Last week during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or, as I prefer, the Day of Forgiveness, when we need to forgive ourselves as well as those whom we've wronged, I lingered over this piyyut. This medieval poem is read during the latter portion of the late morning service when we remember those who paid the ultimate price due to murderous bigotry over the millennia. This poem is called The Destruction of Spanish Jewry.
Judah and Israel, know how bitter I am;
As I tremble for my sins, shuddering and shaken.
For gone is my song, and any possible joy,
Replaced by memories of Seville, now lost and forsaken.
Gone as well are the crown of Catalonia and Aragon;
Ruled are you now by a pillaging crew.
Gone are the splendid chant of Castille and Leon;
My tears could fill vessels, while weeping anew.
Gone the splendor of the Mishnah and Talmud,
Reviled by foes and by traitors negating You!
It reminded me, in a very visceral way, of how much I take for granted about my settled life. I've been very fortunate to have been born in postwar America, when anti-Semitism was on the wane and I could live a full, though, closeted life. I think back to the traumas and crises of my life, and however painful and threatening, I knew that they occurred in an environment where alternatives were possible, and would be possible, the next day and day after. There was an abiding hope and optimism in America that opportunity would become available, as long as one was self-disciplined and worked hard.
I understand that sense of comfort was not shared by many black Americans, though I do believe that even in the face of racism they, too, knew that it was getting better and would continue to do so, as President Obama has reminded us at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture:
The very fact of this day does not prove that America is perfect, but it does validate the ideas of our founding, that this country born of change, this country born of revolution, this country of we, the people, this country can get better.
It may not be easy, but it is possible.
But the poem described a different world, one which repeated itself time and again for my ancestors. The piyyut described the end of Jewish life in Spain as a result of the Inquisition and Expulsion, and in so doing reminded me of the glory that was Jewish life under Moslem rule in al-Andalus, from the 8th to the 15th century, before Ferdinand and Isabella.
That life was ended. People were killed, people were driven underground, and people were exiled. It's not as if one party took over the Spanish executive, appointed some new Supreme Court Justices and made life difficult for certain communities. Jewish life ended, for all intents and purposes.
This is what faces us today in the United States. This is not politics as usual; we are in an era of anti-politics, that has been growing since Newt Gingrich became Speaker in 1994, and that seeks to undermine the constitutional republic we've grown to take for granted. With all the state-imposed cruelty over the course of American history, no candidate for president has ever threatened to destroy the political system. Until now.
I have written a number of times about the persistence of racism and bigotry in this country throughout its history. That there are racists and neo-Nazis is not new; that they're out and proud is. Trump has enabled and encouraged that phenomenon. The Teabaggers are now overtly a hate group, even if liberals have as yet not decided to call them that publicly.
Mother Jones recently did an in-depth report on Trump's alt-right, and here's the money quote for me:
In late August, Occidental Dissent's Brad Griffin mused about the possibility of a Trump win: "Can you imagine a world in which White Nationalists have come out of the closet, the charge of 'racism' elicits only a 'meh' and shrugged shoulders, and we have begun to openly organize? Don't underestimate the power of the presidency to legitimize marginalized people and deviant movements. If Barack Obama can legitimize gay marriage and transsexuals, Donald Trump can legitimize the Alt-Right.
These people are not going away after the election, because they've always been here. One was even elected to the Anne Arundel County Council, a county that includes Annapolis, last year. Soon they will have their own cable network, run by Roger Ailes and Trump, and I fear that mainstream outlets like CNN that long ago gave up any effort towards journalistic ethics and professionalism will feel obligated to welcome their new colleagues into American living rooms.
We have an "unshackled" Donald Trump announcing on a daily basis that the election is rigged, inciting his supporters to visit polls in African American communities and take the law into their own hands, and continuing to use emails hacked by his patron, Vladimir Putin, to his advantage. Putin, who has been infuriated by the "revolutions of color" throughout Eastern Europe, now seems to be gleefully intruding in an attempt to create the same chaos here in the U.S.
He will fail, as will Trump, but this election will leave roughly 25% of the population convinced that their country has been stolen from them. They will not go quietly in the good night, and four years hence they will nominate a much less narcissistic and psychopathic, more attractive and articulate ethno-nationalist who will appeal to far more people after twelve years of Democratic leadership. Unless we do something about it, which will include rebuilding this country and putting the marginalized back to work, and publicly calling out bigotry whenever it rears its ugly head. Denial will not make it go away.
Less than four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi party set the Reichstag on fire. That's how long it takes to destroy a democracy. In a world where Kiefer Sutherland tries to deal with the aftermath of a 21st century equivalent in Designated Survivor on network television, we need to remain on high alert to excise extremism from our country. Sutherland (Jack Bauer) modeled the post-9/11 zeitgeist very well for many; let's hope he's not doing it again.
Because if something similar does happen here, our lives as we know them may disappear as quickly as those of Weimar's Jewish community and the Jewish community of Muslim Spain.
Gone will be the splendor, as we will be ruled by a pillaging crew.