Who holds the Trump card?…asks Rabbi Chaim Ingram
Extraordinary things are happening in the USA.
Rabbi Chaim Ingram
As the race for the Presidential nominations enters its exciting phase, the polls show that the most popular Republican candidate by a landslide margin – favoured by 40% of Republican voters in a sixteen-strong field with his nearest rival at 13% – is a man as refreshingly politically incorrect as they come, a man with evident human flaws yet one who has succeeded in connecting with a public thoroughly disillusioned with conventional politicians despite the best efforts of the politically correct media to discredit him. His name: Donald John Trump, entrepreneur extraordinaire.
In seeking to analyse the appeal Trump has to voters across the spectrum, one can perhaps point to a pivotal speech he made a month ago in which he gave over the message that because of his vast independent wealth he feels himself impervious to self-interest bribe or inducement from this, that or the other lobby-group. In his own words: “I cannot be bought!”
In a world which is sickeningly redolent of mind-poisoning moral corruption, from the UN with its pan-Arab-induced anti-Zionism-cum-antisemitism to this year’s Spanish reggae music festival which almost buckled under intense pressure from local BDS bigots; from politicians who sail too close to the moral and ethical wind in their abuse of public funds to a conflicted Royal Commissioner and a compromised coterie of trade unions each seeking to pass moral judgement on the other, Donald Trump is a breath of exceedingly fresh air. He refuses to be ‘bought’!
To return to the two imprecations in our Sidra with which we commenced: they (and their corresponding blessings) were two of the twelve dramatic pronouncements to be made by the Levites to the twelve tribes between the mountains of Gerizim and Eval. The pronouncements principally cover sexual and social wrongdoing. The fact that two of them focus upon the same theme, namely bribery and corruption, emphasises the gravity of this wrong.
We confess to it too, eight times, on Yom Kippur. Al chet shechatanu lefaneikha be-chapat shokhad. Literally translated it means “for the sin which we have committed before You in the palm – or grasp – of bribery”. Bribery, whether with money or with more subtle means, entraps us in its grasp if we are not exceedingly careful.
There is a particularly insidious form of bribery happening in contemporary society which is manipulating the minds of the multitude. When an individual expresses an opinion which is not seen to fall within the parameters of what is deemed to be politically correct, the reaction will invariably be a stream of bigoted and intolerant invective from these self-proclaimed open-minded souls: You’re a dinosaur! You’re out of step, you haven’t moved on, you belong in the last century! Go crawl into your hole! The clear, unambiguous message: Only if you conform to our doctrines will you be accepted in the ranks of enlightened, forward-thinking contemporary society!
This is no less of a bribe than the corrosive societal ills cited above from which Donald Trump regards himself (rightly or wrongly) immune. Reasonably-minded, level-headed citizens of the West are being bribed, bulldozed, bullied or possibly blackmailed into adopting attitudes and positions which do not sit well with them because they are terrified of being labelled ideological dinosaurs, out of step with the world.
We are of course seeing it with the worldwide Left-led movement to discredit Israel at all costs. Large swathes of global society, if they could turn the clock back, would deny Israel her statehood today, a statehood the world offered us reluctantly with a collective guilty conscience three years after the Shoah. Anyone who cannot “see” that Zionist “imperialism” “racism” and “apartheid” is the reason for all of today’s Middle East ills is “out of step” with “enlightened” thought. So the mantra goes. And sadly the minds of some of our own brothers and sisters are being ‘bought’ manipulated and sucked into the ugly maelstrom of (self-)hate.
We are also seeing it in the frenzied drive throughout the western world to legally recognise a union between members of the same sex as ‘marriage’, something which would have seemed bizarre even a single generation ago. Society has been ‘bought’ en masse with such euphemisms as “marriage equality”. Rational, sensible individuals are terrified of being labelled out of step, out of time, living in the past or of course the ultimate insult –homophobic. (If I am opposed to pubs and clubs being open 24/7 does that make me, by the same token, anti-social???) Truly the mind-altering nature of this societal brainwashing is as dangerous and insidious in its way as any drug. And again, Jewish minds and hearts have not been immune to the constant heavy propaganda. Some believe so-called marriage equality to be a plank of tikun olam despite the Torah’s clear view on the matter.
We are experiencing in the mid-to-late second decade of the 21st century a kulterkampf of epic proportions. (I do not speak here of the Islamic revolution – that is a subject for another time.) Which side of the moral divide will we take? Will we barrack for the Ephemerals or the Eternals? The Corruptibles or the Morally Principleds? And which side will hold the trump card?
Recent much-trumpeted happenings in the USA suggest the tide may be turning back in the direction of common sense!
Gil Solomon,
For some reason your response to my second posting to Rabbi Ingram doesn’t show up here – only in the alert listing received by me from J-Wire as to its existence. So, this needs to be attended to for others to make sense of my reply to you.
