As the opposition against the Trump and Session’s policy on detention of all and separating families at the border reached tidal wave proportions the pixie - like Attorney General quoted from the Bible to counter the criticism. Coincidentally with Sesson’s reference to the deity, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks published his weekly sermon on the Korach rebellion against Moses’s leadership. Rabbi Sacks argued that this was the first recorded instance of populism nearly six thousand years ago. The similarities of the Korach insurrection to the Trump populist revolution are uncanny.
SESSONS, TRUMP AND THE BIBLE
Jeff Sessions the much maligned head of the Justice Department, who has stood his ground both against Trump’s invective for not protecting him against “The Russian Witch Hunt” as well as the barrage against his execution of Trump’s grotesque immigration policies, defended the wholesale lock up of potential immigrants and their children regardless that many have legitimate claims to amnesty. His zealous adherence to the Trump doctrine with the separate detention of over 2400 children, some of them babies, is what has produced almost universal condemnation. The Attorney General while cajoling Immigration officials to round them up and then split them, quoted as his source for this doctrine, Apostle Paul in Romans 13, “Obey the laws of the Government because God has ordained them for his purposes”. It did not pass unnoticed that this was the exact quote that the Confederacy used to defend slavery and to oppose the American revolution.
The growing chorus of abhorrence, featured all the living First Ladies, Melania Trump, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Rosalyn Carter, and Hillary Clinton and a sudden rush of Republican politicians including John Kasich and Mitt Romney. Ms. Bush has remonstrated that this spectacle was reminiscent of the Japanese internment camps which was considered one of the most shameful periods in American history. Trump still stuck to his populist promise to deal with illegal immigration in the harshest possible manner. Children being ripped out of their mothers’ arms is being used as a deterrent to “illegal” immigration. Recordings of children, who were being held in cages, crying ,were being ignored as they were played again and again in the media. But the POTUS was not backing down. American values were irrelevant. He knew this was red meat to his hungry base.
There is very little doubt that the question of uncontrolled immigration is a major problem in the world. Several European countries are facing the phenomenon and regardless of the rise of populism no other country is snatching children away from their parents. The Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, not surprisingly backed Trump offering that the only way to stop this separation is by Congressional legislation, which will presumably also include some draconian provisions. She reassured that the children are being well cared for. The Secretary denied that the Trump Administration was using children to get Congress to pass money for his wall. Ms. Nielsen has been under pressure to get back into Trump’s good graces and it has been alleged that she will do anything to make him happy.
So as matters stand it is still Session’s interpretation of Roman’s 13 that is the mantra that dictates the Administration’s position.
WHO IS JONATHAN SACKS?
Before continuing, a word as to who in the world is Rabbi Sacks. He is an internationally recognized theologian, author and philosopher who is most well known for his interfaith initiatives. His momentous contribution was recognized in 2016 by winning the Templeton Prize which is regarded as the Nobel Prize for the furtherance of spiritual values. Previous winners include Mother Teresa, the Dali Lama, Reverend Billy Graham and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He has studiously avoided being involved in party politics and in his position as a member of the British Upper Legislative Chamber, The House of Lords, is as a “cross bencher”, (independent).
He has long been a supporter of the American political system which he believes is covenantal, that is based on trust between the governed and those that govern. He frequently quotes, in his writings the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, that “…all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights….”. He states that the American Constitution is the historic first, in modern times, to enshrine the rights of all citizens and recognize that “all men are equal”.
Incidentally, the former Chief Rabbi also, as a cleric, quotes Romans 13. He uses the injunction, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” for non involvement in Party Politics and not as an excuse to acquiesce to human rights violations.
SACK’S SERMON ON KORACH AND HIS POPULIST REBELLION
Each week a different tract from the five books of Moses is read in the synagogue. More often than not Sacks links the portion to modern day events. Last week, as fate would have it, the section read from Numbers was entitled Korach. Korach as Sacks interprets was a populist and “populism has resurged in the West as it did in the1930’s posing a great danger to the future of freedom”
It is important to note that populists arise at times when society is vulnerable, disappointed, resentful, fearful and angry making it possible to rally support to challenge the existing order. To this end the Hebrew nation had just learned that they were to spend forty years in the desert. Korach attacks Moses saying he is no better than any of them and inferring that he is corrupt. Moses defends himself claiming, “I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged them”. The Jewish prophet makes it clear that he has not sought power, “… the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it was not my own idea.” This in response to Korach’s accusation of Moses misrepresenting God and just carrying out his own policies. The leader is accused of nepotism in that instead of appointing Korach to the priesthood he has appointed his own brother, Aaron.
