Democracy 2024: # 42

It has been another monumental week in America and in world affairs. So much of events feel like a whirlwind and bring up various emotions.

The Presidential campaign itself has felt like an afterthought for weeks now. Fringe candidates on the Republican side, who have received little to no coverage, are starting to drop off, and that goes without notice as well. Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota is now said to be inclined to launch a primary challenge against Democrat Joe Biden, although the timing for that now looks worse than it did a couple of weeks ago. What is a "centrist" Jewish-American candidate like Phillips going to do to take support away from Biden within the party? The energy against him is on the left. More about that later.

Donald Trump keeps spending time in a New York courtroom. This week he was admonished by a judge to keep quiet and later fined some money on an unrelated matter. Thus far, he has avoided being held in contempt and put in jail. Nonetheless, the legal news, especially out of Atlanta is getting worse by the day for the main defendant. Former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro were supposed to have their trials start this month, and that would have given the Trump legal defense team a preview of the case against him. Instead, they have now copped plea deals in Fulton County which will keep them out of prison, but likely will have them on the stand testifying against Trump. It is truly hard to keep up with all of Trump's legal battles. He is facing criminal charges in four venues, but seems most focused at the moment on a civil trial in New York City. He has been showing up there on some days. That seems a bit like an in-season exhibition game for a professional sports team.

There is still not a Speaker of the House. That is not a good look for America, especially at this time, and it is a reflection on both Republicans and Democrats, although to be fair, the situation is far more of a Republican problem. Democrats are simply not willing to help be part of the solution. If the roles were reversed, I doubt anything would be different.

Last night, I heard Bill Maher make a joke that pretty much encapsulates the entire situation much better than I could. There are enough crazy House Republicans to prevent a sane Republican from being Speaker and there are enough sane House Republicans to prevent a crazy Republican from becoming for Speaker. I am grateful for the latter. Maher referred to this matter as ironically being a "Mexican standoff."

This past week, it was Jim Jordan of Ohio who failed to become Speaker and is now knocked out of contention. This came after three losses on the House floor, with more GOP defections each time. It also involved anti-Jordan Members and their family members receiving political threats and even death threats. House Republicans are said to almost literally be at each others throats in private conference meetings. The chaos brought about by Donald Trump continuing to lead the Republican Party has led to an all out civil war among House Republicans, who have to be wondering if taking the majority after the 2022 midterms was even worth it. It would be pretty amazing if they can keep this majority after the next election. Another push this week to give temporary expanded powers to Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina also fizzled out in the face of a right-wing revolt.

Now, House Republicans are back to square one. At least half a dozen House Members are now saying they want to be Speaker and that one needs to be nominated and voted into the post, all next week. Establishment forces seem to now want Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, although others on the right flank of the party and those outside of Congress associated with Donald Trump are very much opposed to him. There are going to be many different options, but I have a hunch that Byron Donalds of Florida, a relatively new African-American Member, closely aligned with Trump might get a big MAGA push. Picking a black guy would be their way of "owning the libs." Can any Republican get enough Republican votes on the House floor to become Speaker? At what point will Democrats be convinced they have to do something, anything, to help bail them out, and thus the entire ability of the government to function? Could there ever be a point in this brouhaha that could lead Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York to become Speaker? I very much doubt it, but if Republicans ever hold a Speaker election on the House floor, with enough of their Members not there, that could be a fluke result.

All of this seems pretty trivial to what is facing Israel and Gaza. I could not possibly write everything I have been thinking about the situation. Thank G-d, that two American hostages who happen to be from suburban Chicago were released yesterday. Still, there are many more hostages, including Americans, who are being held by Hamas. Israel has yet to march but is still preparing a full scale ground invasion of Gaza.

A pretty stark reality was present this week. Even some who have previously been denying it or were unaware of it have made some grudging admissions. The "far left" in America (along with many around the world) simply hate Israel.  The democratic state of Israel, the only Jewish state on Earth, is consistently held to a higher standard than any other place on Earth. The terrorist leaders who govern Gaza are somehow looked upon as folk heroes on the left, which is nothing short of astonishing. All the values that liberals say they hold dear are far more available in Israel than they are in the Muslim world, and that includes the rights for Muslims too of course.

The United States is saying that Israel needs to abide by the rules of war and to take caution to protect innocent civilians. Of course, it is appropriate for the United States to say that and to mean it. I think Israel will do just that, but their situation cannot be underplayed. They are up against circumstances that no other nation at war, especially including the United States, has ever faced. They will have to do what they have to do. Again, it is entirely the fault of Hamas.

