Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the Jewish reaction was pretty well muted. We did not know a whole lot about the guy. Seemed pretty decent, had always been friendly to the Jewish Community.

We should have looked under the rock. Two years before, Trump founded the “Birther Movement” questioning the legitimacy of Barak Obama as president. Trump said Obama was born in Kenya. There’s the first hint. A Black president could not be legitimate.

While he never took more than 25 percent of the vote in the primaries, Trump won the nomination. The Republican Party allowed 16 people to run for president – so 25 percent of the total was all he needed.

Well, in the general election he lost by over two million votes. He won the Electoral College vote — but only because of the “Winner Take All” rule which disenfranchises almost half the voters in the U.S.

On the surface as we said, our 46 president looked really good for the Jewish Community and for Israel. He moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He promoted relations between Arab nations and the Jewish State. All good. But, as a Jew I always use my grandmother’s measuring stick: When told we had landed a man on the moon, she sat and rocked for a minute or so and then said: “Is that good for the Jews, or bad for the Jews?”

Through his racially tainted tweets and utterings, Trump was subtly welcoming into the arena the dirty underbelly of racism that has been part of American life almost since its founding. Statements like “bad on both sides.” His embrace of “the Proud Boys” and his policies on immigration attracted Right Wing support including the fringes — those who feed on hate — and if hate is in the air, the Jews better be wary.

Almost overnight the haters, including avid anti-Semites came out of the dark and began to feel bold. This ultimately led to the day, long after Trump should have retired to the golf course that he (and his acolytes) set up a meeting of their far right minions a twenty minute walk from the White House.

Out came the t-shirts with prints like “Camp Auschwitz.” Out came the True Believers. The same kind of people who in 1932 truly believed Hitler took more than 32 percent of the popular vote in Germany.

Then came the first ever American “coup d’/etat.” An attempt by a mob of rioters to overthrow the government. In Germany in 1932 they burned down the Reichstag, the German seat of Government. Here they attacked the Capitol while Congress was in session.

Look, there are some on the Left who would not qualify as the brightest bulbs on the tree, but going back to the Far Right Parade in Charlottesville (“Jews will not replace us”) to the attack on the Capitol (“Camp Auschwitz”), the “Hounds of Hell” were out in force. The types that joined the SS and the Gestapo in Germany in the thirties.

The funerals for those killed in the insurrection are over. The repairs to the Capitol building are well on their way. Trump is back on the golf course. But the threat is still here, still alive. As you probably know, I now live in the Deep South. Make that the Deep RED South. We seem to have more than our share of dim bulbs, don’t we? Be it Louie Gomert from Texas or the new champion: Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia.

Okay. Those two need a butterfly net. But when you listen to Senator Ted Cruz…you hear a more dangerous rumbling.

“Back in the day” we had radio news and then we had TV news with guys like Cronkite, Douglas Edwards, Chet Huntley, etc. They could be trusted to deliver news as it happened.

Then along came Fox and Roger Ailes, a guy with whom I worked back in the sixties when he produced the Mike Douglas show on WEWS in Cleveland. Roger left Cleveland to work for Richard Nixon as Nixon prepared to run for President. When Nixon resigned, Roger went to Fox News, where under his guidance, news became blurred and opinion, disguised as news took over. Fox has a guy like Tucker Carlson who probably lied writing for his high school paper.

None of this is good for Jews. We are an ideal target for anyone seeking to sow the seeds of discord. The “Camp Auschwitz” tee shirts are not custom jobs, they come off the shelf; meaning there is a market for them.

The liars are bad enough on the air. In Congress they are no joke. They got elected. 2022 is less than two years away. The rest is up to us.