“A good divorce is better than a bad marriage, and this is a good divorce.” — Alan Dershowitz
The American lawyer Alan Dershowitz says he’s been voting Democrat since John F. Kennedy. He even defended Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Alan Cranston in court. But, at 88 years old, Dershowitz has now left — or, as he puts it, been forced out of the Dems, in the same way Ronald Reagan was sixty years ago. His new book Why I Quit the Dems and So Should You is both a history of his souring relations with the Democrats and a confessional of a reluctant Republican.
A good divorce, the twice-married Dershowitz promises, is better than a bad marriage. Like many angry spouses, he says he’s been forced into the split. Today’s Democratic Party, he claims, is closer than any political party in modern American history to what the Nazi Party was in 1932 before it came to power. He names Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani as antisemites, calls Bernie Sanders a self-hating Jew, and insists Kamala Harris passed over Josh Shapiro because Shapiro is a Jew who wouldn’t renounce Zionism.
What’s his proof on the Harris claim? What other reason could there be? Dershowitz claims. Besides, even if Israel vanished as an issue tomorrow, he says he still couldn’t go back to the failed marriage, because the Dems have abandoned what he calls “meritocracy.”
At 88, Dershowitz is perhaps a little more self-reflective than he was in his legal pomp. In conclusion, I ask him to summarize himself in a word. “Proudly-Jewish,” he says, before adding “never-boring.” We can all agree on that, if perhaps little else.
Five Takeaways
• A Good Divorce. He first voted for JFK, defended Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton, and says he was thrown out of the party as Reagan was. Now a convert — and converts, he notes, are the most fervent.
• The Charge. His claim: today’s Democrats are closer to the Nazi Party of 1932 than any party in modern American history — and Harris passed over Josh Shapiro for being a Jew who wouldn’t renounce Zionism.
• Meritocracy. Even if Israel vanished as an issue tomorrow, he says he couldn’t return: the party has abandoned merit for identity. The argument is partly autobiographical.
• Andrew’s Pushback. On single-issue politics, on Tucker Carlson, on criticizing Israel — and on why, in his account, it is always the Jews. “That question itself smacks of antisemitism.”
• Never Boring. He has defended the Skokie Nazis, Palestinian students at Harvard and Jeffrey Epstein. His models: John Adams and Lincoln. His wife says the tombstone will read never boring.
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: a breakup book
00:01:29 A good divorce, and being thrown out like Reagan
00:02:51 Does he want the Democrats to suffer?
00:06:02 The party of his parents — and what he says it has become
00:07:13 Is he a single-issue man?
00:08:37 The 1932 comparison
00:09:30 Naming names: El-Sayed, Mamdani, Schumer
00:11:58 Bernie Sanders
00:12:44 Can you be on the left and not be an antisemite?
00:13:42 Who is the book written for?
00:15:25 What about Tucker Carlson and JD Vance?
00:17:15 Four Jewish candidates, and the Shapiro question
00:18:55 How does he know? The San Francisco view
00:19:35 If the Middle East were solved tomorrow, could he go back?
00:20:50 Meritocracy, DEI and his own rise
00:21:59 What would his parents make of it?
00:22:36 Larry David on the Chilmark porch
00:23:00 The midterms, Maine and New England
00:25:25 Can a Jew criticize Israel?
00:26:32 The genocide charge
00:29:12 Why is it always the Jews?
00:33:20 Can bigotry be defeated?
00:34:54 Dinner-table politics with a Democratic family
00:36:09 Are the Jews the new Blacks?
00:36:39 Most American Jews still vote Democrat
00:38:19 Should American Jews leave the country?
00:39:08 Or stay and save the party’s soul?
00:40:50 Would he defend an antisemite?
00:41:59 Jeffrey Epstein, and the Sixth Amendment
00:43:49 One word: proudly Jewish, American
00:45:24 Never boring