In an interview with Politico senior political writer David Paul Kuhn on his September 27 Newsradio 850 KOA broadcast, Mike Rosen asserted that “so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have ... a good grasp of the big economic picture.” As Colorado Media Matters has noted, on a previous broadcast Rosen asserted, “From a personality standpoint, it's probably fair to say Jews have a tendency toward pushiness and ostentatiousness.” On yet another Rosen program, guest David Horowitz stated that Jews “went to the ovens” because of “psychological denial” ... “and that's the way I see the Democratic Party today.”

Kuhn was discussing his book, The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2007). Rosen's characterization of Jews came in reply to a caller's question to him and Kuhn about “why it is that the Jewish population ... vote[s] for Democrats when the Democratic Party would let Israel slide off the face of the Earth.” Rosen contrasted what he represented as Jews' general lack of a “good grasp of the big economic picture” to “exceptions like Milton Friedman," the late economist, whom Rosen called “one of my all-time heroes.”

From the September 27 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

ROSEN: Our guest is David Paul Kuhn. His book The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma. Let's take a couple of phone calls. In Littleton, [caller], you're on Newsradio 850 KOA. Hello, [caller].

CALLER: Hi.

ROSEN: Hi.

CALLER: Yeah, I'd like to ask you and the author why it is that the Jewish population -- 75 percent -- vote for Democrats when the Democratic Party would let Israel slide off the face of the Earth.

ROSEN: I've done hours on this topic. Go ahead, David.

KUHN: [Laughs] Well, I mean, we can -- it, in some sense requires hours, it's complicated. They don't -- obviously Jews have not voted just based on Israel for a long time because Israel, Israeli policy position on Palestine pre-World War II -- the United States and right after World War II -- was unclear and Jews were still voting heavily for FDR and sort of for Democrats then, and it reaches back to that. I think the answer to your question is, Jews -- in part it's demographic, in part it's cultural. Jews, you know, have always identified as sort of an -- as a minority, a cultural and literal minority. They, their values have always sort of identified with social justice now, and at the same time --

ROSEN: And social justice from a very leftist perspective.

KUHN: From the left, absolutely.

ROSEN: Jews were, were at the heart of the labor movement. Think of Emma Goldman and people like that. Karl Marx, for example, was Jewish.

KUHN: And the civil rights movement. I mean, so I don't want to put in purely -- there's certain movements that we now commend beyond party politics. I mean, I don't want to -- but you're right. And so, I think you could argue that, as with many would argue -- anyone who's liberal -- sometimes it had really good manifestations, sometimes it had pernicious and bad manifestations. But nonetheless, Jews for cultural reasons have been Democratic for a long time, and I do inroads on Israel and sort of the anti-Israeli sentiment -- the vitriolically anti-Israeli sentiment within the left of America -- is still far smaller than in Europe. So I also think that it doesn't -- as visible as it is to us in America, it's so much less than in Europe that I also don't think it's been enough to sort of shift their party allegiance. But it has, I think you could argue, made small inroads within at least the orthodox community.

ROSEN: The current situation involving Israel.

KUHN: Yeah, but even the Orthodox, they're culturally conservative, so it's hard to even say that's the reason why Orthodox Jews are, you know, vote more prevalently Republican.

ROSEN: Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big economic picture like the people like Milton Friedman did.

KUHN: Yeah, it's complicated, because, I mean, they're also the only American demographic group who votes against their economic interests. So then you have to -- and when I say that I mean on tax policy -- the only upper-class demographic group in the United States that votes for the Democratic Party, and inevitably that means --

ROSEN: Except for --

KUHN: [unintelligible]

ROSEN: Except for the rich Hollywood left.

KUHN: Yeah, but even them -- so many of them are Jewish.

ROSEN: Are Jewish.