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Jonah Goldberg, getting a little tired of the whole Jesus Christ thing

Posted on by Alan Vanneman
Over at the National Review, Jonah Goldberg notes that, among the many, many, many problems facing the Republican Party—aside from the fact that its sole purpose for existence is to protect the rich—one problem is that Asian-Americans don’t much care for it:

I’ve joked for years with my Indian-American relatives and friends that they are the new Jews because their parents bury them in guilt and overeducate them. It turns out it doesn’t end there. Sociologist Milton Himmelfarb observed that “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.” Well, Indian Americans earn like Jews and … vote like Jews.

Besides being as rich as an Episcopalian, Jews and Asian-Americans have another thing in common—they tend not to be Christian. In fact, according to Jonah, Jews and Asian-Americans sometimes can get a little tired of hearing about that Jesus guy.

I’ve attended dozens of conservative events where, as the speaker, I was, in effect, the guest of honor, and yet the opening invocation made no account of the fact that the guest of honor wasn’t a Christian. I’ve never taken offense, but I can imagine how it might seem to someone who felt like he was even less a part of the club.

I can remember when Irving Kristol, the godfather of the neo-cons, used to claim that he was totally down with being in an overtly Christian society. He pretty much enjoyed it! But I guess that was back when the Republicans were winning.

Afterwords
I can also remember when conservatives used to make fun of the word “African-American.” Such an awkward construction! Who talks like that, anyway?

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