We Have Saved American Democracy--All the Rest Is Commentary

 

At this portentous moment, I recall the gist of a dispatch by the renowned American journalist William L. Shirer, who eye witnessed the ascent of Nazi Germany as a correspondent during the 1930’s, conveying his emotion at hearing the news on April 30, 1945 that Hitler was dead and Germany was on the edge of capitulation. I cannot now locate the exact quote from Shirer I was looking for, but the gist of what he wrote that day was that while evil would certainly go on existing in the world, at least the particular form of evil represented by Hitler and Nazism had been vanquished and would no longer be able to cause massive death, genocide and destruction, At least Hitler was dead and gone from the world, and, with his evil ideology crushed, there was a chance for healing and better days to come.

I feel a similar sense of profound relief and renewed hope at the news that Biden has narrowly vanquished Trump and denied him another term in the White House. I realize the parallels here are far from exact. No, Trump is not Hitler, and has not yet committed genocide; though he is similarly a fascist impelled by a lust for absolute power and contempt for democratic governance. An equally important difference is that Trump and Trumpism have not been destroyed in 2020 as Hitler and Naziism were in 1945. On the contrary, Trump only narrowly lost the election and maintains the fervid loyalty of close to half of the American electorate despite his hateful demeanor and evident bigotry; his tearing immigrant children away from their parents, selling out the country to Putin and readiness to imperil hundreds of thousands of lives by irresponsibly holding unmasked super spreader rallies from the country.

Despite, his threats to overturn the results of the election through the courts, Trump will almost certainly be evicted from the White House on January 20. Nevertheless, he will almost certainly continue to claim he was cheated out of victory and will seek to mount a comeback for 2024. With or without Trump in the White House, Trumpism is unfortunately alive, well and deeply toxic. We have a long road ahead of us in terms of outreach to disaffected Americans who voted Trump and have been deluded by his siren song of white, working class empowerment.

And yet, consider how infinitely worse things would have been if Trump had held the position he had achieved on Election Night, and had prevailed in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. That would have led in short order to the extinguishing of American democracy. All of Trump’s authoritarian instincts would then have been on steroids and fully enabled and we could have looked forward in short order to his using the full power of the state to punish and arrest his political enemies; to the extinguishing of the power of the legislative branch, the snuffing out of the free press and so much more. In the streets, Trump’s heavily armed Brownshirts, the militias, Proud Boys, QANON, etc. would have been given full reign. Any hope of retarding the rush to incinerate our precious planet would have been lost.

It is indeed a heavy blow not only that Trump almost won the election but that the GOP Senate majority will likely be maintained, making incremental gains for humane, desperately needed reforms. Obamacare stands in dire peril of being overturned by the Trumpian majority on the Supreme Court, with tens of million slated to lose health coverage in a pandemic. Roe v. Wade may now be reversed. And yet, thanks to the hard work and deep commitment of so many progressive and moderate activists; thanks to the courage and moral integrity of the Republican ‘Never Trumpers’; thanks to the fundamental decency of many who voted Trump in 2016, but realized their mistake and switched to Biden in 2020, we no longer have to fear waking up in a totalitarian America in 2021.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris deserve great credit for an intelligent and dignified campaign, embodying empathy and elemental decency, and the coalition that supported them managed in the end to push them through and give our children and grandchildren a fighting chance for a decent future. As my friend Maggie Siddiqui, an American Muslim activist and Director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress. said in a conference call yesterday bringing together progressive interfaith activists of the Prayerful Democracy network; “Working together, we fought voter suppression and empowered each other,…united in our commitment to the premise that every human being has worth. We have a very long way to go, but we remain committed to the dream of building an inclusive democracy.”

