Deborah Pardes: I’m Not a One Issue Voter

This interview is part of Moment’s Jewish Political Voices Project. To learn more about the project, click here. To see our other participants, click here. To see all posts from Deborah, click here.

Age: 58
Occupation: Vice President of Swell
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Party Registration: Democratic
Jewish Denomination: Unaffiliated
2020 Vote: Joe Biden
Current 2024 Vote: Kamala Harris
Family: Single
News Sources: The Atlantic, The New York Times, AIPAC, WhatsApp

What is your greatest hope if Harris is elected? What’s your greatest fear?

I hope she has great advisers who don’t let her bend toward the crazy woke left that has really been annoying me these last ten months. I think Harris is a really smart, critical thinker, but there are reasons I think she will bend towards a lot of radical thinking, and that does not feel safe for me. 

A lot of influential people on the very far left make arguments that don’t include safeguarding Israel. They have extreme views of Israel and of the Jewish people in general. So my fear is that Harris will align herself with them on other issues, such as housing and abortion and social justice, and by doing that, she’ll condone all their behavior. 

What’s your greatest hope if Trump is elected? What is your greatest fear?

I hope that he gets disempowered by some miracle where the laws of the land actually can put him in jail, because he’s a criminal.

I fear that his victory will confirm that we live in a culture that doesn’t respect women. That we will start accepting as normal having someone so narcissistic and self centered running the country. That parents will have to tell their kids, “Please don’t bully and don’t lie and don’t cheat. Our president does all those things, but you can’t.” For parents of a kid who’s maybe in middle school, who’s really aware and listening, that cognitive dissonance is a terrible thing to deal with. 

Which candidate would be better for U.S. policy toward Israel and why?

I don’t believe that Trump’s policy towards Israel is well thought out. However, I do believe that the Republican Party is unwavering in their support of Israel. But I am not a single-issue voter, therefore I’m not voting for the Republican candidate. There are many people in the Democratic Party who are aligned with me in terms of wanting Netanyahu to step down and for the IDF to become more aware of their shortcomings regarding October 7, but I think the Republican Party in general has a better grip on reality when it comes to Islamic jihadism; I don’t think the Democratic Party has shown continuity in their objections to the heinous agenda of Islamic jihad.

Is U.S. policy toward Israel a major factor in your choice of candidate? 

It’s a major factor in my extreme anxiety and headaches! I feel completely distraught as a voter—I can’t say that enough. I don’t want the Republicans in power in the domestic arena. The Democratic agenda ultimately feels better to me, more gentle, more accepting of the value of immigrants. I do believe we need stronger forces on the border, because of jihadist terrorist cells that might come in. But again, I will not vote for the Republican Party simply because of Israel. 

I think the Republicans would protect me way more than the Democrats would at a domestic level. For one, they’d be harsher on people protesting with hateful language. I wish that we had a third party that could combine the heart of the Democratic Party with the grit of the Republican Party when it comes to this issue of protecting a minority like the Jewish people.

The Democratic party is not as sophisticated in its assessment of why Israel is so strong, and it doesn’t appreciate some of its great contributions to the human race. It also bends towards whoever it feels to be the underdog while not seeing that Israel is always going to represent the underdog—that it’s just really good at taking care of itself in its underdogness. So Democrats more often misinterpret the hawkish, violent, aggressive campaigns Israel has been leading as just, “that’s who they are. These people are animals.” So, when I sit down with my weirdo, cool leftist friends, I’m lonely. And I’m queer! My life as a gay woman has been terribly difficult these past ten months, because I cannot be in a room with people who are wearing keffiyehs and saying that Israel is full of pigs.

How concerned are you and others in your Jewish circle about antisemitism?

In this country? We’re not just concerned, we’re frightened of antisemitism. I’m of an age where I feel like I’ve seen a really good time, and now it’s a bad time. I’m close to many people in their 20s and 30s, and they have not seen a good time, really, in their adulthood. You know, Kamala Harris is married to a Jewish guy, and that means something,