There are so many different feelings to unpack following Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election. For this writer, more than a sense of victory or jubilation, there is an overwhelming feeling of relief. How should I put this? The relief of being spared another four years of Harris-Biden-Obama and the havoc they have wreaked on America and the world is foremost in my mind. The damage done, primarily by Barack Obama, to this country and the entire world is almost irreparable. It is Mr. Obama’s philosophy, with its anti-American power obsession, that has emboldened dictators across the globe. Mr. Obama was the president who fixated on and inflamed the culture wars we are currently experiencing. The “woke” agenda and the BLM movement are deeply rooted in his presidency. It was Obama who advanced the notion that American whites must constantly beat their chests and pay perpetual compensation for the sins of their ancestors in enabling slavery.
Perhaps even more critical for us Yidden is the fact that it was Obama who gave a hechsher to the obsessive anti-Israel sentiment that now permeates the left and today’s Democratic Party. At one time, the pro-Hamas wing of academia was a fringe group, too fearful to voice their beliefs in public. Mainstreaming the anti-Israel and pro-terror sentiments that characterize the progressive wing of the party stems from Obama’s worldview. This, in essence, is anti-Semitism thinly veiled as anti-Zionism.
Saved from the Obama Legacy
If you want to understand the path we might have been headed down had Harris and her progressive supporters won, look no further than what happened in Amsterdam late last week. Israeli fans who came to watch a soccer game were subjected to a premeditated pogrom by anti-Semitism Muslims living in Amsterdam. The Israelis were beaten and bloodied in the fine tradition of anti-Semitism mobs who have carried out similar actions for thousands of years.
We thought that pogroms were a thing of the past in today’s “equal” society, but when it comes to the police in Amsterdam, we can paraphrase the wise words of George Orwell in Animal Farm. Orwell wrote, “All animals are equal,” only to later add, “but some are more equal than others…”
We certainly know that with Amsterdam’s police force, as with many other European governments, all citizens are officially equal, but Yidden are far less equal. It’s not unusual for police to let mobs wield knives, rocks, and fists, reminiscent of the times of the Crusades. Afterward, they’ll spout platitudes about how this “cannot continue in a democratic society,” though these drashos always come after the fact.
In America, too, we saw similar issues on campuses following the Hamas massacre, when students were all but allowed by campus police and security to harass Jewish students with impunity. If Harris had won, the same blind eye to anti-Semitism might have spread across this entire country, chas veshalom. Just as “woke” prosecutors think nothing of releasing violent criminals onto the streets, those who would assault Jews just because they are Jewish might have received similar leniency.
So, yes, there is a tremendous sense of relief that President Trump has been re-elected, hopefully placing a stick in the spokes of the progressive movement’s wheel. It couldn’t come a moment too soon.
The Mussar Lesson We Can All Learn from Trump
As readers of this column know, this writer does not believe that the average frum person should emulate Mr. Trump. Although I have strongly advocated for voting for him, I’ve also cautioned against viewing him as a role model. He has done important things for America, the world, and the Jewish community, but he is not a paragon of middos and virtue, as we all know.
That said, there is an inspiring mussar haskel that we can and should learn from Mr. Trump, as my good friend and mechutan, Rabbi Avrohom Royde, pointed out to me.
“Look at Donald Trump,” he said. “He’s 78 years old and has once again become president of the United States. It hasn’t been easy, to say the least. Already an accomplished real estate mogul and television personality, he owned buildings, golf courses, and resorts worldwide. He had clothing lines bearing his name, and who knows what else – but that wasn’t enough. He had this idea to aspire to the highest office in the land. When he announced his goal, everyone scoffed. They thought that he was a rich buffoon with delusions of grandeur, but he just carried on. He wanted to be president and would settle for nothing less.
“He faced an uphill battle, competing against seasoned Republican politicians for his first nomination, yet when the dust settled, he had won. He then brilliantly defeated Hillary Clinton, despite facing the entire media-industrial complex. His first term was crippled by the Deep State and relentless media attacks, yet he persevered and had a relatively successful presidency.
“After losing the next election due to dirty tricks like suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, he remained undeterred. Lawfare, felonies, convictions, and nearly insurmountable obstacles were thrown in his way. Yet, Trump kept fighting, refusing to let anything stand between him and his goal. Even two assassination attempts – due to failures of either an incompetent Secret Service or perhaps a complicit Deep State – didn’t deter him. He moved forward, keeping his eye on the prize.
“And he made it! He achieved the seemingly impossible by believing in himself and his goal, no matter how insurmountable it seemed!”
As Meshugah As Trump!
The lesson here is profound.
We all set goals, especially spiritual goals. We all want to accomplish so much in both asei tov and sur meira. There are masechtos we’re determined to learn, areas of halacha we want to master. There is the fight against the yeitzer hara that we are so determined to win; the shemiras halashon kabbolah and shemiras einayim kabbolah; the kibbud av v’eim kabbolah and the internet kabbolah that we have made with such conviction…and then nisyonos happen, obstacles are placed in our way, and we often feel like we simply can’t win. It’s too hard. “Oy,” we think, “we didn’t realize how tough it would be.”
It’s at these moments that we should look at Donald J. Trump and say, “Look at what Trump did. He had a goal. He may be a little meshugah in some ways, but this meshugeneh didn’t let anything stop him. He stayed focused, going after his prize with tenacity. He didn’t give up for a second, and now he’s president of the United States once again. He’s got battle scars, but he made it.”
When it comes to our goals in ruchniyus, we should be as meshugah as Trump.
Now go be a meshugeneh!