What we finally achieved was Keeping Hope Alive. I spent the hours of 11 pm-5 AM on Election Night in a state of existential despair, fearing I was about to witness the snuffing out of human freedom for the remainder of my own lifetime. Despite having a wonderful life partner, a beautiful family and a lovely new home, I wasn’t sure I would find enough of a sense of consolation for the abolition of democracy to sustain my spirit. I felt I couldn’t bear to live in a 21st Century version of Orwell’s 1984; a place where I would have to fear that the consequences of whatever I write on Facebook might be midnight knock on the door from the police. Then I woke up from a fitful sleep around 7;15 AM to find that the vote from my wonderful college town of Madison, had flipped Wisconsin to Biden and there was still hope that we might yet escape Trumpian doom.

72 hours or so later, I can’t say I am feeling elated—I’m too exhausted for that—but simply, infinitely relieved. I now have a future worth living in and so do my loved ones and all our children and grandchildren. America has dodged the totalitarian bullet and we, as a society have saved ourselves for now—by the skin of our teeth. To paraphrase Rabbi Hillel, that is the essence of the matter and, at least for the moment, all the rest is commentary.

A Benediction on Election Day

Sending out deeply felt psychic vibrations—aka prayers—to my beloved country and citizens that we succeed to summon the strength to defeat fascism, save our democracy and begin the process of wound-binding and reconciliation.

So far, we have truly risen to the occasion with 100 million already having voted despite Trump’s sustained effort to demonize early voting, to sabotage the post office, and a million other tactical efforts to steal the election. We as a society have so far responded effectively to those efforts and it has been inspiring to watch. In that context, I was uplifted yesterday by Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas—a George W. Bush appointee who rejected an outrageous GOP appeal to invalidate 127,000 votes in Harris County that had been cast through drive-in voting—making clear that at least some Republican judges will have the courage and integrity to stand in the way of transparent efforts to wrongly strip Americans of their franchise and deep-six democracy.

Obviously, there will be more such efforts in the coming days and we may need to go into the streets in our millions to demand a fair and full counting. Deeply grateful to Joe Biden, who has run a decent and politically adept campaign; standing up to the bully and highlighting effectively what is at stake. Those of us to the left of Biden—including Bernie and AOC—have stayed disciplined and on-message; showing understanding that the imperative of the moment is to vanquish Trump and capture the Senate—internal debates come later.

Whatever happens in next few days we must remain calm and non-violent in our response, remembering that we will need to reconcile with our fellow citizens, many of whom are decent human beings who have been triggered and deluded into supporting Trump. Remember the enemy is Trump and fascism, falsehood, greed and rapacity, not our fellow Americans. Many of them will begin the process of healing once the Trumpian fever is decisively broken.

A tall order indeed, but I am guardedly optimistic this morning, based on the experience of the past few months that we will pass the test—and in the process save our country and help save the planet; giving our children and grandchildren a fighting chance at a decent future. Ain Breira—we have no choice—-but to accomplish all of the above. Let’s do it.

Here Is How We Win The Election And Save America, While Keeping Hope Alive

 Friends, the question of the hour is how to save America from a full bore effort  by Donald Trump—aided and enabled by the Republican Party—to snuff out our democracy and replace it with a kleptocratic fascist dictatorship. The answer to that question is quite clear: We must organize like hell while keeping hope alive.

Trump’s various gambits over the past few weeks; including his threats to impose ‘law and order’ with the help of his praetorian guard of DHS and ICE paramilitary; praise for the heavily armed bully-boy militias that flooded into Portland and Kenosha as “great patriots”, attempted kneecapping of the U.S. Post Office, and a frenetic and utterly mendacious campaign to convince Americans that mail-in voting is fraudulent; all have the intent to overpower the opposition with his ability to employ shock and awe techniques calculated to confuse and demoralize. Trump aims to make us feel hopeless and helpless in the face of his unchecked power.       

