To Jews Considering Voting for Trump: Please Reconsider

 

To Jews Considering Supporting Trump:  Please Reconsider

By Mark Kaplan

October 15, 2024

 

“If I don’t win this election…the Jewish people will have a lot to do with that if it happens...” 

Donald Trump, September 19, 2024

 

In our upcoming Presidential election, according to recent polls, as many as 30% of American Jews could vote for Donald Trump.  There appear to be two main rationales for this vote:

1)     A misguided belief that Trump will be better for Israel, and Jews in general, than Harris and her Democratic administration.

2)    A short-sited belief that left-wing based antisemitism is a more serious threat than traditional right-wing based antisemitism.

The recent and unprecedented (since WWII) rise in antisemitism in the U.S. and globally has created great alarm in Jewish communities around the world, including here in the U.S.  While this surge in antisemitism is coming from across the political spectrum, the threat is more serious from the right.  Antisemitism, ubiquitous on the right, but in recent decades mostly on the fringe, is now occupying the base of today’s Republican Party – the MAGA Republican Party.  Perhaps some are motivated to vote for Trump’s MAGA Republican movement because some of the recent increase in antisemitism is coming from the Left.  However, the threat from the Left, though unfamiliar and concerning, is dwarfed by the embedding of antisemitism into the core base of today’s Republican Party.  Jews and non-Jews, should be alarmed and alert. In their embrace of illiberalism, today’s MAGA Republicans represent a fracturing of our political tradition.  This fracture is unsafe for all minorities and certainly for Jews. And our political agency is best directed towards holding and saving the Center.

Trump’s MAGA Republican Party represents a break from both traditional Republicanism, and Classic Liberalism.  Republicans have long held the right side of the classic liberal American political spectrum, while Democrats occupy the left side.  The country has moved back and forth along this continuum for many decades, reflecting voters’ opinions on the direction of the country at any particular time.  While policies and tenor would shift, the underlying values of Classic Liberalism based in The Enlightenment – individual rights and freedom, democracy, justice, and the rule of law – remained as driving values that shaped our political debates.  The Republican Party that existed on the right half of the classic liberal continuum is no longer in power.  Instead, the MAGA Republicans have embraced illiberalism, and like many illiberal movements, antisemitism is a core and animating feature, and their fascist approach to politics won’t allow for that antisemitism to be easily confronted.  This is where the danger lies. This is why this federal election is so critical and why we must reject Trump and MAGA and reembrace the values of our classic liberal tradition that descend from ancient Jewish values, and are key to pluralism in general, and Jewish thriving.

As the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has clearly documented, the 8-year spike in antisemitism began well before the 2023 war in Israel and Gaza, having begun in 2016, the year Donald Trump won the Presidency.  Trumpism connects directly to historical antecedents of antisemitism as he has repeatedly cited ancient tropes and legitimated known antisemites.  Indeed, he has found enthusiastic antisemitic allies in the mainstream of MAGA-dominated Republican politics.  These developments have been obscured by prior countervailing politics.  For several decades the mainstream of the Republican party has been very pro-Israel, and generally against antisemitism, with right-wing based antisemitism on the fringe. However, today, a shift is evident.   Not on the fringe, but in the base of the party and amongst key pro-Trump influencers, there are many extreme antisemites.  This has been true from the 2015 origins of his campaign, and it has only gotten worse.

Consider a few of the numerous examples of the many MAGA social media influencers with tens of millions of followers.  Let’s start with Tucker Carlson, who platforms Holocaust-deniers and virulent antisemites.  Or Nick Fuentes, the white supremist who repeats the longstanding antisemitic trope that Jews control the world.  He’s the same fellow who went, with openly antisemitic Kanye West, to have an intimate lunch with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.  And there is virulent antisemitic, Holocaust-denying Candace Owens who touts conspiracy-laden blood libels against Jews that go back 2000 years.  Trump describes Holocaust-denying North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson (the one who demeans women and describes himself as a “Black Nazi”) as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”  While there are repugnant antisemitic figures on The Left, today’s Republicans have more Jew-haters who are critical figures in getting votes for Trump, and they are not fringe elements of the party; they reside squarely in its base. 