It was distressing this week to see so many people around the world and even in this country fall victim to a Hamas narrative that Israel bombed a hospital this past week and killed hundreds of people. The logistical facts, proven by Israel, and backed up by the United States, show that it was a jihadist rocket misfire that caused damage. In fact, the hospital was not blown up. While innocent people were sadly killed, the number was far overstated by Hamas. Portions of the American media went along with this and did tremendous damage to Israel by doing so. One has to ask why such a thing could happen in the media.

While most Americans are shown via polling to support Israel, the anti-Israel voices in his country are pretty loud,and they come almost exclusively from the Left. That is not to say that Islamophobia is not a problem in this country and needs to be entirely eradicated. A horrible story took place in suburban Chicago where a six year old Palestinian-American boy was stabbed to death by his landlord (not Jewish I will point out) who was said to have been a fan of right-wing talk radio. Today, there was a story that a female synagogue President from Detroit was found murdered last night. A motive or a suspect has not yet been discovered, but these are scary times in America. People are taking to the streets in major cities and screaming at other sometimes while holding Israeli and Palestinian flags. There is real fear in the Jewish-American community about what might happen and I have no doubt that Muslim-Americans are feeling the same way.

President Joe Biden has been strong on supporting Israel since the October 7 attacks. He visited the country this past week and I found much of what he said very moving in substance (his delivery is another, less relevant story.) On Thursday, he gave an Oval Office address, which seemed to have originally been written as a call to continue to support Ukraine financially in their battle for survival, but also weaved in the importance of backing Israel for similar reasons. Some found the speech disjointed, but I give if a very solid B plus. I think it was important and necessary to link the issues as they are. On the substance, some parts of the speech sounded like they could have been delivered by President George W. Bush (the last President I voted for, well, besides for Biden the last time.) I will just say I very much appreciated the moral clarity and the recognition of the need for America to show leadership as compared to the last two men who sat in the Oval Office.

 

So, while I think this was a strong week for Biden, some voices on his party's left flank disagree. A bunch of State Department underlings resigned en masse this week over Biden's support for Israel. Good riddance to them. A small but vocal group of "the Squad" have continued to be very anti-Israel over this past week. This is a relatively small faction of House Democrats, but the actions of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian-American in the House have been nothing short of disgraceful. Along with a fellow Muslim-American House Member, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Tlaib has seemed to insist that Israel bombed the hospital, when all evidence suggests otherwise, and has not made any sort of definitive statement against the Hamas attacks. Of course, others, especially at elite American universities are going even further by basically celebrating the attack on Israel and blaming the murdered and raped and kidnapped and beheaded and burned alive for what happened to them.

Tlaib made some absolutely hysterical and unhinged statements this week in front of a large anti-Israel rally near the Capitol. She basically accused Biden, the President of her own party, of being complicit in genocide. She has said that people who agree with her will not forget and seemed to suggest that Democrats in swing states like Michigan will refuse to support Biden in next year's election. Considering the political problems that Biden has among young leftists and how much young leftists seem to oppose Israel, that might be the last thing he needs. Will House Democrats do anything about Tlaib and Omar? (House Republicans should have done something about Gosar and Greene.) Again, while I think that Dean Phillips could be a stronger general election candidate for Democrats than Joe Biden, I do not know what sort of ideological rationale he might have for running, if he jumps into the Presidential contest, at the point where filing deadlines in several places have already closed. Similar questions should probably be posed on the Republican side to those who are hoping for Glenn Youngkin to get in after next month's Virginia legislative elections.

We can observe at times like this that while most elected Republicans strongly support backing Ukraine against Russia, there are large portions of the right-wing grassroots who do not. By the same token, most elected Democrats support Israel, but there is a very active and loud portion of their grassroots base that does not. Personally, I do not see how one can claim to be pro-Israel (as just about all Republicans will) and not also be pro-Ukraine. I also do not know how people on the left can express solidarity for Ukraine against Russia but not also support Israel in its battles against the brutal enemies that want to eliminate them. I will say that at least the frontrunner for Democrats is pro-Israel and pro-Ukraine (even if he could do even more at times) while the frontrunner for Republicans can hardly be viewed as pro-Ukraine and seemingly is only pro-Israel insofar as his own personal ego and set of grievances.

I will conclude with a theory that is starting to percolate more and more this past week. While anti-Republicans can point to several better (but flawed) alternatives to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, something major has to happen for the party to even hope to deny a third nomination victory for Trump.  There is a thought that the only candidate who is showing any possibility of being a viable alternative to Trump is Nikki Haley.  If the time ever comes, when will it be time for the other candidates such a Will Hurd did last week and backers of other candidates to simply decide that however distasteful it might be, to simply chose to settle for Haley as the last available lifeline and hope for the best?