Park Slope Dana
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 33-40 |
| Home | Brooklyn, NY |
| Demographic | white Jewish, lawyer, secular liberal |
| Lean | Lean Democrat |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Scarsdale Ellen |
| Successor | Rachel Goldstein |
Dana is a litigator who lives in brownstone Brooklyn. She is a secular Jewish liberal aligned with the civil-liberties left, and she judges the war on terror as a lawyer while judging Israel as a matter of family, two views that create tension for her.
Who they stand for
Jewish voters gave the Democratic presidential ticket roughly three-quarters of their votes throughout the decade, and the same voters elected Michael Bloomberg, a Republican turned independent, mayor of New York three times, judging him competent regardless of party.
The decade produced civil-liberties controversies that mattered to Dana, including the Patriot Act, passed in October 2001 with only one dissenting Senate vote; the Abu Ghraib abuse photographs made public in 2004; the Times's 2005 disclosure of NSA warrantless wiretapping; and detentions at Guantánamo Bay, where the Supreme Court ruled against the administration in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and Boumediene v. Bush.
On Israel, the decade moved differently for Dana, bringing the second intifada, the 2006 Lebanon war, the Gaza war of 2008-09, and the first left-wing criticism of Israel, including a 2006 paper by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and the founding of J Street in 2008.
Dana represents a shift in a recurring type of Jewish liberal voter. Her mother's generation held liberal politics and support for Israel together; her daughter's generation finds the two in conflict. Dana is the generation in between, and Israel is the one issue on which she breaks with the rest of the civil-liberties left.
Playing to them
Dana responds well to civil liberties restored in law, such as letting the Patriot Act expire, closing Guantánamo Bay, and ending warrantless wiretapping, and also to abortion rights, universal health care, gun control, stem-cell research, a permissive immigration policy, and a president who takes an unambiguous pro-Israel line. She does not forgive torture, warrantless surveillance, school prayer in public schools, or public criticism of Israel from a president she otherwise agrees with; such criticism is severe enough to send her to an independent candidate, though not to a Republican. She strongly opposes the Christian right and donates money to campaigns that work against it.
Winning Dana's support costs the support of several war-on-terror-focused personas, including Fort Hood Cody, Security Mom Donna and Hialeah Gladys, and of several gun owners, including Janesville Gary, Flathead Wade and Mesa Ruben. Israel is the one subject Dana shares with Megachurch Heather and Jasper Faye, and civil liberties the one she shares with Wade and Startup Seth, but neither pair can be won together through her. Beltway Meredith is a similar professional Democrat who votes mainly on competence and is satisfied with civil unions, while Dana votes on principle and wants full marriage rights.
Where they live
The five states where Park Slope Dana makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- New York
- New Jersey
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
Lineage
Scarsdale Ellen → Park Slope Dana → Rachel Goldstein
Jewish liberal women, and what changes is how Israel fits with the rest of their politics. For Ellen there is no conflict: liberals support Israel. For Dana, Israel is the one issue on which she breaks with the civil-liberties left. For Rachel, the left has turned against Israel and she is caught between her party and her community. Her contempt for the Republican right is the same in all three. Her fear of the left is new.