I’ve been feeling an increasingly higher level of anxiety as the 2020 election approaches. I sense I’m not alone.

On the one hand, I believe that a fair election will result in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris becoming President and Vice President and more Democrats becoming House and Senate members signaling the beginning of the end of our national nightmare.

On the other hand, I know that Trump and his Republican sycophants will do everything they can to steal this election from the American people.

Thirty years ago I began collecting quotations from Jewish and world literature on a wide variety of themes. This past week I looked at what I collected specifically on the themes of “anxiety,” “fear,” and “despair.” Here are a few statements that offered a measure of wisdom, perspective, and hope:

 “The world is a very narrow bridge; the important thing is not to be afraid.” —Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (Ukraine, 1772-1810)

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” —President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” —Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” —Epictetus (1^st-2^nd Century AD Greek Stoic philosopher)

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” —Charles Spurgeon (19^th century English Baptist Preacher)

“Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” —Walter Anderson (20^th century American painter and writer)

“You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” —Wayne Dyer (20^th-21^st century American author and motivational speaker)

“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” —President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

“Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it.” —Dorothy M. Neddermeyer (20^th-21^st century psychotherapist)

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist and philosopher, 1803-1882)

“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” —The Dalai Lama (1935- )

“Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” —William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

“There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.” —Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

 “What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow?” —Thomas á Kempis (14^th-15^th century Dutch-German author)

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” —Reinhold Niebuhr (American theologian and ethicist, 1892-1971)

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” —Lao Tzu (6^th century BCE Chinese philosopher)

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” —Maya Angelou (American poet and civil rights activist, 1928-2014)

 “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving.” —Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

“America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. Not merely black America, but all of America. It must speak up and act … for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself…When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned … under those tragic circumstances that bigotry and hatred is not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence.” —Rabbi Joachim Prinz (German-American Rabbi, 1902-1988; words he spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 1963 March on Washington)

“It’s forbidden to despair… Remember: Things can go from the very worst to the very best…in just the blink of an eye.” —Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (Ukraine, 1772-1810)

“If you’re going through Hell, keep going.” —Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

 “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fail.” —Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.” —Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble…Do not get lost in a sea of despair.” —Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020)

“The line of progress is never straight.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

In reading Ron Chernow’s formidable biography of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), it’s remarkable to consider these past 155 years since the Civil War and know, on the one hand, how much the United States has changed for the better, and on the other, how much some Americans have not changed at all. The racism, hate, and suppression of former slaves that provoked the secession of the South from the Union and the resulting Civil War are still present in the hearts and minds of far too many Americans.

Frederick Douglas regarded President Grant as the greatest friend to black Americans of any President to that point in American history, including Abraham Lincoln. But, it took far more than one President’s support and advocacy to turn the tide of history from brutal enslavement to freedom and equality. As much as Grant advocated on behalf of the rights, safety, and well-being of the 4 million former black slaves, the South reversed the gains made in the Civil War and during Reconstruction until the 1960s’ civil rights movement. Through whipping, shooting, wounding, maiming, mutilation, and the murder of black women, children, and defenseless men, white supremacists led by the Ku Klux Klan (founded in 1865) did everything possible to terrorize black Americans and create an Apartheid-like South.

As I waded through this 959-page presidential biography, I gained a sense of Grant’s heart, soul, mind, character, dignity, and leadership, his strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. He was an uncommon president, perhaps one of the greatest in American history. A graduate of West Point and a veteran of the Mexican wars, Grant was modest, quiet, and innately intelligent. His calm demeanor, strategic mind, and dogged determination inspired millions of Union troops during the Civil War including President Lincoln himself, America as a whole, and most international leaders in the last third of the 19^th century.

Following President Andrew Johnson’s short term of office after Lincoln’s assassination, the Radical abolitionist Republican Party clamored for the heroic but hesitant Major General Ulysses S. Grant to run for President in 1868. He did so less from ego than a sense of duty winning comfortably both the popular vote and Electoral College. Grant’s political naiveté, however, made it difficult for him to cope effectively over two terms (1869-1877) with a scandal-ridden Washington, D.C. political culture and the violent resistance to Reconstruction by southern white Democrats. Yet, his accomplishments were significant including support for and advocacy of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution respectively outlawing slavery, granting citizenship to all born and naturalized persons, and securing the right to vote for all citizens of the United States – women’s suffrage would come on August 18, 1920 almost exactly a century ago.