So Korach, who is “one of the people”, wants to get rid of the self serving leaders and become the true leader and drain the swamp.
Then comes the false narrative - the fake news - and the yearning to get back to a time that never was: Two of the Korach sycophants attack, “Isn’t it enough that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you want to Lord over us”. This is the narrative that Korach populists offer and the rationale for replacing Moses.
This is Korach’s spiel to make the Hebrew nation great again.
RABBI SACK’S COMPARISON OF KORACH TO TODAY’S POPULIST MOVEMENTS
The distinguished theologian notes the rise of populism, on both the left and the right, as a result of demagogic leaders exploiting the discontent. They attack the establishment, more often than not, using false narratives. The populist leaders are deliberately divisive and confrontational and promise to give back to the people what has been taken from them. He notes that society is willing to sacrifice their freedom for the promised utopia and to tolerate great evils and support whatever scapegoat the leader chooses to blame for the nation’s ills.
Sacks referred to the European countries where at least thirty - five percent of the population have supported populist leaders. More in hope than sincerity one imagines, he gave America a bye in this sermon. He did however make his feelings known when receiving the American Enterprise, Irvin Kristol, award in 2017 - “The politics of anger emerged in our time is full of danger… the breakdown of American society into narrower and narrower identities nutures a culture of grievances… (while) the social contract is still there, the social covenant is being lost”. The award is given to an individual who has made an exceptional intellectual and practical contribution to improve government policy, social welfare or political understanding. To say the least it is rare for a theologian to receive this prestigious prize. Other winners include Paul Ryan and Republican intellectual and Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer.
The one area that Sacks did not cover in his sermon was the role that the avalanche of refugees has played in the growth of this “dangerous” time.
TRUMP’S POPULISM, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND TRUMP’S RESPONSE TO HIS WOES
The major plank in Donald Trump’s populist policy was the denigration of immigrants whom he scapegoated as the principle reason for all of America’s imagined ills - economic and social. (Them and the swamp). America’s incredible economic growth has been as a result of its regular infusions of immigrants, a minority of whom are highly talented and the majority who go into the engine of the country and whose next generation aspire to the middle class. Among these immigrants have always been the illegals. Reagan, the father of Republican conservatism, declared an amnesty and legitimized the status quo in the eighties. The resurgent problem has not been addressed since then. There has been a need for this workforce as it is unlikely that the over eleven million undocumented would remain in America if there was no work for them. It is this group and the fact that the lawlessness and corruption in Latin America is increasing the number of hopeful refugees that are arriving at the border that have been the foci of Trump’s bile.
So ostentatious and nasty implementations of the immigration law have been the one issue the POTUS has left to energize his base. This has to be seen in the context that as the Mueller investigation closes in on him he has elected to fight his potential legal problems politically. He believes that there is no better issue for the faithful than keeping those people out who threaten to change the traditional majority demographic of white America.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
There is no doubt that uncontrolled immigration throughout the world is a major problem. Any hope of stemming the flood would need attention to rectifying the economic inequities, war and crime in the home countries. The current American increase of “illegals” and political refugees are predominantly terrified, desperate and pathetic individuals in destabilized Latin America and are not “murderers, rapists and drug dealers” or “gang members”.
There is also no doubt that the Trump Presidency if not yet at rock bottom is at a new low with their current enforcement of keeping refugees out by immediate detention with the forceful separation of children from their parents, an atrocity that is nothing short of child abuse.
Trump is at the end of his rope as the Mueller probe heightens. His best deal is that Congress passes legislation that corrects the travesty that he has initiated and gives him the wall to chuck to his base. The “zero tolerance” at the border, together with the trade war, the “deal" with Kim Jung Un and the National Football League’s anthem policy are the current diversions. There will be more.
Only a third of America support this disgrace and this could drop Trump’s approval rating to the low thirty percent and spell disaster for the mid terms.
If one is looking to the Bible for an explanation of this grotesque behavior Jay H. Ell would back Rabbi Sacks over Jeff Sessions any day.
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