It is an understatement to say that American democracy was challenged by the sitting United States President aided and abetted by a sycophantic Republican Congress and 74 million Republican voters who followed a president lockstep despite his autocratic cravings and blatant disrespect for core democratic institutions and norms.

The following reflections about autocracy, oligarchy, democracy, journalism, the media, an informed public, and public morality are instructive as we look back upon what we Americans experienced during these past four years and in our 2020 election. Great damage was done to our democracy and it likely will take time for the nation to heal from the chaos and abuse.

“There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.” -Dr. Richard Beeman, professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

“It is acknowledged, namely, that there are in the world three forms of government, autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy: autocracies and oligarchies are administered according to the tempers of their lords, but democratic states according to established laws.” – Aeschines (389-314 BCE), Greek statesman and orator

“Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters.” – Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), writer

“I know a whole generation has been raised on the notion of multiculturalism; that all civilizations are just different. No! Not always. Sometimes things are better! Rule of law is better than autocracy and theocracy; equality of the sexes, better; protection of minorities, better; free speech, better; free elections, better; …Don’t get so tolerant that you tolerate intolerance.” -Bill Maher, satirist, commentator, television host

As so many Americans watch with horror and dismay the blatant anti-democratic moves by Trump, 17 state Attorneys General, 100 Republican members of Congress, and right-wing talk show hosts, the words of the Russian Nobel Laureate and human rights activist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) are chilling:

“Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle.”

Once Trump loses his appeal to the Supreme Court (and I pray that he will), is violence in our streets inevitable? That’s the next threat our democracy will be forced to confront.

Federalist Paper No. 51 (by James Madison or Alexander Hamilton) anticipated Trump’s effort at subversion of our republic with these words:

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

These are dangerous times indeed!

Note: Since writing this blog another 26 Republican congressional representatives have shamelessly joined the law suit and the Supreme Court dismissed it unanimously as without basis. Now we’ll have to wait and see what Trump and his most violent-prone sycophants do.

In the days following the 2020 election, I was reminded of a meeting a number of years ago of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in Jerusalem. Yossi Klein Halevi (senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem) spoke to 200 Reform rabbis from around the world and characterized two broad psychological, emotional, moral, and political orientations of Jews based on the Purim and Exodus narratives. He acknowledged that most of us embrace and reflect both attitudes to a lesser and greater degree, but from time to time emphasize one over the other depending upon circumstances.

In my blog at the Times of Israel, I discuss why I believe that the Purim-Pesach continuum helps to explain why American Jews voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden, and why Israeli Jews overwhelmingly preferred Donald Trump “from the standpoint of Israel’s interests.”

See https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/purim-jews-pesach-jews-and-the-2020-election/

November 24, 2020 Posted by Mairav Zonszein in Jewish Currents

[Note: What follows is part of a comprehensive overview by the Israeli-American journalist of what the Trump Administration has done in league with the right-wing government of the State of Israel vis a vis the occupied territories and its negative impact on a potential two states for two peoples peaceful and negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and what President-Elect Joe Biden’s options are to reverse these policies and thereby restore traditional American policy in the Middle East that supports a two-state solution. I recommend reading the entire piece – the link to the full piece is at the end.]

“IN ITS FINAL WEEKS, the Trump administration appears to be shoring up its legacy of support for Israeli territorial-maximalist ambitions. Last Thursday, Mike Pompeo visited Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank—a first for a US secretary of state. Just one year ago, Pompeo reversed decades of US policy by announcing that the Trump administration would no longer consider Israeli settlements to be in violation of international law. During last week’s visit, he made two new declarations further entrenching Israel’s occupation and shielding it from criticism. First, he outlined a new customs guideline that designates goods manufactured in Area C of the West Bank—the portion of the territory under full Israeli control—as Israeli products, regardless of whether they were made by Israelis or Palestinians, effectively recognizing Israeli sovereignty there and further blurring the line between Israel and the territories it occupied in the 1967 War. Second, he announced that he had directed the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism to “identify oranizations that engage in, or otherwise support” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,which he called a “cancer” and labeled “a manifestation of anti-Semitism.” “[A]nti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,” Pompeo declared.

