The man who "invented the Internet" now claims he is "tearing down an old wall of division.

Monday, August 21, 2000

The man who "invented the Internet" now claims he is "tearing down an old wall of division." That’s what Vice President Al Gore bragged when he chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate for the presidential election. Al Gore deserves a modicum of credit for political courage in choosing a Jewish person, but he gets a good deal more credit for political sagacity because most of an earlier wall was torn down long ago.

Al Gore and Democrat spokesmen are making an almost theatrical production out of the choice of Lieberman as pioneering in equal rights. If it were that, it would make news and good news at that, and the news media would appropriately and profitably also play it up. However, it is not that. Gore is again claiming credit that is not his.

Gore boasted: "We voted with our hearts to make history by tearing down an old wall of division, and when we nominate Joe Lieberman for vice president, we will make history again." He did not say when he previously made history, unless he meant that Internet thing. But I thought he had backed away from that when publicly confronted with the facts. Yet, he has claimed a number of other history-making things, and it could be any of those.

In tortured language that would do credit to a Bush, Gore also said: "We will tear down an old wall of division once again." That is redundant. If the old wall had been torn down, how can he "tear (it) down once again"? More seriously, the wall of ethnic discrimination – which was in truth a formidable barrier – did once exist. Jewish people were excluded not only from many political offices (especially outside heavily Jewish voting districts in which Jews voted for Jews), but social clubs, neighborhoods and private schools. In business, they were forcibly confined to stereotypical roles in finance, clothing or junk dealing.

The most bitter and persistent anti-Jewishness formerly came, rabbis have complained to me, from Roman Catholics and, especially, in those communities where both were prominent. "Christ-killer," they report, most frequently came from them. Ironic this, because Catholics themselves also were so discriminated against. Happily, both anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic prejudice has at least dissipated from all but a few isolated and insular areas.

Gore is pleased to compare his appointment of Lieberman with the Democrat victory of John F. Kennedy, although he doesn’t take credit for that. Along with the blind prejudice against Catholics that was only too evident at that time, some today forget that many honestly feared a Catholic in the White House, based on the historical record of religious tyranny in European and Latin American palaces. That is to say, the Roman Catholic Church did in fact often dictate to secular rulers under the threat and fact of excommunication. What won the election for Kennedy is that he convinced the American public that neither the pope nor his bishop would exercise inappropriate influence on American government.

The wall that was torn down then was, first, the Catholic Church coming to American democracy and, then, the American public coming to believe this respect.

The anti-Jewish prejudice that persists today is, interestingly, rather much within the Democrat Party, especially some of the extreme black groups. Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton have said against Jews things that if a Jew said against blacks would result in the Jew being condemned fatally. It is Al Gore’s task to convince such blacks that they are being as bigoted against Jews as some whites have been against them. I find egregious the bitter remarks made by Lee Alcorn, recently forced to resign as head of Dallas NAACP. I am pleased that Jesse Jackson has shown responsible leadership in endorsing Lieberman.

I worry, however, about Gore’s rejoicing that Lieberman will bring him "the Jewish vote." It is almost as undemocratic to vote for a person entirely or largely because of bias toward that person as it is to vote against him because of negative bias.

One of the most ridiculous claims being made by Democrats and some of the press is that the best example of anti-Semitism comes from the "religious right." If the religious right is to be denigrated relative to Jews and Israel it is that some are uncritically Zionist. They are so pro-Israel they become anti-Arab (which is anti-Semitism, inasmuch as Arabs also are Semites). If Lieberman were running as a Republican, he could count on strong support from the religious right, and any opposition from that direction sustains a different concern.

I commend Al Gore for choosing Joseph Lieberman. However, it’s no big deal. America was ready for a Jewish vice president, before Gore ever thought of it.

Wallace Alcorn’s column appears Mondays