It's a good point you make Gordon O, something that one would think has frustrated Republicans at times, only one in the House. although, Jews are all over the place on that. They're also not WASPs, as to being different mentalities.
Look at the original Bolsheviks, of the top five, three were Jews, Zinnoviev, Kamenev, and Trotsky, and more importantly very important at the mass level, like over 20 per cent of the Party, if mainly because of Tsarist persectution to make them Russians, or leave. republicans maybe look to white bread for them, as they were rivals to WASPs, and very clearly.
But as to their curious inconstistency, they're Bolsheviks, but then you have the Rothchilds,at the same time, but note what they do share: cosmopolitanism. That's part of why they're drawn to academia, and intellectual life in general. It's also a source of structural power in the Diaspora too, if you think about it. There's also a tribal identity that goes the other way, in the sense of support for collective endeavors, like Israel, which used to Socialist. 10 Jews, 11 opinions is more like Democrats too, and, the provincial part of Republicanism, too Waspy maybe, and a sense at a certain point in time that "WASPs own the place," was part of that lack of original attachment, although you're totally right that when the Democrats align with Third World Socialists, that creates tension with Israel as to Jewish loyalties, although, the last catch maybe is the prophets: justice offsets the money motivation with them. Land of Blood and Honey and Howard Sahar's works, History of the Jews have a lot of that in them. It's a good point you raise, as to why, since on straight economics, no, but, they also like cosmopolitanism, which works against the part of the base of the Republicans as to small town Christians, it would seem like; not very cosmopolitan, sophisticated looking from the Tribes point of view, one would think.

Thanks, DR, for your thoughtful and scholarly response.

Gordon, it's a carryover from the old country. Perhaps most of the Jews in this country -- myself included -- are descended from people who were persecuted by the Tsarist regime. Many of the leading figures in the Bolshevik overthrow of the Tsar were Jewish, most notably Trotsky. It seemed like a righteous cause at the time.

The Jews who emigrated to the U.S. tended to lean left, because they felt -- from their European experience -- that their natural enemies were on the right. This attitude was passed along to their children, who became avid supporters of FDR and other Dems.

Eventually, some in the younger generations began to have second thoughts about the Dems, but being Democratic remains pretty much a Jewish tradition in the New World.

Then, let's not forget, the Jews of Germany and of the countries that Germany occupied in WWII found plenty of good reasons to be wary of the right wing, to put it mildly. The pitiably small percentage who made it to the U.S. found it natural to support the Democrats.

Eventually the Jews as a group will vote much like any other group, approximately 50-50 between Dems and Republicans. Thanks to Obama's attitude toward Israel, many already are taking a giant step in that direction. Look at the 9th district election in NYC.

There doesn't seem to be any way for me to edit a comment, but if I could do so I would reverse the positions of the second-last and third-last paragraphs in my comment above. Tracks better.

Thanks, AL, for the additional historical perspective.

Some of what Arthur says is mentioned - among other things - in Dennis Prager's two columns in Townhall on this subject. (Prager, by the way, is a practicing Jew who very much does not align himself with the Democrats.)