Identity politics plays a silent role in US campaign

Bernie Sanders's victory in New Hampshire is a small step towards the realisation of a truly multicultural American political establishment, argues Joseph Dana

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a canvass kick-off event at the Reno Sparks Convention Center. Evan Vucci / AP Photo

History was made last week in the United States. For the first time, a non-Christian candidate won a presidential primary. Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and unlikely presidential hopeful, won New Hampshire's Democratic primary against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Mr Sanders won over voters by a large margin with his promise to bring health care and tertiary education to all Americans while reforming the symbiotic relationship between Wall Street and the government. He is also Jewish but that aspect of his background barely registered in his win.

Surprisingly little attention has been given to the fact that a non-Christian candidate won a primary. During the 2008 election, president Barack Obama’s presumed Muslim roots were a constant subject of debate and often scorn from the mainstream political media and conservative voices. Eight years later, a Jewish socialist candidate with a thick Brooklyn accent has won the nation’s first primary, and political reporters have more to say about his opponent’s weakness at the polls than this milestone in American political life.

In his victory speech after New Hampshire, Mr Sanders said he was the son of Polish immigrants – he was careful to say Polish and not Jewish – who came to the United States speaking no English and with no money. The narrative is a compelling one that speaks to the immigrant experience in America and informs his vision to reform the political and economic environment so that lower- and middle-class families don’t suffer while the upper classes continue to enrich themselves.

When it comes to minority rights and equality, Mr Sanders has cited his religion as informing a spiritual understanding that “we are all in this together”. Beyond that, the candidate has been wise to ignore his religious background.

This is especially clear in his Middle East foreign policy. I have argued that Mr Sanders must extend his economic progressivism to strategies for solving challenges such as the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr Sanders’s reticence to take a progressive stance on this issue could have something to do with the complexity of the American Jewish community and the Israel lobby. While many progressives have said that Mr Sanders’s position on Israel and Palestine disqualify him from being president, the Sanders campaign might be more savvy than we think.

Because of intermarriage and the corrosive effects of Israel’s continued occupation, the American Jewish community is in a period of soul-searching. Today, American Jewish identification rests primarily with Israel and remembrance of the Holocaust. The problem with these separate pillars of identity is that they leave little room for the American Jewish experience in the United States.

In other words, American Jewish identity is shaped by events in a foreign country and the tragic experience of Jews on another continent as opposed to the experience of being American. Mr Sanders is implicitly rejecting this basis of identity and is presenting himself as one of the many immigrants who have fully become American.

This shift poses problems for the Israel lobby. If American Jews distance themselves from associating with Israel – as many of them have been because of the occupation – then Tel Aviv’s power base in the US will start to weaken. The muted reaction from Israel to Bernie Sanders wining the New Hampshire primary as the first Jew in US history is evidence of its worry.

Ultimately, Mr Sanders sees this entire conversation, both about religion and about Israel, as a diversion for the central message of his campaign, which is economic reform.

Engaging with the Israel/Palestine issue is a political dead end for a candidate like Mr Sanders. Not only would it highlight his religion, which he believes isn’t relevant to his ideas for the future of America, but he also can’t win against the Israel lobby.

Barack Obama has been an extraordinarily supportive president to the Israelis and yet they have been relentless in their attacks of him over the years. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, went so far as to campaign for Mr Obama’s opponents in the 2012 election. Tackling the Israel issue can only cause problems for the Sanders campaign.

Regardless of whether Mr Sanders wins the Democratic nomination or the US presidency, his win in New Hampshire is a landmark event for religious minorities in America. While freedom of religion is enshrined in the US constitution, America remains a deeply Christian nation that continues to view religious minorities with suspicion. Islamophobia is a manifestation of this fear.

Even though the Jewish community considers itself safe and secure in the United States, it was not that long ago that Jews were cast with a suspicious eye in the same way Muslims in America are today. Therefore, Mr Sanders’s victory is a small step towards the realisation of a truly multicultural American political establishment and the realisation of the US constitution’s proclamation that all men are created equal.

On Twitter: @ibnezra