The great Maureen Dowd has a unique ability to reduce the insanity of our times to a line, a metaphor, a quote; as she did in last Sunday's coliumn in The New York Times -- We Hereby Dump Trump. In her inimical style she reduced Donald Trump's (and so many of his "friends'") argument to overturn the election results to its essence:
"The election has been stolen!
What's your proof?
Because I'm losing."
And so many Jews have bought into the lies being promoted by Giuliani, Barr, Grenell and some lawyers from Jones Day and other firms unsupported by an iota of evidence because they, apparently, are paid or have drunk the Trump Kool-Aid. And, in so doing, they have decided to set facts and reason to the side just as Trump does, and, like Trump, they subscribe to whatever conspiracy theories that "keeps hope alive" while devastating our democracy.
Examples abound: one of the most popular (and egregious) is that in a small Republican-run township in Michigan, where a software issue may have "converted" 6,000 Trump votes to votes for Biden. These true believers never report (as a simple Google search would have disclosed) that the error was discovered and the votes were cast for Trump. Others of you have circulated the works of pro-Trump Jewish activists repeating, almost in haec verba, the fact-free unsupported conclusions of Giuliani, Barr, Grenell and that pack.
And, then, there is the screed from the pen of the perennial critic of mainstream American Jewry, Caroline Glick -- about which she seems to know so little but about whom she has an insatiable appetite for uninformed criticism. The best-informed estimate of the Jewish vote last week (APVotecast) put the margin between Biden/Harris and Trump at 38 percentage points. This sent Ms. Glick into a foaming lather of rabidity in her post-election column: The Isolated American Jews. While Glick begins with her own reductio ad absurdum -- that the rest of the Jewish world (British Jewry rejecting the Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn and voting Conservative [completely ignoring the reality of Jeremy Corbyn]), why aren't we given that Ocasio-Cortez and Omar are reason enough given that, in Glick's opinion, those two are the Democratic Party. Glick's extrapolation is as irrational as would be accusing the Republican Party of being fascist because they elected, with Trump's support, some idiot to Congress who proudly wears her membership in and support of Qanon.
And, Glick goes on: "Donald Trump is the most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish president in US history." I will leave the "most pro-Israel" to the historians, but "most pro-Jewish?" Really?
My strong sense, listening to my friends, my colleagues, my children and grandchildren, is that American Jews didn't/don't see Donald Trump -- he of Charlottesville equivalency, separating refugee children from their parents while losing over 600 of them, his refusal to condemn the anti-semitic hate groups like the Proud Boys, Qanon and others, rejecting the battle against climate change and the abandonment of leadership and responsibility in waving the white flag in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic -- and, always, the corruption, the lies, the self-dealing, the impeachment -- "most pro-Jewish?" Not close. In the most conservative and pro-Trump polling of Jewish voters it is clear that Trumpism was rejected as was any claim of Trump being the "most pro-Jewish."
As American Jews, we have great challenges and responsibilities -- to hold our leaders to reflect our values and to hold them to the promise of our democracy. Those of us who continue to sow confusion post-election with unsupported claims might want to listen to the observation of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post (!!):
"Downcast Trump makes baseless election fraud claims in White House address"
That's "baseless election fraud claims" as in baseless.
As Prime Minister Netanyahu said:
"Congratulations @Joe Biden and @Kamala Harris. Joe, we've had a long & warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as great friend of Israel."
Repeat after me: Joe Biden is the duly elected President-elect of the United States. Come on, you can do it.
Rwexler
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7 comments:
Richard, your rant aside, in actually VP Biden is NOT the President-Elect. Not yet! He, probably, will end up being the President-Elect, but not until either Pres. Trump concedes (fat chance) or the vote by the Electoral College. The MSM or Big Tech do not make the decision to make someone President-Elect! Remember, it was the MSM that made Gore Pres-Elect for 21 days!
Of course Paul would find a path to asserting that Joe Biden is not the "President-Elect" even as neither he nor anyone else (Democrats included) rejected that title when it was applied to Trump from election eve 2016 until the 2017 Inaugural. Biden is aheqad in the popular vote as of this writing by more than 5 million votes...he is, as Riochard wrote, the President-Elect.
The current occupant of the White House has never been able to handle the truth. No use getting worked up over that.
There are other substantive matters that are quite worrisome, however. One is that most of the Republican leadership is following the cues of their demagogue. In our own community, the RJC and ZOA (well, the ZOA doesn't surprise me here) are refusing to acknowledge Biden as President-elect. Heck, even Fox News and Erdogan do.
Another worrisome part is that the current occupant of the White House is refusing to release any funds that would allow the President-elect's transition team to begin to fully function. This includes, among other matters, proper security for the President-elect, the highest level security and intelligence briefings and proper security (from government entities such as the State Department) when communicating with leaders of foreign governments.
And then there's the current putsch of top civilian leadership of our military and selected other portions of our government. This is very worrisome. Part of this is the attempt by the current WH occupant to make quickie arms deals to folks like the UAE for aircraft that will flatten the qualitative military edge that Israel has in the Middle East. Imagine if Obama had pulled such a stunt. The ZOA and RJC would be screaming bloody murder. Most
"pro-Israel President" ever? Laughable. But hey, poor Donnie has to come up with money from somewhere to pay off his loan sharks from Moscow.
The election was far, far closer 4 years ago. But within 24-48 hours of Election Day, proper acknowledgements had been made by our government leaders and the transition process was well underway.
The miracle of how ballots were massively falsified for Biden while still maintaining a Republican majority in the Senate, might just spawn a new religion.
Richard
You know this is a conspiracy and that somehow Jerry Silverman and the Deep State at JFNA were responsible?
I guess that there are some who agree with your commentator that Biden is not the President-elect, his 306 electors notwithstanding, his 6 million vote lead and the declaration that Biden is exactly that notwithstanding. Those who p[rofess otherwise are in total denial and would seemingly prefer chaos and the lies emanating from the Trump-Giuliani crowd notwithstanding. Pity them.
Almost 3 weeks after the election and next to no acknowledgement by national GOP leaders, including their Jewish lackeys.
This is a shanda's shanda.
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