@akuperma: Your statement is shocking. How can you compare someone who is JEWISH (i.e. Jewish MOTHER, not necessarily father) to someone who has “Jewish ancestors going back to ancient times” or “has a Jewish surname”!?
“Just because someone is halachically Jewish . . it is silly to consider . . to be Jewish”
How dare you call people who halacha (thus also Torah and Hashem) considers Jewish to not be Jewish?
You are obligated be ???? ??? to save the life of such a Jew (unless he is ????? ???? ?????? which is very uncommon).
Every halachic Jew is infinitely dear to Hashem, and even more than the Torah itself (see: ??? ??? ????? ??”?. ???? ??? ?, ?. ?????? ??? ?, ?. ????).
Even a ???? ?????? ??? ?”? is considered one of Hashem’s children (see ??”? ????”? ?”? ???”?). How much more so regular ????? ?????, which are ????? ????? ?????? (see ????? ??,?. ??????? ??,?).
How much more so most non-frum people of today who are ??????? ????? whose lack of Yiddishkeit is completely ???? (if someone is too sick to put on tefillin, would you consider him non-Jewish!?) – ???”? ????? ????? ?”? ?”?.
The ??? of ????? ????? seems to apply even to someone who grew up with a Jewish education, yet it wasn’t strong enough to keep him in the fold due to the various challenges nowadays which didn’t exist in the past (see Rebbe Rayatz ????? ???? ?”? ?’ ????. Chazon Ish ??”? ?”? ??).
P.S. This obviously does not mean that their behavior or opinions are correct WHATSOEVER. Therefore, there is no reason to elect someone just because he is Jewish. We don’t elect people because they are holy, rather if they will do a good job.