Dec 29^th

In this election nothing seems more important than numbers, particularly numbers obtained from polls. A recent comparison found that at this point in the election cycle we have had about three times as many polls of Iowa and New Hampshire voters as we had before the last election. This is not surprising given that Donald Trump, the Republican front runner, is obsessed by his poll numbers and cites them at every opportunity. (Maybe he is secretly paying for the additional polls.) On the rare occasion when he is not the front runner he claims that the poll was poorly conducted, just like the kid who claims the test he flunked was unfair. But there is more: Trump’s comments about women, John McCain, and others ad nauseum, have made everyone wonder when his poll numbers will drop off. The result is that not only Trump, but nearly everyone else watches for the results of the next poll.

Mona Charen doesn’t cite polls but she does seem to be obsessed with statistics; at least she is in today’s column. I counted 24 references to statistical data in the first half of her column. Her thesis seems to be that the decline in Christian religious observance is related, indeed probably causes, people to vote Democratic. (Although Mona would never say “Democratic;” Mona only says “Democrat.”) She claims that “in 2014, 22.8 percent of American adults describe themselves as unaffiliated with any church.” She points out that belief in God is much lower in Europe where “churches stand virtually empty on Sundays and few profess belief in God.” She cites the percentages of those who believe in God for the various European states to prove her case.

But Mona is focusing here entirely on the reduction of enthusiasm for Christian Church services. I find it curious that she has not one word to say about the secularization of the Jewish community and it has certainly been secularized. One third of Jews born since 1980 describe themselves as secular. Forty-four percent of Jews have a non-Jewish spouse. Jane Eisner writing for the Jewish Daily Forum calls the results “devastating.” Even Israel, as a country, lives secular lives; there are 2000 secular Israeli schools which celebrate Jewish holidays and teach Jewish history but with no prayer or religious observance of any kind. Mona seems oblivious to these facts, or if she knows about them she much prefers to talk about the decline in Christian observances instead.

At the beginning of her column this 57-year-old columnist claims that on Christmas Eve she “was stunned to find that not only were the restaurants open but that they were packed.” Then she says, “I had expected to find my Christian friends and neighbors gathered around the table Norman Rockwell style eating goose or ham or whatever gentiles eat.” Isn’t it amazing that this woman who has spent her entire life in this country doesn’t know that many restaurants are open Christmas Eve because many women, secular and otherwise will be working very hard most of the next day providing a Christmas feast for their families. Who knows, perhaps if she got to know these “Christian friends” well enough she might be invited to have dinner with them so she could find out exactly “whatever gentiles eat.”