itesser ink: progress, uncensored

The political things I understand are limited... mostly limited to the fact that I understand that I do not understand. Thus, I rarely speak out about it. (Following sporadic discussions with a coworker, I've been thinking about my positions and lack thereof more lately.)

*A note before you read the rest of this post: I use the word "Jew" many times, and some of what I say is critical. If that bothers you, replace "Jew" with a parallel word (indicating a comparable group) before reading on.*

This post rubbed me a wrong enough way to write something down, though. (To be fair, this is the original source for the bit quoted below, and I only found it at the previous link.)

Seventeen men and one woman are seeking the nomination of their parties for President of the United States. In the coming months, they will develop and present their platforms and priorities.

Many Jewish organizations are taking advantage of this opportunity to present their agenda on behalf of the Jewish community. But is their agenda also your agenda?

As American Jews, we have a broad range of priorities. Child Care. Civil Rights. Education. Environment. Health Care. Housing. Immigration. Katrina/Rita. Seniors. Wages...

The plan is simple. Thousands of Jews come together to create a domestic agenda that represents our interests. We send this agenda to every presidential candidate and request a written response. As candidates reply we publicize their views on our websites, via email, and through the press.

This bit, however, is from the first link

As American Jews we need to tell our political candidates what matters to us: not just where they stand on "the Israel question," but what stands they're willing to take on critical issues like education, civil rights, the environment, and health care. It's easy to speak out: just click here, select the 5 issues that matter most to you, and provide your name and contact information.

Except for where policy and race/ethnicity/religion and politics specifically interact I find it to be a bad idea to sequester yourself into an ethnic or religious community when speaking out about domestic policy issues. No community of any size has a single hive mind about their political priorities, but that's beside the point.

The recurrent use of "American Jew" bothers me in this context. I don't like the idea of a candidate (or his advisers) discussing the campaign and, as they're trying to decide what to focus on for the next weeks, saying, "Well, the Jews think X so we should consider Y." I also don't like to think of them saying, "Well, the blacks think X..." or "The Asians think X..." or "The pagans think X...." or "The Christians think X..."

When we're asking things of our leaders, shouldn't we just be presenting ourselves as Americans? Save for special interest groups, who have special interests, such as the specific needs of a particular community (whether it be geographic or idealistic), we shouldn't divide and specify ourselves.

Maybe if there's an event, a candidate speaking in front of one of the groups sponsoring this petition, the potential president should take the needs and requests of Jews to heart. But shouldn't they take that opportunity to speak to Jews about the things they're concerned about because they are Jews? Not just because they are Americans? Sure, include some general local/national issues, but it's a good idea to know your audience, and speak to that audience.

My brain is counter-arguing that the poll/petition is designed to help presidential candidates know that audience. To that I say it's still a bad idea to hand a politician two pieces of paper and say, "Here are the domestic priorities of the general population, and here are the domestic priorities of the American Jews". The fact that there may be other pieces of paper there, too, isn't the point. The point is that I only want the first one to be given consideration.

The government and its agents should be blind to the race and religion of its constituents. Do I say this because I have no race or religion? I don't think so, but I have no race or religion, so I can't be sure!