Trump decided he needs a little insurance: the anti-Semite vote
By now it should obvious that if you choose to underestimate Mr. Trump’s feral intelligence, you do so at your own peril. The same can be said for his self-interest which he relentlessly pursues with an utter disregard and even distain for conventional boundaries and moral restraints. That disdain is his “super power,” and so far his “kryptonite” has not been identified. He will not accept defeat and will not be deterred from his preoccupation with self-promotion.He will not stop, only sidetracked and slowed down to regroup for a while until he thinks he’s found another way to come at system that was never designed to handle his unique sort of lawlessness.But even slowing Mr. Trump down while trying to disengage from him often demands a tremendous cost that leaves deep wounds which take a long time to heal and often leave lasting scars.That being said, it is not hard to understand why he so blithely and in broad daylight chose recently to welcome two notorious anti-Semites to his home for dinner. It was no mistake. He knew exactly what he was doing. Here’s his calculation:If Mr. Trump has two or more viable opponents in the opening rounds of the next presidential primaries he will be the next Republican presidential nominee, since all he will need is 35-40 percent of the vote divided three or four ways. And so he will rack up enough delegates in the early rounds to make him hard to catch in the later ones.Getting over 35 percent of Republican voters to stick with him no matter what is not a problem for him. As of two months ago, a bit over 40 percent of Republicans polled self-identify as “MAGAs.” Some might cross over to other candidates, but not many. But just in case, Mr. Trump decided he needs a little insurance: the anti-Semite vote.Mr. Trump has calculated that holding on to and cementing his connection to the anti-Semite vote (remember that “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot?) is worth the blowback, not that blowback seems to bother him all that much. That is why he coddles the “Jews will not replace us” neo-Nazi crowd and continues his dog whistling specially tuned to their ears.All the polling shows that by-in-large Americans have become less anti-Semitic over the last 50 years. The recent uptick in reported anti-Semitic incidents does not indicate that there are more anti-Semites in America, only that some of the existing anti-Semites feel less restrained than in the past.Even so, recent surveys also show that about 44 percent of Americans believe that “Jews stick together more than other Americans,” 25 percent think that “Jews like to be the head of things,” and 24 percent that “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America.” Close to 20 percent of Americans hold that “Jews still talk too much about the Holocaust.” While only about 15 percent of Americans can be defined as full-blown anti-Semites, enough of the rest are not put off by anti-Semitism and may even consider it a “guilty little pleasure.”Mr. Trump knows if he can just hang on to enough of these voters who harbor negative attitudes about Jews, and even attract new ones from growing pockets among American minorities, keeping them in his “basket” of congenital malcontents churned up by issues surrounding immigration, sexual identity, abortion, secularism, gun control and heaven knows what else, he’s in.But history teaches that exploiting anti-Semitism to advance political goals is juggling with hand grenades after pulling the pins.It won’t end well. It never does, not for us Jews and ultimately not for the nations that turn the wheel over to the anti-Semites.But does Mr. Trump really care about that? Do you?
Bruce Diamond, rabbi at the Fort Myers Community Free Synagogue is a Fort Myers resident and former citizen member of The News-Press editorial board. He is the rabbi at the Fort Myers Community Free Synagogue.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Trump decided he needs a little insurance: the anti-Semite vote
