in response to his post immediately below: Assuming it is true that Jews have disproportionately benefited from government programs in the past, either as recipients or employees, what's the case that this has actually caused individuals to become liberal Democrats? Is there any evidence that Jews arrived in the U.S. as free market libertarians, and then decided that government was a good thing after having experience with government programs? There was a stereotype in the early 20th Century of Jews as disproportionately likely to be radical leftist socialists upon arrival from Europe; was this just a myth? Is disproportionate experience with government a cause of political liberalism, or just a reflection of preexisting cultural and ideological associations? Big questions, and I'm not one to know the answers, but your suggestion as I understand it doesn't seem intuitively persuasive to me.