Perhaps you’ve noticed the words and retweets from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.  He has become a strong Trump supporter and regularly posts antisemitic memes and propaganda, including one supporting the theory that Jews are importing Black and Brown people into America to “replace” White people. (This, so-called, Great Replacement Theory, was prominently displayed in the antisemitic march in Charlottesville, VA in 2017).  Musk’s retweet of this post endorsed the originator, stating “you have said the actual truth.” These sorts of antisemitic conspiracy theories are rife on The Right.  When one considers today’s right-wing antisemitism and its continuity with historic antisemitism, the power of these conspiracy theories is self-evident.  Trump and MAGA propaganda are constantly repeating, reviving, and creating conspiracy theories.  Such thinking has always been essential to antisemitism and to fascist movements.  The ADL’s 2024 research revealed an alarming and relevant fact: belief in conspiracy theories continues to be one of the “main correlates of antisemitic attitudes.”  Jews are historically a main target of such fantasies that are often constructed to support a conspiracy-minded wannabe dictator.  Trump fits the bill and thereby becomes a very risky bet.

The connection to historic antisemitism is even scarier given the parallels to the politics of the 1920s and 30s in both the U.S. and Europe. While Jews in the U.S. have had what some describe as a “golden era” since the 1950s, before that antisemitism was common, and there were quotas limiting the number of Jews who could attend various universities.  Prominent and popular figures such as Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, and Father Coughlin were openly and virulently antisemitic and a revived and particularly antisemitic KKK formed in the 1920s.  One of their rallies in the late 1930s filled New York City’s Madison Square Garden.  Jewish immigration to the U.S. was greatly curtailed in the 1920s and 30s, just as Europe was becoming untenable for Jews.  We hear echoes of those events in Trump’s embrace of the demonization of migrants as the key element of his political strategy.  Even Trump’s tariff goals have a strong parallel to that period. The isolationist Smoot-Hawley Tariffs of the 1920s help initiate the Great Depression, and today economists are sounding the alarms.   Trump is not a conservative; he is an isolationist, nationalist, xenophobic, aspiring dictator similar to those who ascended in the America of the 1920s and 30s.  Just this week, Trump is speaking about “the enemy within” and proposing the National Guard and even the U.S. should intervene.  It was revealed that Mark Milley, Trump’s appointed Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said to Bob Woodward that Trump is “a total fascist”, “fascist to his core”, and “the most dangerous person to this country.”  This is scary stuff, and Jews more than any other group should see it for what it is, and see the connection to the past.

Consider the issues animating today’s socio-cultural and political debates and their parallels to Europe in the 1920s and 30s.  Hitler came to power by demonizing minorities and immigrants.  Visit the Holocaust Museums in Washington and Jerusalem and you will see extensive propaganda that showed Jews as a scary caricature, a less-than-human “other” threatening the good native-born people of Germany (By the way, these views were held in other parts of Europe which partly explains the success of Hitler’s project to commit genocide).  It is not surprising that the first two decades of the 20^th century in Germany featured increasing acceptance of LGBTQ people and increasing Women’s rights.  In a backlash that seems relevant today, curtailing LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights were specific focuses of the Nazi Party.   I’m not saying the MAGA movement is an exact parallel to Nazi Germany, and that they are going to try to exterminate the Jews of North America.  I’m saying that this type of illiberal, nationalist, xenophobic movement based on conspiracies which denigrate minorities and women is familiar, and these movements are always antisemitic at their core.  Jews should think hard before supporting this type of movement; not only will it not end well for Jews, it will not end well for many.  I have no idea if Trump is personally antisemitic and I don’t particularly care.  What matters is not his intentions, but the impact his opinions, affiliations, and decisions have. Trump and his party stand with virulent antisemites. They also stand with other, actual, dictators.  What does it mean to Jews if Putin is empowered, if Ukraine loses?  Iran’s weapons are being used by Russia to kill Ukrainians.  Does that not empower Putin’s allies in Iran and Syria?  Trump and MAGA praise Victor Orban of Hungary, an authoritarian whose antisemitic actions are well documented, in a country with a serious history of oppressing and killing its Jewish citizens.  Trump represents an existential danger to freedom, democracy, and certainly to Jews, even if that isn’t his conscious intent.

Consider carefully what we know about Trump and what is important to him:  Were it to his benefit, Trump would turn on Jews or Israel easily and quickly.  Read again the quote at the beginning of this essay; he is already preparing to blame the Jews, because the nature of most autocrats is to always have someone to blame.  The Jews are history’s most frequent scapegoat. What may appear at best ambiguous today could easily become more explicit antisemitism, and in a fascist authoritarian movement, difficult to confront.  Because Trump is not a stable or reliable person, it is reasonable to imagine that if elected (or not) he might easily further demonize the Jews.