These are only the latest items on a long list of policies implemented by the Trump administration to bolster Israel’s perpetual control of the occupied territories while stifling criticism of Israel and delegitimizing Palestine solidarity activism. That list includes: moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem; recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; shuttering the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mission in Washington, DC; ending US support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and all assistance from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to the West Bank and Gaza; greenlighting Israeli annexation of large parts of the West Bank; extending US–Israel scientific cooperation to include Israeli institutions in the West Bank; signing an executive order on antisemitism that conflates it with anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel; brokering normalization deals between Israel and several Gulf states; and shredding the Iran nuclear deal.

President-elect Joe Biden will inherit a Middle East policy that upended international norms and all but buried the two-state solution model. The question now is: What will Biden—whose record on the issue has been guided by the imperative that there be “no daylight” between the US and Israel—do to undo the damage wrought by Donald Trump?

“Almost all of this can be easily undone early on in a Biden administration by executive action,” said Dylan Williams, head of policy at J Street. Williams said a Biden administration could immediately repudiate Trump’s “Deal of the Century” peace plan and reiterate its opposition to unilateral annexation of territory. “It could and should revoke the ‘Pompeo Doctrine’”—open US support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank—“and reinstate the longstanding State Department legal opinion that settlements are illegal under international law.”

Williams added that Biden’s State Department could also reinstate the previous US customs guidelines on labeling of products from the West Bank, refuse to fund joint scientific research projects in settlements, and once again refer to Israel’s “occupation” in their reports. (The 2020 Democratic National Convention’s platform does not mention the word “occupation,” though it states a commitment to stopping settlement expansion.)

Mairav Zonszein is an Israeli-American journalist who covers politics in Israel, Palestine and the US, civil rights, antisemitism, and the media. She has written for The Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, and The Intercept, among others, and is a longtime contributor to +972 Magazine.

“The plague had swallowed up everything and everyone. No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and the emotions shared by all. Strongest of these emotions was the sense of exile and of deprivation.”

So wrote Albert Camus, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, in his 1947 novel The Plague, words that well could have been written in these times.

Set in the French Algerian city of Oran, The Plague was published only two years after the end of World War II. In this novel, the plague acts as metaphor for the destruction and evil the world had just survived.

To read my reflections on Camus’ The Plague see my blog at The Times of Israel at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/its-a-matter-of-common-decency/

In each of my books Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation (New Jersey: Turner Publishing, 2017) and Why Israel [and its Future] Matters – Letters of  a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation (New Jersey: Ben Yehuda Press, 2019) I address core identity issues for Jews of all ages and for non-Jews who want to understand what it means to be a liberal ethical Jew and a lover of Israel in an era when neither is automatic. Each book includes an Afterword by my two sons Daniel (35) and David (30).

I invite you to give them as Hanukah gifts to those you love. They are available on Amazon.com or through the publisher.

Endorsements:

“Why Judaism Matters”

“John Rosove does what so many of us have struggled to do, and does it brilliantly: He makes the case for liberal Judaism to his children. As Rosove shows, liberal Judaism is choice-driven, messy, and always evolving, “traditional” in some ways and “radical” in others. It is also optimistic, spiritual, and progressive in both personal and political ethics. Without avoiding the hard stuff, such as intermarriage and Israel, Rabbi Rosove weaves all of these strands together to show the deep satisfactions of living and believing as a liberal Jew. All serious Jews, liberal or otherwise, should read this book.” – Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President Emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism and a regular columnist for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz

”Rabbi Rosove gets it. Here is a religious leader not afraid to tell it like it is, encapsulating for his audience the profound disaffection so many young Jews feel toward their heritage. But instead of letting them walk away, he makes a powerful case for the relevance of tradition in creating meaningful lives. In our technology-saturated, attention-absorbing age, Rosove offers religion-as-reprieve, his fresh vision of a thoroughly modern, politically-engaged and inclusive Judaism.” – Danielle Berrin a columnist and commentator on CNN, MSNBC, The Guardian, British Esquire, The Atlantic, and The Jewish Forward

“Rabbi Rosove has written a wonderful book, a love letter to his children, and through them, to all our children. Prodigiously knowledgeable, exceedingly wise, and refreshingly honest, Rabbi Rosove has described why Judaism matters. It should serve as a touching testament of faith, spanning the generations for generations to come.” – Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York