One can’t help but compare the Obama and Trump years to Lincoln’s and Grant’s successes and reversals of fortune. Whereas Presidents Lincoln and Grant were tenacious, visionary, and of common moral cause in keeping the Union whole and bringing freedom and equality de jure to all Americans (including Native Americans and Jews), their legacy was undone to a great extent by racist, intolerant, and violent Southern State thugs and Northern racists.

Whereas the Obama-Biden administration brought back economic stability, expanded health care, sought greater equity for all Americans, promoted environmental responsibility, and engaged constructively in international agreements in their two terms, the Trump-Pence Administration has sought to undo and undermine most of the Obama-Biden accomplishments in just shy of 4 years.  

Today’s Trump Republican Party, of course, bears little resemblance to the 19^th century Republican Party of Lincoln and Grant. Whereas President Grant sought to expand citizenship and voting rights in fair and free elections for every born and naturalized American citizen, Trump’s Republican Party openly disdains expansive voting rights and an inclusive democracy, albeit far less violently than the 19^th century South.

Ron Chernow’s biography Grant (publ. 2017) is a tour de force in research and writing and well worth the time to read especially for those who value history but know little about President Grant, the Civil War, his hopes for Reconstruction, and its chaotic and violent aftermath.

I was playing with our 19 month-old grand-daughter Violet when my wife told me that Kamala Harris was Joe Biden’s choice as Vice President.

I am thrilled as a white American man, a Jew, and a grandfather of a beautiful little girl whose first political memory is likely to be that a Black/Asian woman is Vice President and may well be President of the United States. I am so excited for Violet, for all of us, and for all the little girls in our nation and around the world who will know that Kamala Harris has broken the ultimate glass ceiling.

Yes, her selection is symbolic – but Kamala is also highly competent, smart, wise, seasoned, and a great candidate. I have no doubts that she will be a great VP.

Granted, Kamala is not yet elected, but I believe the election was decided on Tuesday, unless Trump steals it – and that remains a deep worry. That being said, I’m an optimist, and I believe that come January 20 we will have a President Joe Biden, a Vice President Kamala Harris, an expanded majority in the House, and a majority in the Senate.

To most of the nation, Trump has shown through his negative and toxic example how important ethical and competent American leadership really is, how critical the President’s understanding of American and world history and the US Constitution must be, and what America actually stands for – justice, compassion, forward thinking, and peace between the peoples of a diverse nation.

In a time when joy and optimism have been very hard to come by, Joe has infused his campaign and the country with much of both. I say to Uncle Joe – “Thank You and Let’s Go!”

PS – Get everyone you know to register to vote and vote early!

In the past month, two events rocked the Jewish world and challenged the liberal American Jewish relationship to Zionism and the State of Israel.

Peter Beinart, a long-time supporter of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, articulated in a long essay in Jewish Currents and in an op-ed in the New York Times why he now believes that a two-state solution is dead. Instead, he advocates for one democratic state in which the Jewish and the Palestinian peoples can live equally in their respective national homes in what he calls “Israel-Palestine.”

Seth Rogen, the American Jewish film-maker and comedian, in an interview with Marc Maron on his podcast in advance of the release of Rogen’s film “An American Pickle,” reflects the conflicted state of his own Jewish identity and many in his generation vis a vis antisemitism, Jews, and Israelis.

Whereas Peter Beinart is a highly educated and informed Jewish intellectual and journalist, Seth Rogen, though growing up in a Vancouver Jewish Day School and a left-wing Habonim Dror summer camp, seems not to understand what Israel and Israelis are really all about, what Jewish peoplehood means today, and why a Jewish State in all its complexity is a miracle in 2000 years of Jewish history.

The tragedy of Covid-19, the historic economic collapse, massive unemployment, racial divisions, and the charged American presidential race have consumed so much of our energy and attention these past 6 months. Few American Jews except those who are most passionately pro-Zionist and pro-Israel aren’t thinking much about Israel these days. Perhaps, this is an opportunity with so much time on our hands for us American Jews to deepen our knowledge and understanding of Zionism, Israel, and Palestine.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of volumes that educate and enlighten the history of the Jewish State, the Zionist dream, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These volumes explain why a Jewish state matters so much to the Jewish people, and why a two-state solution is the only viable option for peace, security, and justice for both Jews and Palestinians.  