Most of what you say isn’t relevant to the issue under discussion, viz. Trump,morality and the concept of being bought or not. Also, your thinking becomes illogical quickly. It doesn’t follow that because I find Trump repugnant as a person, I approve of Obama (I don’t) – Obama was not the subject matter. Although, as you have raised him, what point are you trying to make about Obama having actively sought out Marxist and communist professors in his early college days? So what? No. 1, it’s quite possible to change our minds and think differently between college days and middle-age, No. 2, socialist/communist ideas commonly attracted young people in that era, and No. 3. there is nothing inherently wrong with many ideas within communist ideology; it’s just that humans being what they are stuff everything up once they gain power through greed and corruption raising their ugly heads.
Who are you to tell me where to direct my outrage? I shall direct it where I see fit. And you can do the same. Your use of the phrase ‘constant babble’ directed at my expression of opinion reflects just the kind of misogyny resident in males of your type – it’s rude, dismissive and intolerant. No wonder you’re a fan of Donald Trump. Your statement that I know nothing about Trump with the exception of his wealth, is a massive assumption on your part that cannot possibly be validated, or excused, because you nothing of me.
If you’re going to respond to this particular discussion, keep to the subject matter.
Gil Solomon,
How you love name-calling. Your quick categorisation of people and your rudeness does you no favours.
I am all for people who call a spade a spade, and for common sense. I myself stand for no nonsense, which is why I’m bothering to respond to your blinkered tirade. Calling a spade a spade within the framework of civility, while throwing in a bit of passion or coldness, can be remarkably effective. You should try it.
There are more elements to a person than whether or not they’re for Israel. The fact that Trump is pro-Israel is a good thing, but nothing else about him that he has so far projected in public is worthy. He is full of himself, puffed up with awareness of his monetary wealth, insensitive, intolerant, misogynist, vulgar and arrogant. If that’s your kind of guy, fine. It’s not mine. It’s nothing to do with Jewish left or right of centre. It’s to do with the kind of man Trump appears to be.
So Trump is an American patriot, is he? What is that exactly?
Dear Rabbi Chaim Ingram,
I did note that you had referred to Trump as a man with evident flaws. Indeed, all of us have flaws. Although you did not use the word ‘endorse’ in regard to him, nevertheless your enthusiasm was such that it inferred endorsement.
Insofar as being impervious to bribes or inducements of other kinds, that is not always a matter of money. So the fact that Trump boasts that his vast wealth puts him above influence or bribes is of no real consequence. Obviously lobby groups and/or individuals who attract him due to his particular beliefs or interests or motivations will affect his decision-making. Moral decisions are not necessarily aligned with or associated with money. We’re just used to focussing on those that are.
I think there are probably many reasons for people being attracted by Trump. It’s a big assumption to make that it’s only down to him saying he can’t be bought. I find rich bullies prone to vulgarity repugnant.
Liat,
It’s a pity you don’t save your repugnance for that anti Israel “President” who has worked feverishly for Israel’s destruction from day 1 of his assuming office as President of the US
viz. B Hussein Obama, an individual who has never come clean as to his place of birth, who admits he actively sought out Marxist and communist professors in his early college days, whose idea of fixing unemployment is to increase the federal bureaucracy and who has no time for western values.
A “President” who in addition has members of the Muslim Brotherhood on the White House payroll.
So kindly direct your outrage to somewhere it should go instead of the constant babble about perceived grievances on someone you really know nothing about apart from the fact that he (Donald Trump) is an extremely wealthy individual.
Liat Nagar’s response is typical of the pathetic Jewish left, who abhor anyone who stands for no nonsense, common sense, has a right of centre perspective and is prepared to call a spade a spade.
Trump is an American patriot, unlike that abomination sitting in the Oval Office today who spits on the constitution he has supposedly sworn an oath to protect and defend.
Regardless, the majority of US Jews, those morons of the Diaspora will no doubt vote for that Democrat front runner, that Israel basher who goes by the name of Hillary Clinton who to all intents and purposes is a clone of B. Hussein Obama.
It is a pity that Rabbi Ingram has seemingly seen the necessity to give qualifications for his favourable assessment of Trump.
In response to Liat Nagar, my article does not equate exactly to an endorsement of Donald Trump.
She will note that I refer to him as “a man with evident human flaws”.
However it is the perception of a man who “cannot be bought” which has attracted followers in their droves and it is this fact that I built on as the basis for my article.
Donald Trump might boast of his refusal to be bought (ego at play here rather than any sense of personal morality), which is related to the fact that he has so much money it’s not an issue, however, hand in hand with that goes his behaviour that shows his predilection to boot anyone out of the camp not prone to his way of thought.To eject people willy nilly from his presence in a public setting, while lampooning and ridiculing them. To ride roughshod over anything that remotely departs from his way of thinking (accursed is he who perverts a judgement?). You only have to see his disgusting and vulgar comment to the female questioning him, beamed by television into our rooms, to realise the man’s uncouthness and lack of respect for others. He is a man full of himself and assumes his extreme wealth entitles him to behave without thought to anyone or anything. He is vulgar and egocentric. It does not particularly surprise me that so many Americans like him. It wouldn’t even surprise me if he became President. It does, however, surprise me that Rabbi Chaim Ingram endorses this man in any way.
The above article should have been prefaced with the following quotation:-
“Accursed is he who perverts a judgement (and blessed is he who doesn’t) ….Accursed is he who takes a bribe( and blessed is he wo doesn’t) (Deut. 27: 19, 25)