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Hands in air
The political protests on college campuses near you no matter where you live right now are healthy, moral and American. They break the rules of polite society to raise disturbing questions about our national policies, but democracies don’t criminalize dissent.
The political chasm between our two national political parties in their support for democracy already was enormous in November’s presidential election. Former President Trump, the Republican nominee again, is under criminal indictment for creating a violent attack on Congress in 2021 to overthrow President Biden’s election.
Now Trump, who repeatedly threatened as president to use police and soldiers in the streets to crush racial and political protests in America, is trying to benefit politically by attacking President Biden’s failure to viciously crack down on campus demonstrations.
No Compromise on Democracy
Biden and the Democrats will never promise to end democracy. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said. “The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society and order must prevail.”
That sounds like a carefully balanced political description of the right to politically protest in our democracy that most American politicians regardless of party should support, but Trump has never been a well-balanced American politician.
Last week Trump spent his day off from his sleazy New York criminal trial inflaming the hatred of Wisconsin Republicans in Waukesha not only for campus protests, but also for the innocent Palestinian civilians experiencing famine in Gaza from the scorched-earth counter-attack that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vows will continue until Hamas is destroyed.
“In addition to the millions and millions of people invading our country from the border,” Trump warned, “Crooked Joe is now reportedly planning – this is wonderful news for young people in Wisconsin – to bring massive numbers of Gazans from the Middle East to your American towns, your towns and villages.”
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Spreading Lies
From the moment Trump descended on his golden escalator declaring his candidacy in 2015, he’s openly campaigned for racist votes by spreading horror stories about Black and Brown immigrants as “rapists and murderers.” Immigrants of all races and cultures commit far fewer crimes than native Americans.
Somehow Trump thinks small towns in Wisconsin will cast more votes for him if they fear a massive invasion by Gazans fleeing the war in the Middle East. Most small towns have fewer folks around to vote for anyone every election. They stopped believing anyone from Gaza or anywhere else wanted to come to their towns years ago.
The greatest danger to our democracy from the campus political protests would be if the legitimate questions protesters are raising about the morality of U.S. support of Netanyahu’s destruction of Gaza and his blockade of humanitarian aid to feed starving Palestinians made Biden so unpopular among young voters that they fail to vote for him. It could help elect Trump by default to continue his destruction of democracy.
Biden knows more about Netanyahu’s corrupt far-right abuses of democracy in Israel and his oppression of the Palestinians than the student protesters do. So do Israelis. Before Hamas terrorists from Gaza attacked Israel, Netanyahu was on his way out.
Corrupt and Authoritarian
Their corruption of the democracies of their nations by Trump and Netanyahu are mirror images of each other. They share the same authoritarian political tendencies and both are personally corrupt. They have both been criminally indicted by their court systems and have both responded by attempting to destroy their nations’ legal systems.
The attack on Israel on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists that killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 240 hostages has temporarily united the nation at war behind Netanyahu to defend themselves. Biden immediately pledged support as the U.S. has ever since Israel’s founding in 1948 in a territory surrounded by hostile nations dedicated to its destruction.
But from the start of the current war, Biden made it clear permanent security for both Israelis and Palestinians would require both sides to resume negotiations on a “two-state solution” to live together peacefully side by side.
There is nothing inherently antisemitic about protesting Netanyahu’s total disregard for human life in Gaza. From the beginning of the current war, the families of Israeli hostages have counted on Biden to continue putting pressure on Netanyahu to negotiate a cease-fire and safely release of their loved ones.
With the college school year coming to a close the students are going home, but their political activism on the moral issues they care about will continue throughout this election year. Biden is the only candidate who shares their concerns.
Trump and his contemptuous Republican supporters literally despise all of them as naïve, privileged, spoiled children rather than bright, young, educated Americans who want to create a better world for themselves and their own children.
