Readers of the DJOP newsletter might have noticed that it has been some time since anything I have written has appeared in its pages. (Can something composed electronically be accurately described as having pages I wonder?)
This lack certainly hasn’t been due to an absence of my having something to say about the sorry state of affairs we are living with under the second coming of the person that may well be the least competent and meanest US President ever. Those who know me probably will say it is quite rare when I have absolutely nothing to say. But in all candor I seem to have writers’ block, perhaps even a mental block. I can’t seem to find the words to express my profound horror, anger, disgust, almost crippling sadness and fear with the policies, actions and statements that have emerged from the limited brain and childish sounding mouth of Donald J. Trump. Might I add foolish, racist, xenophobic, sexist, anti-Jewish, hostile, homophobic, cruel, inept, mean tempered, ignorant, lying, heartless? At this point you might want to ask me in the vein of the sick joke “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you feel about the play?
Soon after the creation of Democratic Jewish Outreach, Pennsylvania in 2008, I began to write a column for our newsletter. As much as I might have believed that these pieces were of some interest and hopefully convinced more than a few undecided voters to cast their votes for Democratic candidates I had no delusions of grandeur, nor did I think I presented any competition to George Will or Clarence Page. Rather, they only reflected the thoughts of an aging Jewish liberal who even sometimes found himself unhappy with the actions and statements of the “progressive” wing of the Democratic party, especially when it came to Israel.
While I was almost always strongly opposed to the policies of the Republicans, for the most part I respected the intelligence, integrity and decency of men like the Bushes, Arlen Specter and Tom Ridge. I never woke up in the morning afraid to read the latest news from Washington or Harrisburg nor would I have to shake my head in wonderment how any of these elected and appointed officials could have been chosen to lead our government. But now, very probably like you, I often feel that much of the government has been taken over by the characters from the 50’S horror film The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, in which people you thought of as normal because they looked that way, had all decent human emotions and kindness removed and now were part of a world-wide effort to destroy man (and women) kind.
I can’t help wondering how and why despite what we well knew what Trump is like and what he wished to accomplish if given another chance he increased his support by 12 points among Latino men. While there are profound differences among the many Hispanic populations in America, such as between a fourth-generation Mexican American business owner in San Diego and a young man escaping to the US from gang violence in El Salvador, Trump’s popularity has increased across the board among all Spanish speaking voters. More Black men voted for Trump this time than the first two times he ran. He even picked a small amount overall among women voters. While the issue of reproductive choice was assumed to significantly reduce Trump’s vote among white women it seems that this issue in which there was a profound difference between Trump and Harris did not lead to any significant benefit for Harris among women voters.
I will admit that I wrote these columns because just about anyone else who writes more than shopping lists I believed I had something important and hopefully convincing to say. I enjoyed writing them and even tried to introduce some humor from time to time such as when I wrote about how in taking a page from the Christian right wing, the Ultra-Orthodox community should attempt to control the US government by electing only observant Jews, making the Chagim federal holidays and mandating that exclusively glatt kosher food be sold at US army bases. I even proposed that the post of regional inspectors of eruvim be created. While I was being facetious, watching what is transpiring in some state legislatures it seems obvious that more than a few Republican elected officials actually believe that our government should make laws consistent with their religious beliefs and practices. I had naively hoped that this desire on the part of many Republican legislators as demonstrated by the banning of abortions would terrify all Jewish people but it appears that large numbers of the most observant of us believe that a government informed by Christian fundamental beliefs presents no threat to us or anyone else for that matter but would come to understand that allowing this is like the proverbial camel who manages to get his nose under the tent and doesn’t plan on ever leaving. I once raised this concern with an Orthodox woman who reminded me that we will live in a “goyishe world” and that she hoped that the PA legislature would finally financially support religious high school educations and didn’t understand why the JCRC, which I then headed, would oppose legislation that clearly was in our community’s best interest.
In total candor I am greatly saddened, no depression is a more accurate description and it is widely understood that both of these emotions feed upon one another. They also very often lead to a sense of helplessness. I am having increased difficulty writing that reflects my thoughts. From my discussions with many of my friends and colleagues It is obvious that my sense of foreboding is not, thank God, shared by all. But there is research that tells us that Trump’s positives went up among older Jewish voters. Likely this was significantly due to the faulty belief that much of the Democratic party has betrayed Israel. While it is disappointing that criticism of Israel is more common within Democratic circles than among Republicans there is no evidence that Democratic party leadership would not strongly stand with Israel in times of needed military or even political support. In fact, there has been more reluctance of such support on the part of the Trump administration than there ever was when Joe Biden made it clear that he considered himself to be a “proud Zionist”. This at a time when many pundits were saying that for a Democrat to use that term was almost the kiss of electoral death.
While the Trump administration has made a spectacle of punishing college students and the administrations of mostly prestigious colleges for either expressions or tolerance of at times anti-Israel attitudes I find it hard to believe that any thoughtful person would trade a national leadership like the inept uncaring one we have for being able to kick an ill-informed 20 year old keffiyeh wearing pro-Palestinian student out of school. If Trump can call the courageous President of Ukraine a dictator for not doing his bidding, this someone who has managed to hold his nation together under perilous conditions and deter the Russian despot, what lies ahead for the Middle East. And which if any Democrat has hosted well known antisemites at his home? And have you noticed how this alleged champion of fighting off antisemitism has avoided mentioning that all the victims of the attack on senior citizens in Boulder were Jewish? As one candidate I volunteered for once said about a highly unsavory supporter “with friends like this who needs enemies?” In closing, I am pleading with our readers. Between now and the next election, watch closely how the Republican elected officials vote on those issues that matter to us and then you must vote accordingly.
While only about 30% of Jewish voters voted for Trump and his loyalists to me that means that over 1/4 of us were fooled by a bigot, a liar and a dangerous charlatan. Jewish voters have long had the reputation of being informed voters, we owe that we continue being that in honor of our ancestors who struggled to help make America that nation that has given us so much and we have given back so much in return. And at the same time, we must dedicate ourselves to assuring that our offspring inherit a nation that lives up to that promise. My bubbie used to say, “thank God for America”. Yes, we live in unhappy times but as we are taught in the Talmud, we might not be able to repair the world from its failings, but we are not free to stop trying.
