Vol. 77: Optimists, take heart!

Despite Biden, the Supreme Court, and ‘Judeo-Christian values’

       So, I leave the U.S. for 16 days, and what happens?

—Biden flubs his debate with Trump, causing many of his supporters (and even the New York Times editorial board) to urge him to scrap his presidential campaign in favor of some younger, more forceful Democrat.

—The Supreme Court, without citing any Constitutional basis, immunizes U.S. presidents from “official” crimes they commit while in office, thus discarding the principle that no one (at least not since King George III) is above the law. That means it will be damned near impossible to prosecute Trump for his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

—Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana signs legislation requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. When informed that this practice was struck down as unconstitutional 44 years ago, Landry replies, “I can’t wait to be sued” and exhorts his followers to “stand up for Judeo-Christian values.” A week later, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, announces plans to mandate teaching the Bible in public schools.

What is it with you people? Can’t an optimist like me go on vacation for even two weeks without America’s whole democratic system of checks and balances collapsing?

James K. Polk’s example

OK, now for the good news (I told you I was an optimist):

—If Biden steps aside, he’ll provide a shining example of gracious self-sacrifice for the nation’s good, in stark contrast to you-know-who. Trump will have wasted millions of words and dollars on attacking “Crooked Joe.” And voters will enjoy the option of a more vigorous face to lead the country into the future (my preference: Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer).

My role model in this matter is James K. Polk, who during the 1844 presidential campaign promised to serve just one term and kept that promise. Instead of campaigning for re-election, Polk worked hard to keep his other promises, most notably expanding America’s borders from the Missouri River westward to California and Oregon. And once out of office, Polk had the good grace to die within three months (probably of cholera), thus absolving himself from blame when the struggle over extending slavery into those new territories metastasized into the Civil War.

—True, Trump can no longer be held accountable for trying to steal the 2020 election while occupying the White House. But he can still be prosecuted for harboring classified documents after he left the White House. What’s more, Biden, as president, is now free to dispatch a Navy SEAL team to do to Trump what Barack Obama did to Osama Bin Laden. Presidential immunity, dontcha know.

—The latest attempt by Christian nationalists to impose their religion on their fellow Americans provides a useful opportunity to dissect a ridiculous (and increasingly common) term: “Judeo-Christian.” To hear its advocates tell it, Christians and Jews have been buddies at least since the Reformation. In fact, the term “Judeo-Christian” arose only during the Cold War to differentiate the allegedly God-fearing West from godless Soviet Communists.

Europe died in Auschwitz?

Come to think of it, when the first waves of Irish and Italian immigrants arrived in America in the 19^th Century, those Catholics newcomers were condemned as godless aliens by America’s native Protestants. Not until the first waves of Jewish immigrants arrived did Protestants accept Catholics as their fellow Christians. And only now, with the massive arrival of Muslims in America and Europe, do we find Christians embracing Jews as their fellow “Judeo-Christians.”

In a newspaper essay published just two weeks ago, the Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez observed, “I walked down the streets in Barcelona and suddenly discovered a terrible truth: Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a group of people who represented culture, thought, creativity, talent…. And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the diseases of racism and bigotry, Europe opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime, and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.”

To Vilar Rodriguez, Europeans have made a big mistake: “We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others.” His solution: “If our Judeo-Christian heritage is offensive to Muslims, they should pack up and move to Iran, Iraq or some other Muslim country.”

Talk about bigotry! What Rodriguez wrote about Muslims last month is almost exactly what Christians said about Jews for nearly 2,000 years.

Some day when another alien group arrives— Buddhists? Confucians? Zoroastrians? — some writer like Rodriguez will no doubt lament the passing of the “Judeo- Christian-Muslim tradition.”

Meanwhile, in France and Iran…

Don’t get me wrong— it’s good to be back. There’s work to be done! There’s also reason for hope:

Just this past weekend, French voters defied Marine LePen’s right wing, anti-immigrant National Rally Party, which had dominated the first round of parliamentary voting only a week earlier. In the final runoff on Sunday, the French gave the most votes to the left-wing New Popular Front, followed by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance Party. Le Pen’s National Rally was relegated to third place.

Even more astonishing, voters in Iran elected as president a reformer named Massoud Pezeshkian, who advocates moderate policies at home (like allowing women to dress as they please) and improved relations with the West. This is sort of like voters in the Vatican rejecting the Pope as their leader in favor of Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, who ministers to LGBTQ Jews.

I ask you: If French voters can turn the tables on public opinion polls… and if the forces of reason and moderation can win an election in the breeding ground of militant Muslim fundamentalism… might not similar miracles be conceivable in our own Judeo-Christian-agnostic homeland?

Enjoy Dan Rottenberg’s new memoir, The Education of a Journalist: My Seventy Years on the Frontiers of Free Speech. You can also visit his website at www.danrottenberg.com