For the list of 26 outstanding volumes, see my blog at the Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/zionism-israel-and-the-palestinians-book-recommendations/

“The two-state idea is comatose until Trump is gone, and Netanyahu is gone, and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is gone — and then some. But it is no more “impossible” than was the fall of the Berlin Wall or the disappearance of the Soviet Union. “There is a distinction between a coma and being dead,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the nonprofit advocacy group J Street, told me.”

Roger Cohen’s op-ed (NYT July 31, 2020) is an important piece. If you are not yet persuaded that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more possible than a one-state solution (per Peter Beinart) then Roger will persuade you that 2-states is and must be for the sake of both the Jewish people and the Palestinians.

The recent interview with Seth Rogen on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” was intended to promote Rogen’s new film, “An American Pickle.” However, Rogen’s comments about Israel and what he learned in religious school and left-wing Zionist summer camp upset a lot of American Jews and Israelis while reflecting the conundrum of millennial and boomer American Jews in our relationship with the Jewish State.

I offer a response to Seth and others in the millennial generation as well as Generation X, Z and Baby Boomers in my blog at the Times of Israel.

See – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-response-to-seth-rogen-2/

In my former blog-post “The Simple Act of Voting will Determine the Election on November 3rd,” I indicated dates for mailing vote-by-mail ballots for the November 3, 2020 election that are incorrect. Please look at this site for the correct information:

https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/vote-mail/vbm-nov2020-general-election/#vote-by-mail

Note as well that the Trump administration’s cynical efforts to disrupt mail delivery through the United States Postal Service (already happening) needs to be watched carefully going forward. If matters to not improve, it is possible to fill out and sign your vote-by-mail ballots and deliver them personally to your polling place on November 3 without necessarily having to wait in line. That way, at the least, you will know that your vote will be counted.

If you forwarded my earlier blog to friends, please forward this one as well. Thanks and apologies.

David Plouffe, the campaign manager for Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, spoke briefly in his July 30^th podcast “Campaign HQ” (which I highly recommend) about mail-in-voting. He said the following (I added more comments):

• More than 7-8% of mail-in ballots are thrown out and 10% of first-time voters’ ballots are discarded or set aside because the voter makes a mistake. Given that the US Postal Service will experience a surge in ballots-by-mail, the count may be delayed. Further, we know at this time that Trump’s appointment of Louis DeJoy, a big donor to Trump’s campaign with no experience in managing the US Postal Service, is already trying to undermine the election by putting up obstacles for delivery of the mail to give an advantage to Trump and Republican candidates.

David Plouffe says, of course, that we can all vote in-person on November 3rd if we aren’t overly concerned about catching the disease. Our votes will certainly count that way. But, if we want to vote-by-mail, there’s no reason to wait to request a ballot now (see note below for California voters). Once we do that, here are questions to consider:

• If you are not registered to vote in your state, what are the rules for voter registration? Check on-line to find out.
• Is your request for a mail-in-ballot in?
• What are the rules for voting-by-mail? They are all stated on the ballot. Be sure to read them carefully.
• Does the mail-in-ballot require postage?
• Do the rules say that we have to sign the outside of the ballot envelope?
• Do we need a witness to sign it with us?
• Are we signing our name legibly and exactly as our name appears on the ballot?
• Does the ballot need to be post-marked before the election? (In California, ballots must be postmarked by October 19, 2020 and received by October 27, 2020). Check on-line in your state to see when the period of voting-by-mail takes place. For Californians, here is the web-site with all the necessary information: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/voting-california/election-dates-and-resources/
• After we complete the ballot, check to be certain that you filled it out exactly as instructed?
• Leave nothing to chance!

I happily received the following email from the California Secretary of State two weeks ago:

Dear California Voter, 

All California voters will be sent a vote-by-mail ballot with prepaid postage for the General Election.

To make sure you get your ballot, we are asking all California voters to double-check their voter registration at:

https//voterstatus.sos.ca.gov

You can ensure a smooth voting experience by:

• Confirming your mailing address on the above site
• Signing up for ballot tracking notifications by phone, email, or text on the above site

For voters unable to take advantage of vote-by-mail, you can still visit your local polling place for safe in-person voting and same-day registration.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to have your ballot mailed directly to your home!

On behalf of the California Secretary of State’s Office, thank you!

P.S. Help us spread the word! Forward this email to 3 friends or family members (or more) and remind them it’s important to double-check their voter registration before the November election.

