At 2 AM on Wednesday morning, once it became clear Donald Trump would be America’s next president, the conservative, anti-Trump, commentator Erick Erickson posted “An Open Letter to the Democrats.” He asked them not to rebuke Trump’s supporters. “Instead of condemning them and labeling them all bigots and racists and deplorables,” he wrote, “I hope you will try to relate to them, connect to them, ...
I don’t respect this election result. I must abide by it, of course. But I don’t respect it. I respect the people who voted for Donald Trump. As private individuals, they’re no better or worse than anyone else. But I don’t respect their decision to elect a man who blames vulnerable minorities for America’s problems. Who threatens journalists for reporting the news. Who castigates judges ...
I’ve never felt less American and more Jewish. As an American, a white one, I’ve always felt safe. I’ve always assumed my country would be stable. I’ve always assumed the Constitution would restrain power’s tendency to corrupt. I’ve never feared my government or the people with whom I share my country. I’ve never hated them. …
This column isn’t directed at those Republicans who believe Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are equally bad. I think they’re insane: as insane as they’d think I was if I argued that Louis Farrakhan was no worse than Mitt Romney. But I can’t convince them because we don’t share basic ideological premises. If they really believe that abortion is murder, for instance—that Clinton’s Supreme Court ...
The conversation took place more than twenty years ago, but I still remember it. I was walking with another American through Oxford University, where we had both recently arrived as graduate students. In the middle of our conversation, she said something along the lines of: “You probably feel pretty comfortable here.” I struggled to explain how untrue that was. I found the culture of Oxford ...
Last week, born-again Christian, gay marriage opponent, former all-star pitcher and likely senate candidate Curt Schilling poured out his bewilderment to CNN host Jake Tapper. “I don’t understand how people of Jewish faith can back the Democratic Party,” Schilling declared, “which over the last 50 years have been so clearly anti-Israel.” Tapper, who is Jewish, looked like he had entered the twilight zone. But he ...
At times during tonight’s debate, Donald Trump seemed controlled, succinct, even prepared. It didn’t matter. In an instant, he lost the debate and blew his chance of using it to turn around his sinking campaign. That instant came when Trump refused to say he would respect the outcome of next month’s vote. …
When you deny a people’s identity, you deny that they have rights. That’s why it’s so dangerous that powerful American Zionists — from billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson to former presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — have claimed that the Palestinian people do not exist. If Palestinians don’t exist — if they’re just generic Arabs — then they have no right to their ...
During Sunday night’s debate, Donald Trump told Hillary Clinton that, “if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your [email] situation.” That would constitute an abuse of power. Presidents are not supposed to “instruct” their attorneys general to appoint a “special prosecutor” (now called an “independent counsel.”) The attorney general is supposed to make ...
Over the coming days, many American Jewish parents will take their children to synagogue for the only time all year. And the kids will be bored out of their minds. From a child’s perspective of the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah offers only one attraction: the blowing of the Shofar. Yom Kippur offers none. Both holidays are somber. They’re not tactile. The services are long. And ...