Friday, February 05, 2016

The Yuge and the Jews

Jewish opposition to Donald Trump has been predictable and fierce. With some dissent, such as Mickey Kaus' long-running, heroic immigration criticism, the consensus seems to have been immediate: Donald Trump is bad for the Jews. Opposition would appear to have everything to do with the immigration issue first and, maybe more deeply, unease for Trump's energizing of a white American (formerly, American) reaction. But would he be so bad for the Jews, from their point of view?

Looking at Trump's ties to the Jewish community through Manhattan and marriage; his formerly warm relationship to Netanyahu (before Bibi found it advantageous to throw the Donald under the bus); his hawkish pro-Israel foreign policy; after eight years of Obama's adversarial relationship with Israel (and his progressive leftist sympathy with the Palestinians); his opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran--a Trump administration would seem to represent an immediate improvement from a pro-Israel, pro-Jewish perspective.
Yet no one seems less reconciled to Trump than the Jews. It casts in embarrassing relief just how important immigration and anti-white politics are to influential American Jews--or would, if we were allowed to talk about it.

But herein lies one more possibility inherent in Trump. Because of this combination of nationalism, pro-Israel views and Jewish ties, should he just manage to get past the Jews to the White House, Trump could be the one figure who could reconcile them, however much is possible, to policies and a culture that are at least non-hostile to white Americans, by showing to them and everyone else they don't constitute 1933 in America. And that would be yuge.
Trump will go to the Jews like Nixon went to China.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Support for Israel is right there in the Constitution (the Jewteenth Amendment), therefore there is no need for Jews to get verklempt when Obama starts gushing over the Palestinians or wooing the Iranians; they know the checks, F-22s, and SM-3s will keep coming. Elections don't matter when you've got both sides covered.

But Trump has strayed from an important part of the narrative. If there is one cultural accomplishment that must be defended, it is the delegitimization of white American identity. America is ruled by shame and fear, lose that and you lose America. Lose America, and you lose the world. The stakes are too high to leave these things to chance. I see the anti-Trump rhetoric being turned up to 11.

To your larger point, it would be a wonderful (if unlikely) outcome if Trump wins and Jews come to the conclusion that a strong, confident white America is not a threat, but actually Good for the Jews. By any objective measure, white America has been very, very good to the Jews, and keeping that boot on their collective neck must be tiring. The Jews would have to drop some of that disdain for a little trust, so you know it would be a difficult transition, one that runs counter to deeply ingrained instincts. There is a lot of realignment afoot, maybe that's up for grabs too. Buy low, sell high, they say.

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