Do you know someone who is eligible to vote but may not be registered? Forward this email and tell them to register at registertovote.ca.gov

PLEASE SHARE THIS BLOG-POST WITH WHOMEVER YOU FEEL COULD BENEFIT FROM IT!

I thought of Orwell’s remark as it became clear that the Democratic National Committee in its platform is avoiding calling Israel’s policy in the West Bank an “occupation.” Though the platform calls for two states for two peoples as the only just, fair, and secure resolution possible for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jeremy Ben-Ami and James Zogby explain in The Nation this week why “It’s Time for the Democratic Party to Mention the Occupation – If the next Democratic administration is serious about promoting peace, the party platform needs to condemn Israel’s illegal occupation by name.”

They say,

“Without admitting the existence of occupation, one cannot understand how Palestinians are daily deprived of their fundamental rights—or why they demand freedom and independent statehood. Without admitting occupation, one cannot understand why so many veteran Israeli political and security leaders warn that the country’s unending rule over another people is eroding its democratic institutions and leading it down (in the words of former prime minister Ehud Barak) “a slippery slope toward apartheid.” 

See – https://t.co/VwH6y9Rbdz

President Trump mentioned Fort Bragg (both a city in Northern California and a fort in North Carolina) this week and asked Chris Wallace rhetorically in his Sunday morning interview on Fox if these ought to be renamed after the Reverend Al Sharpton instead, revealing yet again the racism of the President.

I did not know who, in fact, Braxton Bragg was and so I checked Wikipedia and Ron Chernow’s remarkable biography Grant (i.e. General Ulysses S. Grant). Here is part of what I learned:

Wikipedia – (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braxton_Bragg):

“Braxton Bragg (March 22, 1817 – September 27, 1876) was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War and later a Confederate army officer who served as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Western Theater…

In November 1862, Bragg’s army was routed by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Battles for Chattanooga and pushed back to Georgia. Confederate President Jefferson Davis subsequently relieved Bragg of command, recalling him to Richmond to serve as his chief military advisor. Bragg briefly returned to the field as a corps commander near the end of the war during the Campaign of the Carolinas.”

Ron Chernow says of him:

“Braxton Bragg, a North Carolina native and West Point graduate, who had met Grant during the Mexican War and later worked as a Louisiana sugar planter [Bragg was an owner of many human beings as slaves]. A cold martinet with a gaunt, narrow face and beetling brows, Bragg had flashing eyes that suggested his combustible temperament…

He was possessed of an irascible temper, and was naturally disputatious. A stickler for rules, Bragg took sadistic delight in punishing people for violations, forcing fellow soldiers to witness executions of deserters. ‘He loved to crush the spirit of his men,’ said a soldier. ‘Not a single soldier in the whole army ever loved or respected him.’” (p. 316)

At Missionary Ridge, Chernow notes:

“‘An Army never was whipped so badly as Bragg was,’ exulted Grant… ‘Bragg is in full retreat, burning his depots and bridges. The Chickamauga Valley, for a distance of 10 miles, is full of the fires lighted in his flight.’

..For Braxton Bragg, the disgrace was total. ‘Bragg looked scared,’ one Confederate soldier remarked. ‘He had put spurs to his horse, and was running like a scared dog…Poor fellow, he looked so hacked and whipped and mortified and chagrined at defeat.’ When Bragg forwarded his resignation to Richmond, the Confederate government hastened to accept it.” (p. 325)

“Bragg is generally considered among the worst generals of the Civil War. Most of the battles in which he engaged ended in defeat. Bragg was extremely unpopular with both the men and the officers of his command, who criticized him for numerous perceived faults, including poor battlefield strategy, a quick temper, and overzealous discipline. Bragg has a generally poor reputation with historians, though some point towards the failures of Bragg’s subordinates, especially Leonidas Polk—a close ally of Jefferson Davis and known enemy of Bragg—as more significant factors in the many Confederate defeats at Bragg’s command. The losses which Bragg suffered are cited as principal factors in the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.” (Wikipedia)

From these accounts, Braxton Bragg is presented as a sadistic owner of human beings, a traitor to the Union, and a failed Confederate General.

If Trump wants to keep Bragg’s name on a city and on a fort, that says as much about Trump as a heartless, racist, and failed Commander in-Chief as it does about Bragg himself.