The threat of Trump and MAGA is easy to see if one is willing to step back and put it in historical context.  The rise of antisemitism on parts of the Left is real as well.  Again, both the rise of antisemitism in some parts of the Left and in the Trump MAGA movement represent a retreat from the classic liberal paradigm that has been central to the development of freedom and democracy across the globe.  On a small part of the Left a retreat towards a more Marxist or Structuralist paradigm is deeply disconcerting as it positions Jews and Israel as privileged oppressors (instead of our accurate history of being the most consistently and tirelessly oppressed group for more than 2500 years, our miraculous survival, and an unbelievable story of resilience and thriving). However, again, it appears to be a minority view, mostly held on campuses, and not in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. More broadly there is considerable concern about how Israel is conducting this war, but that doesn’t necessarily equate with antisemitism.  Research by the ADL doesn’t show a significant increase in anti-Israel/antisemitic attitudes in the U.S. overall.

It is possible that what I am writing here about left-wing antisemitism is too naïve.  Both the amount and overt nature of the antisemitism, and the fact that much of it is coming from a less unfamiliar direction – The Left – increase the sense of fear and uncertainty about where this is all headed.  It feels like our natural allies are turning on us.  Our natural home has been the Democratic Party, which we vote for consistently in Presidential elections at a rate usually exceeding 70%.  This is likely partly due to our history as one of the West’s most targeted minority group but also because of our tradition’s pluralistic cultural, religious, and ethical values - the classic liberal values of humanism and individual and group rights. To many Jews the nature of the left-wing pro-Palestinian and even pro-Hamas rallies on and off college campuses in the immediate wake of the brutal Oct 7 slaughter of more than 1200 Israelis, as well as the spike in antisemitic incidents more generally, is a stark reminder of the persistence of antisemitism and the vulnerability of Jews. However, Brandeis University’s recent 2024 study of more than 4,000 college students reports that two-third of them don’t have negative attitudes towards Israel nor Jews, more generally.   But one-third do.  There are worrying instances of antisemitism that go beyond just campuses.  Other individuals and institutions are judging Jews through the lens of their actual or perceived views in support of Zionism.  Dara Horn, in Atlantic Magazine (“October 7 Created a Permission Structure for Antisemitism”, Oct 8 2024), describes how “Jews have…been loudly and proudly ostracized in spaces ranging from professional networking groups to the corner bookstore.”    Antisemitism is clearly on the increase across the political spectrum, and across the globe. This is worrying and must be confronted strongly and seriously.  And it is being confronted, by The White House, in universities and in the free discourse of a free society.  In the wake of 2 members of “The Squad” losing primaries to moderates Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is somewhat moderating her position and confronting far left antisemitism and anti-Israel activists.  In a democracy this conversation can happen; in a dictatorship, not so much.  These efforts are more likely to happen, and be successful, by electing a center-left President who will maintain American institutions and values and hold the line against bigotry.

While Republicans fight with each other to get further and further into right-wing extreme positions, Harris and the Democrats are sending signal after signal that they want to hold the Center on many issues, including Israel and antisemitism.  Many traditional center-right Republicans who are strong supporters of Israel are supporting the Harris Walz ticket and voting for a Democrat for the first time in their lives.  The Democratic party is rejecting far left policies to a large extent.  The statements and actions of the Biden Harris administration and the Harris campaign, while perhaps more nuanced than Republicans about the suffering of Palestinian civilians, reflect the pro-Israel views of the vast majority of Americans, and Democrats. The ADL in 2024 found that 89% of Americans support Israel’s right to exist as an independent state. The fears that Harris will reduce military aid to Israel and take what many see as a compromising position on Israel’s most existential threat, Iran, don’t seem well-founded. Harvard Cap Harris (a research company, no connection to Kamala) research in 2024 showed that 61% of Democrats, 57% of Independents, and only 50% of Republicans support the recent $26 billion aid package to Israel.  Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of both Israel’s existence and its defense, however, there is a reasonable critique Benjamin Netanyahu’s extreme and illiberal right-wing government, its conduct of the war in Gaza, and its move to reform Israel’s judiciary in ways that might end democracy in Israel.  It is important to remember that any leader of a political party has to be at least somewhat reflective of the views of their supporters.  Thus, Harris’s view has both more critique of the Netanyahu government and more nuance about the suffering of Palestinians, but it is essentially pro-Israel. Harris is taking hawkish positions on national security, and is very pro-NATO, and she has moved to the center-right on border security.  When it comes to Israel, along with the strong support for military aid, Harris’s response to the Nasrallah assassination was to point out that he was a terrorist, that he has blood, including American blood, on his hands, and that Israel has a right to defend itself.  It is clear that she, like Biden, is a Zionist. The Biden-Harris administration has been very supportive of Israel’s defense, consistent with all of the administrations of the last 76 years, all of which have been supportive. There is no indication this will change in a Harris-Walz administration. This is appropriate for the Democratic nominee for President, and if victorious she will be well-positioned to support Israel’s security and, hopefully in a post-Netanyahu era, to help them forge a return to a more pro-democracy stance.  In the end, there is little political room for Harris and the Democrats to move substantially left on Israel.  A debate on Iran policy needs to ensue, but given Iran’s recent behavior and the Biden Harris administration’s strong and fast military support for Israel and against Iran, it is likely that Iran policy will become more hawkish, not less.  It is safer for Israel for that diplomatic process to be overseen by a more Centrist approach vs. a Trump “what’s in it for me?” approach.

