White House Race- April 27, 2024

We are back at it again on a Saturday. This week's political headlines mostly involved protests on college campuses and a former President on trial watching a Pecker on the stand. The election is less than 200 days away. The nominees are all but chosen, but primaries are still being held in some states. This week, a closed Republican primary in Pennsylvania, still produced a bunch of votes for Nikki Haley, a candidate who ended her race several weeks ago. The bottom line is that there are many Republicans who do not appear willing to vote for Donald Trump this November. By the same token, there are many Democrats who are at least threatening to not vote for Joe Biden.  Robert Kennedy Jr. remains a factor, polling several points higher than he should, considering his absolute insanity on a wide range of fronts. It appears that Trump may now be more concerned that RFK Jr. could be costing him votes.

I do not really know what to say on the New York courtroom events. There are not cameras in the courtroom, but every detail is being excruciatingly covered on cable news. Some think the week went badly for Trump's defense, as the Prosecution is making their case. Others believe the case remains fundamentally weak. We definitely know for sure though to just what lengths Trumpworld went to in 2015 and 2016 to plant false stories in the National Enquirer about their political rivals. In spite of this, spineless politicians like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who were the victims of vicious smears, shrug it off. After all, they have a political master that needs to be bowed down to.

 

Moving on, I find it difficult to really even try to describe what is going lately on college campuses and other places. For decades, America has prided itself as a society that looks down upon bigots and hatred. We have certainly seen episodes of hateful people exercising their Constitutionally protected free speech rights before, while having those views be denounced in the media and in society in general. If the targets of hate speech were African-Americans or the LGBT community, there would rightfully be tremendous pushback in solidarity with those targets.

It does not seem like the same can be said these days for Jews. Even many Jewish-Americans are reluctant to speak out. What we are seeing though on the news every day is pretty unprecedented. Young Americans, and those who are living in as guests in America, seem emboldened to attack Jews and to literally target them for harassment and intimidation. When this sort of thing happens from right-wing extremists, such as what we saw a few years back in Charlottesville, people spoke out against it. There seems to be greater consternation as to how to respond when left-wing extremists are the ones spreading this hate. With that in mind, Republicans and those on the right are taking the opportunity to spotlight the anti-Semitic extremism for political purposes. I would like to think they actually mean what they say about wanting to protect Jews in America. However, there is hypocrisy at place, because many of these exact same people choose to look the other way or make excuses when anti-Semitism rears its ugly head at C-PAC gatherings or on January 6 riots, or on the Mar-A-Lago dinner guest list and many other related examples.

Some have compared what is happening on college campuses to anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s. I find such a comparison to be shockingly off-base. This is not at all like the 1960s. It is far more like the 1930s in Germany. This is Charlottesville in 2017, without the tiki torches, and with much larger, more menacing crowds.

Large portions of these demonstrators are actively seeking out, threatening, and harassing Jews and making their lives in the United States very unsafe. They are being told "go back to Poland."

Many of these people do not care about Gaza. They care about harming and terrorizing Jews. Somehow that is getting lost in translation to those who are willfully ignorant.

In the 1960s, people on college campuses called for an end to a war. Today, people on college campuses are calling for “a thousand October 7ths”, the burning of Tel Aviv, and the destruction of Israel by force. They are actively chanting slogans and waiving flags praising Hamas and Hezbollah.

There is very little “peace, love, and understanding” at play in these demonstrations. These are not anti-war demonstrations in any way, shape, or form. They are not advocating a "cease-fire." They are advocating a greater war of expansion that results in the demolishing of Israel.

Different states and different campuses are taking different approaches to these events, which have shut down classes and caused graduation ceremonies to be canceled. Columbia University in particular appears unable to take steps to stop what is going behind free speech and instead an active threat against its Jewish students. In places like Texas and Florida, politicians and university officials have taken a more firm approach, that involves police and expulsions, and they are facing criticism for that.

 In the meantime, the question I and many others continue to ask is why is it that Jews are so reviled and so blames for so many things in the world, even by people who profess to be on the side of justice and equality. This is an age old question though and certainly not limited to the United States.

This week, President Biden was asked an off the cuff question about anti-Semitic protests. He said he denounced them but also denounces "those who do not understand what is going on with the Palestinians." Once again, Biden is trying to have it both ways and in using those words, sure sounds a whole lot like a post-Charlottesville President Donald Trump who spoke of "good people on both sides" in a clash between white supremacists and those who opposed them. Biden himself said he was spurned to run against Trump because of those remarks. Now, he is basically parroting this "both sides" argument. What is "going on with the Palestinians" certainly has nothing to do with Jewish-Americans and should not even be brought up in the same discussion as the increased instances of anti-Semitism within the United States. If one wants to really know what is going on with the Palestinians, history would be very instructive. Their issues are internal more than with Israel. On several occasions, Palestinians authorities have rejected having their own state, simply because they do not want Israel to be a state also. Those who voted Hamas into power in Gaza are what is going on with the Palestinians, and certainly Hamas itself, which wants to see as many of its own people die in order to advance its anti-Israel agenda is what is going on. Joe Biden knows all of this, but he is being a political coward once again.

Finally,. we are getting closer to the point where Donald Trump will need to pick a new runningmate. Many ambitious Republicans want that slot. I am still a bit surprised at the talk about people like Marco Rubio, considering the fact that he would have to literally resign from the Senate and move to a new state other than Florida in order to be selected. I think Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is a real possibility, because Don Jr. likes him, and they share views on wanting Putin to defeat Ukraine.

A name that has gotten a lot of mention though has been South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. There are a lot of issues surrounding her that could be considered huge problems, but MAGA world seems to shrug everything off as a "liberal media conspiracy" or "fake news." Over the past couple of days, she has gotten a lot of criticism for writing in a book, in a proud fashion, that she once shot and killed her 14 month old puppy because she "hated" the dog after deciding he not make it as a hunting dog after some alleged misbehavior. This made Noem decide that the execution of Cricket was the only solution.

This made dog lovers aghast and others could not believe she would even admit to it and decided it would greatly harm her political career. I think she wrote this and is speaking about it for an audience of one. Donald Trump is the person who could put her on his ticket and he hates dogs. His hatred for pets, and dogs in particular is well-documented. Comparing a person to a dog has long been a main page in his rhetorical playbook. Noem thinks Trump will like her more knowing she shot and killed a dog and I think she is right. This will help her chances of being picked.

If she is picked and there is outrage over this instance from her past, I know exactly how MAGA will respond. First, they will say that since the left is ok with killing a baby after it is born (not an entirely untrue claim as it relates to failed abortion procedures), they have no room to complain about anybody killing a dog. Then, they will point to Joe Biden's troubled White House German Shepherds and their biting habits and say that Noem had the guts to do what Biden could never do.

Sadly, the Republican Party is in a weird place these days.