Journey to Kona Day 198: Detour to Politics

While I keep up with politics regularly, I try not to get too engrossed, lest I get depressed.  But the last couple of days has turned that thought upside down.  A comment by Donald Trump about the political leanings of Jewish people has really upset me.  It's upset me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that I take notice anytime anyone lumps Jews into a single category and passes judgement on that category in a way thing might very well stir the pot when it comes to people who already don't like Jews.  While there are those that don't agree with me, history is clear when it comes to singling out Jews and using us as scapegoats on any number of issues.  That's the first issue, and it scares the daylights out of me.

On a more pragmatic level, the politics of American support for the state of Israel has long been pretty straightforward.  This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, nor should it be, lest we digress into once again segregating Jews by their political party.  Yes it's true that the majority of Jews are Democrats, but at the end of the day, we are all together when it comes to the need for a Jewish state. If we didn't learn one thing from the Holocaust, and from two thousand years of persecution throughout the world, it was that the state of Israel allows Jews to be themselves.  The irony is that means a level of heterogeneity that is unparalleled.  But that's another topic for another day.

When Trump called out Jews for aligning themselves with the Democratic party, he turned 70 years of bipartisanship upside down.  He also instigated a rift between Jewish Republicans and Democrats that is not only unnecessary, but carries the potential of significant harm.  This harm is multifold.  This country does not need Jews fighting amongst ourselves at a moment in time that has white supremacists feeling emboldened to come forward espousing their hateful views.  And while American Jews have different views on Israeli politics, so do the citizens of Israel, where disagreeing is built into the fabric of the country's culture.  On one thing we all need to be clear, and that is the importance of having a Jewish state.  That is an area where there has never been much daylight across the political spectrum here in the United States, nor amongst American Jews.  To put that at risk is tantamount to lighting a powder keg.  But that's what Trump does.  Little thought goes into what he says, and there really isn't much thing as any actual policy.  It's whim, pure and simple.  This whim, unfortunately, scared the daylights out of me.  We are about to enter a recession, and history abounds with examples of Jews being blamed for economic downturns.  One can only wonder what will happen in this Trumpian environment when the economy heads south.  That ends my detour into politics.  Tomorrow, I hope to be on my bike all day, and I look forward to blogging about that!