Why are most Jews Democrats?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Socially conservative?  Really?  American Jews are about 90% secularized, clarence.  Think Woody Allen.

I mean real Jews... not just of Jewish heritage but actual practicing Jews. I probably know more Hebrew then Woody Allen- I can recite the Shema

Orthodox Jews in concentrated communities actually tend to swing very heavily on the basis of personal attributes, real or perceived, of the candidates. Some of the really densely packed Orthodox enclaves in the New York exurbs went from 95% Gore in 2000 to 95% Bush in 2004. Non-Orthodox practicing Jews tend to live in similar social and cultural environments to their secularized counterparts and they're from a cultural and religious tradition that strongly emphasizes values like social solidarity as well as (we can argue about 'more than' or 'less than', but certainly as well as) personal success. The New Deal/Great Society ideals seem to have a lot of appeal within a Jewish mindset, or at least a certain type of Jewish mindset that's common among American Jews.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's a cultural thing. Just like why are most Congregationalists and Episcopalians Republican? The answer is that they historically stuck to the GOP back in the days when that party represented moderate-to-liberal New England upper crust WASPism.

Nowadays, however, that's changed, as those are among the denominations whose polities are becoming more associated with the political left. The days when you could really say that about most Congregationalists and Episcopalians were also back when you could generalize about the 'Catholic vote' (and say that it usually went Democratic).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It's a cultural thing. Just like why are most Congregationalists and Episcopalians Republican? The answer is that they historically stuck to the GOP back in the days when that party represented moderate-to-liberal New England upper crust WASPism.

Nowadays, however, that's changed, as those are among the denominations whose polities are becoming more associated with the political left.

The members of those churches, most likely, are far more right-wing than the clergy and doctrine espoused by both though, so it's hard to say how Democratic religious WASPs really are at this point.

That really isn't the case. I'm not positive about Congregationalism but the divisions of the Episcopal Church telegraph pretty closely at most levels of its structure, by nature of its polity. Right-wing parishes and dioceses aren't going to be choosing these people as their rectors and bishops. There's a definitive progressive, often left-leaning-Anglo-Catholic or 'emergent' depending on the parish majority, and a sizable conservative, often Evangelical-leaning minority, in the House of Deputies as well as the House of Bishops.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Fun fact: I sat down once and worked out that every single New England state has a higher proportion of Episcopalians than any non-New England state other than for some bizarre reason Wyoming, which has more than Massachusetts but not by much.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've noticed that in the PCUSA too, but if it's a phenomenon that's present in the ECUSA it's considerably less stark and I haven't noticed it in years of being a practicing, every-week Episcopalian. As I said, ECUSA demographics are among other things overwhelmingly Northeastern.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

That is within the general bailiwick of what I would guess, something like ~57-60 Obama for the whole church (which, it must be remembered, is one of the more liberal mainline Protestant ones). It's the clergy being that overwhelmingly Democratic that's surprising to me, considering how many roughly 60-40 votes (percentagewise, since there are 110 bishops) on contentious issues go down in the House of Bishops. (The episcopate might be more conservative than the priesthood. This is the case in England. It's often hard to notice what views a parish priest might or might not register.)

There are admittedly some residual Yankee Republicans among Episcopalians in the Northeast, I would venture to guess more so than with many other denominations in this area, but you can still hardly call Episcopalians as a group conservative or Republican-leaning, especially if we're being compared within mainline Protestantism. I would also take the American Spectator's statistics, unless they're specifically sourced, with a grain of salt.

I wasn't disputing rough parity among mainline Protestants in general whatsoever. I've been to some fairly conservative Episcopal parishes, though not nearly as many as conservative Presbyterian or Methodist ones. By all means do see what you can find on Pew. This is interesting to me.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've noticed that in the PCUSA too, but if it's a phenomenon that's present in the ECUSA it's considerably less stark and I haven't noticed it in years of being a practicing, every-week Episcopalian. As I said, ECUSA demographics are among other things overwhelmingly Northeastern.

Though let's be honest dude, you live in Amherst. If I based my estimates entirely on my experience in Minneapolis I'd conclude that a majority of evangelicals are Democrats and evangelical clergy are more likely than not to oppose anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives.

...True. Ah, Amherst, the cultural context within which I am a 'Christian conservative'.

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Yeah. We should also remember that ECUSA is one of the smaller 'classical' mainline churches, much smaller than UMC and ELCA and smaller than PCUSA. General statistics for mainline Protestants have much more UMC, ELCA, and PCUSA in their samples than ECUSA or UCC.

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I am given to understand that Howard Dean went from the ECUSA to the UCC over a dispute involving diocesan use of a bike path, so yeah, not surprising in the slightest.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

They wouldn't necessarily, though. I don't see where a brace of Orthodox Jewish immigrants from, say, the Pinsk Marshes (where my ancestors on that side came from) a hundred years ago would be more 'conservative' on what would now or then be considered 'social issues' than most other groups in America, immigrant or otherwise, at that time.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Well before. Khazaria fell in the High Middle Ages.