From a reader:

I have been hoping for a long time that black Americans would stop voting monolithically Democratic as they became more educated and successful. Obviously this is happening on a small scale, but the fact that most Jewish Americans still vote Democratic despite being highly educated and successful (in general) obviously means there is no guarantee. However, while black and white liberals alike constantly excommunicate black conservatives from their own race, there doesn’t seem to be that dynamic in the Jewish American community. Or is there, and I’m just not aware of it? (I suppose the net result if there isn’t is that it looks even bleaker for black Americans, trend-wise…)

Me: Well, this is a meaty topic. But I’ll keep it short. Such a dynamic certainly does exist in the Jewish community. Israel, obviously is one place where it manifests itself, though obviously not in a conventional left-right sense. But even on bread and butter domestic policy there are plenty of liberal Jews who believe that politically conservative Jews are violating some kind of unwritten rule that Jews should be politically liberal. It’s nowhere near as pronounced as in the black community, but I’d say I get — best guess — 50 to 100 emails a year from Jews telling me how ashamed I should be for supporting conservative public policies or politicians because that’s not what Jews are supposed to do. It’s almost never expressed in terms of a rational or coherent argument so much as a purely emotional pretext to hurl insults.