Again, this is all very consistent with U.S. public opinion.  The Democratic party is very supportive of this mildly hawkish, pro-foreign engagement stance, while Republicans show signs of becoming more isolationist. The Harvard Cap Harris research reports that fully 71% of Democrats and only 54% of Republicans s believe the U.S. should take on more world leadership and resolve difficult problems and conflicts.  Also, strikingly, more Democrats than Republicans say that NATO countries have a responsibility to support Israel against Iranian aggression.  Harris and the Democrats won’t be lockstep with every policy or goal of Israel’s ultra right-wing, increasingly anti-democratic government, but on the big issues all the evidence confirms that they will be there for Israel, and will have its back.  As I write this, the U.S. Navy is surging support into the Middle East to protect Israel in case of additional escalation with Hezbollah and Iran.  It is going to take a lot of work, diplomacy and pressure to help Israel through this difficult time and stabilize the power relationships in the Middle East.  An unreliable leader, who is easily influenced through flattery and money is not the person to manage this effectively.  Harris is by far the safer bet for Jews and Israel.

So, two conclusions loom: the truly anti-Israel, antisemitic element on The Left does not have control of the Democratic party, and it is unlikely to achieve that goal going forward.  Much of the overt anti-Israel stances and antisemitism on The Left is based in the campus protests, and as the conflict in Gaza ebbs, so will the protests and antisemitism, more generally.  On The Left, true existential anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment will remain on the fringes, even if a strong critique of Israel’s right-wing extreme government continues.  We should fight hard to ensure that it does!  We are strongest in that fight when we engage it from the center. Second, Harris is running on a platform that supports Israel’s security, and note, a personal element is mitigating: she is married to a Jewish man, who strongly identifies as Jewish, and she has helped raise his two children. 

Lastly, and in a certain way most importantly, supporting Trump is deeply inconsistent with Judaism’s core values.  Trumps stands for the xenophobia and isolationism, and against much of what more than two thousand years of Judaism represents.  Jewish history, philosophy and thought has shaped Western civilization.  Not only the notion of monotheism, but belief in the sanctity of life, social justice, and ethics, all have their roots in Jewish history.  We are the living, breathing example of a long struggle to understand diversity and inclusion.  No group has been as consistently scapegoated and targeted for its entire history as the Jews.  In the U.S. we are no longer first on the list of scapegoats as we were (and remain) in other parts of the world, but we are still high on the list and a sense of risk runs deep in our culture and collective memory.   For us to throw our support behind a person who malignantly divides people, stereotypes and demeans minority groups, lies about them, all while constantly looking for someone to blame to distract from his failings, is to take a stance in violation of basic moral precepts that protect the dignity of all.  We can, and must, be better.  We need to be an example of a people who reach across divides, and support others in their quest for justice and dignity.  We must remember that we know what it means to be the “stranger in a strange land.”  We have survived for three millennia, and much of our history is connected to supporting human rights, not joining efforts to demean minority groups. We should strongly and unambiguously join the very bipartisan efforts to defeat Trump and Trumpism.  As Jews, we know how important it is to see the bigger picture and the bigger danger, and we know how to stand with both Bernie Sanders and Liz Cheney simultaneously.  In my opinion we Jews should be at the center of these kinds of efforts.  We shouldn’t be naïve about our ongoing ability to survive and thrive, but we should see that the path to that survival doesn’t run with Trump and his MAGA movement.