When Alan Dershowitz was a young man, he started campaigning for the local Democratic Party. As a teenager in Brooklyn, NY, and as a college student, he made speeches for JFK.
Why is Mr. Dershowitz today leaving Democrats to register with the Republican Party? He still disagrees with the GOP on abortion, the separation of church and state, immigration, healthcare, and taxes, among other things.
According to Mr. D., writing in the WSJ, Democrats have become the most anti-Israel party in U.S. history.
Last week all but seven Senate Democrats voted for an arms embargo against the Jewish state, and an avowed enemy of Israel, Abdul El-Sayed, is gaining ground in the Democratic campaign for U.S. senator from Michigan.
Few would deny that the hard left, anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. Up until recently, there was an age gap. Younger voters more strongly opposed Israel. Today’s recent polls indicate that the trend now includes Democrats of all ages.
It is Alan Dershowitz’s belief that the Democratic Party’s hostility toward Israel signifies a deeper, more dangerous shift away from the center and toward a radical approach that is bad for America and for the free world. Dershowitz intends to work hard to prevent Democrats from gaining control of Congress. To that end, he will contribute money to Republican candidates, campaign for them, give speeches at Republican gatherings, and persuade pro-Israel Americans to change party affiliations or at least vote against Democrats.
Mr. Dershowitz goes into this thing “whole hog,” in that he can’t designate himself a “foreign policy Republican.” Since he has given up trying to change the Democratic Party, he wonders if he might be luckier in moving the Republican Party more to the center.
Alan Dershowitz’s goal is to send a message that many traditional Democratic voters can’t accept what it is becoming—a replica of left-wing European parties that are hurting their countries.
Americans tend toward political moderation. Both parties, however, have become more extreme, in part, according to Dershowitz, due to low-turnout primaries that attract passionate ideologues.
Younger voters, who tend to be more extreme, now play a more active role in politics. Perhaps they will moderate as they age, but the trend is clear: “a hard left turn that is most evident in changing attitudes toward Israel.”
Perhaps Democrats will wise up and move back toward the center, where Mr. Dershowitz says he and others would join the Party.
Maybe that is not a realistic goal, but Alan Dershowitz thinks it is worth a try.
