The expected scenario of two Jewish nominees in the Democratic Presidential race is for most American Jews that I have met during my winter visit to New York, not a source of pride, but instead a reason for uneasiness, fear, and downright anxiety. To make it worse, the majority of American Jews will vote on Election Day for the Democratic nominee placing themselves in a highly visible opposition to the majority of Americans who will be voting for the expected re-election of President Trump.
The last election that American Jews voted in significant numbers for the Republican Party and candidate Ronald Reagan was in 1980; from my encounters with my Jewish brethren in New York over the past two weeks, little chance that we will see a repeat performance of American Jewish voting patterns. In the 1980 election, America’s Jews strongly opposed the Democratic President Jimmy Carter due to his blatant anti-Israel policies and his lack of empathy for Jews in general. For many American Jews, Jimmy Carter was perceived as an enemy of the Jewish people.
In today’s highly venomous and politicized family discourse, more than a few of the many American Jews I met shared a sad reality of parents and children unable to talk to one another; family dining rules that prohibit any mention or discussion of President Trump, no d of increased hatred of Jews and violence against Jews as we approach Election Day.iscussion of Israel, and no expression of thoughts or opinions that question the progressive agenda. In many cases family events ended abruptly with grandchildren instructed by their parents not to speak with their grandparents.
Enter Bernie Sanders or Michael Bloomberg who seem to be headed to be chosen by the Democratic Party to challenge President Trump in the coming national elections. There has never been a Jewish presidential nominee in the United States. These two leading candidates are Jewish; Sanders a devout socialist, closet communist, and Senator, and Bloomberg a self-made billionaire and former Mayor of New York City.
With President Donald Trump as the Republican incumbent, a Democratic Jewish nominee will also almost certainly mean that the 2020 election campaign will be awash in anti-Semitic tropes, slurs, and conspiracy theories. The nomination of a Democratic Jewish nominee might very well set the backdrop for a period of increased hatred of Jews and violence against Jews as we approach Election Day.
This hyper partisan atmosphere did not start with the Democratic Jewish nominees ‘of recent days but has its origins with the Democratic Party’s decision to move ahead with the Congressional impeachment trial and House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to appoint Jews to head the impeachment trial in both Houses of Congress. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced on September 24, 2019 the commencement of impeachment proceedings against President Trump. The main congressional committees involved were all chaired by Jewish legislators: Adam Schiff (intelligence), Jerry Nadler (judiciary) and Eliot Engel (foreign affairs). In addition, several Jewish first-timers in congress, including Democrats Elaine Luria and Elissa Slotkin, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post supporting impeachment. At center stage of the impeachment trial were Jewish Professors Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina. Chief Democratic legal counsel were also Jewish; Norm Eisen, and Daniel Goldman. Many of the Democratic Party’s cooperative witnesses were Jewish with Ambassador Gordon Sondland, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman being the most visible in their anti-Trump dispositions and testimony. On the Senate side, Senator Chuck Schumer had a minimal role due to the Senate controlled by Republican majority, but even here, a Jewish politician was perceived as belonging to the wrong side of the tracks.
House Speaker Pelosi isn’t stupid nor reckless and is far from being a political novice unfamiliar with the dynamics of national elections. She would not have given the green light for the impeachment trial and would not have announced a vote on articles of impeachment had she not believed that the Democratic Party would stand behind her, and had they not believed that’s it’s a lost cause and that President Trump cannot be beaten in the upcoming 2020 elections.
While Pelosi strong-armed Democratic moderates in her caucus during the impeachment trial, she couldn’t strong-arm the voters in their respective districts. Her decision to move forward with an impeachment trial was based on the assumption that many of those 31 Democrats seem destined to lose in November 2020. With her announcement that Democrats are to vote on articles of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed a political death warrant for dozens of moderate Democrats elected in Trump districts and signaled that the national elections are a foregone conclusion.
With the conclusion of the impeachment trial in the Senate, and the dramatic boost of support for President Trump in national polls, Bernie Sanders seemingly broke out of nowhere. Despite Sanders's age, his political socialist baggage, and his unworkable plan to "transform" America into Venezuela, all things that pretty well kept him from rising to the top earlier, suddenly all this didn’t matter. Sanders’ radical communist views have never mellowed, and yet, despite conventional thinking that under no possible constellation can he beat President Trump, Sander’s suddenly became the Democratic frontrunner. Also out of nowhere, suddenly Michael Bloomberg became the No. 3 Democratic frontrunner despite his poor yet irrelevant performance during the recent Democratic debate just days ago. Bloomberg represented everything Democrats hated; he was a billionaire, politically incorrect, repetitively accused of sexist and racist comments, paid his way into the primaries by paying off political hacks, and got the DNC to bend the rules to allow of increased hatred of Jews and violence against Jews as we approach Election Day. him onto the Democratic debate stage, and all this, by buying his way in with unlimited wealth.
The Democratic Party has brought itself into being in a no-win situation with their unelectable leading Jewish candidates Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg with a specific objective. For the Democratic Party and many of their base and what I would call their rabid followers, many of them anti-Semitic; the Jews will be blamed and held responsible, and the Jews will pay the price. Since the 2016 election, the Democratic Party has thrown even the kitchen sink at President Trump hoping that something would stick. President Trump, a street fighter has emerged stronger than ever heading towards a possible electoral landslide in 2020.
American Jews will be blamed and will pay the price, however, they have no one to blame but themselves.