“Why Israel Matters”

“Morally unflinching, intellectually courageous, Rabbi John Rosove has provided us with a desperately needed map for how to navigate the growing tensions between progressives and the state of Israel. By calling out Israel when it has done wrong and calling out its critics when they exaggerate Israel’s flaws, Rabbi Rosove echoes the ancient prophets, who criticized their people but always loved and defended them. This thoughtful and passionate book reminds us that commitment to Israel and to social justice are essential components of a healthy Jewish identity.” – Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

“Through a series of letters to his sons, Rabbi John Rosove movingly describes his own relationship to the State of Israel and provides advice and a way forward for a new generation to forge its own relationship with the Jewish State. Rosove’s optimism, and his boundless faith in Jewish peoplehood and Jewish values, makes this book an invaluable blueprint for Jews, both in Israel and around the world, to help the Jewish State live up to its founding values of acceptance, pluralism, and democracy and become a true light unto the nations.” – Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center and Chair of Women of the Wall

“Rabbi John Rosove’s letters to his sons are tender and loving, but also gripping and challenging, as he grapples with modern Israel, Jewish identity, relations between Israelis and Diaspora Jews, and perhaps most significantly whether ‘you can maintain your ethical and moral values while at the same time being supporters of the Jewish state despite its flaws and imperfections.’…This book will raise as many questions for Rosove’s sons as it answers; it is a book that many of us wish we had written for our own children.’” Daniel Kurtzer, Former US Ambassador to Israel (2001-2005) and US Ambassador to Egypt (1997-2001), Professor of Middle Eastern Policy Studies, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

“Rabbi Rosove’s truths reach minds and open hearts. I urge each and every individual who feels in any way connected to the Jewish People, to ponder this powerful assemblage of candid, insightful messages which address the core issues facing Israel as a nation, and as a notion. A must-read!” – Isaac Herzog, Chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel and former opposition Labor party leader in the Israeli Knesset

My wife and I took a walk this week with our 22-month-old granddaughter. We wore masks. Coming towards us on the sidewalk was a young man without one. We veered away but I was tempted to ask why he wasn’t covering his face out of consideration for the health and well-being of others. I said nothing.

How is it possible still that people don’t wear masks when infectious disease experts say that doing so is the most effective prophylactic against spreading and/or getting the virus?

This incident reminded me of a terrifying experience I had on the road thirty years ago. I’d turned from a side street onto a well-traveled LA canyon road about one hundred yards in front of an oncoming pick-up truck. I quickly got up to speed, but before I knew it the other driver passed me on the left, gave me the finger, turned into my lane, stopped, opened his door, got out, stood on the pavement, and glared at me while shouting expletives. I stopped my car with about 40 feet between us, locked my doors, refused to engage, prepared to swing around him if he approached me and get away as quickly as I could. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he wanted a fight. Seeing that I froze, as though confronting a bear in the wilds, he got back into his truck and sped on.

I saw recently on YouTube an ugly exchange between a maskless man and Black Lives Matters activists that challenged him to put on a face covering. While screaming he approached the group and coughed on them.

I ask, gentle reader, what would/do you do when encountering maskless people on the street, in markets, elevators, and other closed spaces? Certainly, it’s good to get far away from such people, but is it better to say nothing or to request compliance (nicely) that they abide by health officials’ standards and risk an uncivil or violent reaction?

The current system of electing an American president in which the Electoral College awards all delegates from each state to one candidate that wins the popular vote in that state distorts our politics, encourages campaigns to focus on a few unrepresentative states, and can defy the popular will of the nation to the interests of a few smaller states. The Electoral College determines who becomes President of the United States and does not function as a democratic institution. It’s time either to eliminate it entirely or to mitigate its deleterious effects on our democracy.

Two of the last six presidential elections were won in the Electoral College by candidates who did not win the popular vote (George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016). If this were to occur in any other nation, Americans would rise up and criticize those nations out of democratic outrage. But, we tolerate this assault on our own democracy here.

For my full blog at the Times of Israel, see https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/its-time-to-mitigate-the-american-electoral-college-system/