How do we fight back? By joining together in the two months between now and November 3 in coalitions of like-minded activists, and working our collective tachatim (Hebrew for butts) off for Joe Biden. That means writing post cards, phone banking, mass texting, writing articles and op-eds…any possible way we can make ourselves of use to the sacred cause of defeating Trump decisively and driving him out of the White House; a symbol of democracy he has so defiled.

Here is a list of resources complied by our able team at JAMAAT (Jews, Muslims and Allies Acting Together), http://bit.ly/Election-2020-WaysToGetInvolved. I personally plan over the next few weeks to get involved in writing postcards to voters—mainly Black and Hispanic---dropped from the voting rolls for spurious reasons by Republican state officials in states like North Carolina and Florida; urging them to re-register in time for the deadline through an organization called Reclaim Our Vote  (https://actionnetwork.org/forms/reclaim-our-vote-signup). I also will plan to make myriad phone calls to undecided or unmotivated voters in swing states.

All of the above is what millions of us must do to win the election. Yet we also need to be aware that Trump is almost certainly ready and willing to employ any technique at his disposal to stay in power illegitimately; including prematurely declaring victory on Election Night and then sabotaging or shutting down the counting of mail-in ballots, the vast majority of which will presumably be for Biden. As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times today, each of us needs to have a plan as to what we will do personally in that eventuality.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/trump-election-2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I agree with Brooks that in case this nightmare, but all-too-likely scenario takes effect, simply taking part in a few demonstrations won’t cut it.  Each of us will have to resolve to take to the streets for weeks at a time and essentially shut the country down through civil disobedience for weeks at a time in the hope that civil authorities—buttressed , I hope, by the U.S. military that Trump has recklessly denigrated as “suckers” and “losers” will step forward and drag him kicking and screaming out of the  executive mansion, hopefully to a decidedly less posh prison cell.

All of the above; including massive political organizing over the next two months and potential emergency civil obedience mobilization if Trump tries to steal the election, are difficult and for many, including myself, will involve stretching ourselves personally in ways we have not done before.  It will mean putting many facets of our lives on hold for the time being; including personal, family and career considerations.  Yet we must step up now for our own sake and those of our children and grandchildren. American democracy is a deeply flawed inheritance, but it will be infinitely harder to repair if we lose it altogether.

I used to feel contempt for the “good Germans” who seemingly submitted so easily to Nazism in 1933, and kept their heads down in the ensuing years as Hitler committed genocide and plunged the world into war. Little did I imagine that the same fate might envelope American in my own lifetime. Trump’s ability to survive over the past four years despite evident criminal wrong-doing; including accepting the help of Russia to get elected in 2016 and  brazenly trying to pressure Ukraine to play a similar role in 2020, shows how hard it is to drive out a monster once he has successfully stormed the gates of power.

How much more difficult it must have been for decent Germans to make a stand against Hitler after April 1933, by which time he had shut down opposition parties and created a full-throttle police state. To oppose the Nazis after that was literally to risk imprisonment, torture, and likely decapitation in Dachau or another concentration camp. Maybe Trump wont need to go that far once if he succeeds in being fraudulently re-elected; perhaps settling for the Putin model of poisoning high level opposition leaders with Novichok in order to remind the rest of the population not to get too far out of line. Whichever model he chooses, Trump has shown that he has the will and the requisite number of willing accomplices to transform the good old USA into a totalitarian state in which he can happily serve as dictator for life. 

There will be plenty of time for historians to debate how we could have come to such a pass in the so-called Citadel of Democracy. Right now, we have a more immediate task; to organize like crazy and fight against Trump together; Jews, Muslims, Christians and non-believers; Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Gay and straight; all of the wonderful human elements of America’s glorious mosaic. The struggle won’t be easy and may well be dangerous, but it will be uplifting for all who engage in it. Let’s get to it!

