in NYC

Ted Cruz is undoubtedly a bigot and may well be anti-Semitic, but this allegation is certainly no evidence of it. "New York values" is intended to appeal to voters in the South who have deeply seeded resentment against "Yankees". If anything, it's a cheap rip-off of this commercial...

[JackRiddler]

40. Of course, and yet, it means so much more!

it's a code designed to speak to multiple prejudices, which is how it's supposed to work. These prejudices are all familiar in the RW thought-universe and individuals tend to hold more than one of them together.

Imagine he said this: Vote for me because you hate Jews, blacks, Puerto Ricans, Latinos, homer-seshuals, liberals, feminists, Yankees, egghead elitist know-it-alls who act superior to you, effete city-dwellers, the poor, readers of books other than the Bible, atheists and other anti-Christians, commie pinkos, the liberal media, hipster environmentalists who believe in global warming - oh and of course immigrants but especially Muslims, and foreigners generally (all images with which New York has always been, or is closely associated today), then THAT would be shocking. It would lose a lot of votes or get him net-zero returns, at best, and knock him out of "serious" media consideration. It's the rhetoric of the open fascist, right? It doesn't work for winning presidential elections.*

Instead he uses the code, and this allows the voter's choice to cover all of that - hell "New York" even covers the amorality of Hollywood and "sex and violence" on TV, given its frequent use in movies and series. But he can deny any of it and need get no one one specific angry enough to attack him, except the residents of a state and region he's totally written off anyway. Also, those who are members of the above groups but still RW may hear "New York values" to mean whatever they want it to mean.

This is classical culture-war politics, by the way.

===

* (Well, except Trump as he claims could say all of that while shooting a guy on Fifth Avenue and his numbers would still go up, ha ha, which has truth insofar as Trump came into this from the Celebrity Universe and thus gets to operate on different standards as the TV will always love him whether cast as villain or total villain.)

[hifiguy]

43. Yep, this dog whistle was as obvious as a grizzly bear in a phone booth. nt