Joel Engel, Superstar

Joel Engel has a dynamite piece about the Jewish vote and why they'll vote overwhelmingly for Kerry, no matter what.

I'm sort of fascinated with minority voting patterns and how, even more than other demographic groups, their party affiliation seems really etched in granite and is tied barely at all to actual policy.

For instance, I imagine that a black Republican candidate for president would be hard pressed to garner even 40 percent of the African-American vote--even if that candidate supported affirmative action. Jewish Americans are clearly in the pocket of the Democrats, no matter that the Democratic party is now home to most of America's ugly anti-Semites. Someone must have written a smart, scholarly treatment of this. Does anyone have some recommended reading?