Why I Decided to Write This Blog—to Help Keep Hope Alive in a Time of Peril and Transformation

A few of you reading this may remember my lively blog published from 2006-2008 entitled Ruby Jewsday in which I ruminated on issues I covered in those days as a freelance writer for the New York Jewish Week, New York Daily News, and other media; especially the Russian Jewish community but much more. I summarized it as "Walter Ruby's Riffs On Russian Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, American Politics, the Meaning of Life and Whatever Else Is On My Mind."

You can check out the old blog here: http://rubyjewsday.blogspot.com/

A lot changed in my life around the time I stopped writing Ruby Jewsday. Around that time, I had taken a new position as Muslim-Jewish Program Director at the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) and went on to a subsequent career at FFEU and beyond working to strengthen ties of communication and cooperation between Muslims and Jews across the U.S. and around the world. I am presently preparing to publish a book with co-author Sabeeha Rehman entitled We Refuse To be Enemies: How Muslims and Jews Can Make Peace One Friendship At A Time to be published in April 2021 by Arcade Publishing. And I have re-engaged the situation in Israel-Palestine through my work as coordinator of Project Rozana Greater Washington Chapter. Project Rozana works to save the lives of desperately ill Palestinian children by arranging their transportation to hospitals in Israel, and to strengthen the health care infrastructure inside Palestine with the support of Israeli and international NGO’s. At the moment, we are working at the request of the PA to get desperately needed ventilators to overstretched hospital ICUs in the West Bank and Gaza to combat a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Learn more about it at https://projectrozana.org

I also recently turned 70 and am increasingly coming to grips with the idea that I may turn out not to be immortal after all and might not even fulfill the wonderful Jewish imprecation that each of us should live to be 120. I have a lot to share with the world and a limited amount of time to do it. So, I have decided to start a new blog provisionally entitled Walter Ruby: Keeping Hope Alive. Folks, I realize that Keep Hope Alive—a slogan popularized by civil rights movement icon Jesse Jackson—is an idea that has been around for a while and may not be the sexiest slogan in the world. Yet at this moment of plague and grave peril to our democratic system and the very survival of our planet, Keeping Hope Alive is the essential element in equation that will give each of us the strength to make vitally important contributions to tikkun olam (repairing the world and making it whole). Without hope that we can change the present disastrous trajectory of things, all will truly be lost. Therefore, we must summon all of our strength to believe that if we act now, we can help to ensure a sustainable, and hopefully radiant, future for our children and children’s children.

What do I have to contribute to this transformation and affirmation of hope at this point in my life? I want to share some of the experiences and lessons I have learned—and my co-author Sabeeha has learned-- by taking part in a wonderful movement over the past decade and a half in which thousands of Muslims, Jews and allies have come together to build ties of friendship and trust. I want to affirm the promise of America, a country I have come to love ever more deeply even as it has struggled against powerful forces sowing fear and division—including one presently encamped in the White House. located exactly two miles down 16th Street in Washington D.C. from the small apartment I share with my life partner Tatyana. That elemental promise of America is that all human beings are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It also contains the premise that America is a welcoming nation of openness and diversity, where people of all races, religions, ethnicities, orientations etc. should co-mingle fruitfully, cherishing our differences while embracing our shared Americanness and celebrating our common humanity. And that we should love one another. To cite immortal words recorded by Anne Frank in her diary at an even darker moment than this one:

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

Like Anne, I too retain the conviction that the vast majority of human beings are good at heart; something I witness every day in the harried but kindly faces of people on the streets of Washington as they struggle to stay afloat and protect themselves and their loved ones from the plague and attendant challenges—including the small children they clutch by hand. I am not sanguine—I see the enormity of the challenge we face as a species--- but I also see the seriousness of purpose of the younger generation to redeem the future, which is powerfully evocative of the millenarian optimism of the 1960’s counter-culture in which I myself took part. I believe that if we step up now as individuals, Americans and human beings, we can overcome fear and bigotry and heal our sacred Earth. Yet to succeed in that existential struggle, we must keep hope alive. As long as I am around, I plan to make a contribution to that effort.