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This is a little embarrassing, but I confess that I was one of those people who cried the night Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

How could an educated, experienced former First Lady in a dashing white pantsuit lose to this gaudy buffoon? America’s cooked.

I joined a national movement of grief, constantly bearing the pressure of the falling sky. But as that first interminable term ground on, I started to notice movement in my peripheral vision. Definitions of established concepts, like race and gender, were changing. Covid broke out and morphed from a public health emergency to a political litmus test. George Floyd was killed, and Capitol Hill’s peaceful protest zone devolved into chaos, taking with it the lives of two young black men. Questioning this behavior — how could justice for a slain black man directly lead to the violent deaths of two more black men — could only mean that you support Trump, and nobody wanted that mark of Cain.

The analysts predicted a landslide win for Biden that fall. This time, I felt no shock or grief about the turnout of Trump voters. That shock and grief turned toward the Democratic Party, where no one seemed able to turn their head far enough from Trump to notice the shadow passing on the left.

Now that lurking shadow has entered the Democratic Party and is feasting on its host. Even worse, the party has been so busy running through cornfields throwing stink bombs at Trump, it didn’t even lock its doors or close its windows. Now the Democratic house has full of zombie squatters, and the owners are not only letting them stay, they’re encouraging them to raid the fridge and form a union.

Am I being dramatic? Maybe. Bookmark this and read it in a year and tell me if it holds up.

The national picture

Have you heard yourself saying sometime in the past five years, “I didn’t change; the country changed”?

With a slew of recent socialist wins — Zohran Mamdani being the most headline-grabbing — some mainstream liberal leaders are starting to shake themselves out of their stupor. It may be too late.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are not democratic, not really socialist, and definitely not pro-America. Don’t be lulled into their talking points about free healthcare and affordable housing. They sound empowering — who isn’t mad at the Man for getting paid too little? — but as to how their goals of a more fair society get implemented, well, you’ll have to turn to the history books for that. Or you can look to Portland.

The DSA is the equal and opposite reaction to the rise of Trump. And with minimal experience, elite education, little knowledge, vague plans, and grandiose promises of a better life (no need to look inward at how nice their own lives are), DSA candidates have been ripping up elections. Their idealistic positions appear to be the antidote to fears around affordability, healthcare, housing — kitchen-table issues they promise to solve.

Central to the DSA, and arguably its most important position, is contempt for the Jewish state. The 2026 DSA platform calls for:

An immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to military and economic aid, and weapons sales to Israel, respect of the authority of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, and national sovereignty for the Palestinian people.

The DSA and other socialist organizations play a large part in making Palestine the omnicause, tunneling anti-Israel agendas under every public space through union organizing. It’s how boycotts and protests get into public schools, grocery stores, and university campuses. These socialist organizations ladder up to nefarious international organizations and ultimately the IRGC.

This is known as the “red-green” alliance: revolutionary communism happy to embrace violence meets revolutionary Islamism happy to embrace violence. Islamic revolutions have had communist streaks, but honestly, no one expects the Islamic world to create an equitable society.

So, why Palestine? For the reds, the story goes that it’s been colonized by corrupt Western imperial powers. For the greens, it’s a holy land impossibly governed by a bunch of corrupt dhimmis. Overthrow Israel, and you can overthrow imperialism, capitalism, power, money, greed (notice a theme?), and then you can create a dreamy ~~caliphate~~ utopia.

Look at how recent DSA winning candidates talk about Palestine:

Melat Kiros in Colorado: “We will not wait to reject corporate PACs like AIPAC. No, we will not wait to end the genocide in Palestine.”
Claire Valdez in New York: “So, are we ready to free Palestine, are we ready to Abolish ICE are we ready to win Medicare for all, housing for all, and unions for all?”
Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania: “Today, we recognize the Nakba never ended. The genocide in Gaza and horrific erasure of communities across Palestine & Lebanon must end now.”
Adam Hamawy in New Jersey: “My patients in Palestine deserve freedom and dignity like every human being. In Congress, I will be a voice for justice in Palestine and across the world.”
Darializa Avila Chevalier: “AIPAC is Espaillat’s biggest donor, and in the last week, Republican donors have flooded his campaign coffers. He still refuses to call the Israeli assault on Gaza a genocide. I’ve fought for a free Palestine for years. I’m an educator who has seen first hand how the kids in NYA-13 are getting the short end of the stick. I’m running to invest our taxes in our babies here at home, not in bombs to kill kids abroad.”

Louder for those in the back: the goal of the DSA is to destabilize American values and the economy. Palestine is on the front line of the war of ideas. Stop arming Israel, let the Middle East go to hell, tax the rich (whatever is left of them), shift the means of production to American workers, nationalize everything, decolonize Turtle Island. What could possibly go wrong?

Don’t think this is just an Israel thing. There is also allegedly an ongoing genocide of transgender people, and according to the Twin Cities DSA, the entire “settler state” of Minnesota has been committing genocide for centuries and must be decolonized. This is mainstream thinking in the DSA; Israel is just the first stop, a mythical Death Star that can absorb all the projections of evil Western culture.

Alright, you say, but there are a LOT of races and these are just a few distracting kids. Surely the Democratic Party does not agree with them!

The local picture

May I introduce you now to the Washington State Democratic Party Platform, finalized this week, which contains 21 references to Israel, Gaza, and Palestinians. It not only calls for pulling back on support for Israel’s military, but also contains these consoling words of support:

There has been a dramatic resurgence in antisemitism in recent years on all sides of the political spectrum, due in part to actions taken by the Israeli government. History shows us the dangerous repercussions suffered when collective action to combat antisemitism and promote understanding is not taken. We must ensure that the Jewish community is protected from misinformation, harassment and violence. (Italics added.)

Imagine the Democrats framing Islamophobia as “due in part to actions taken by Hamas.” Or racism as “due in part to actions taken by former US President Barack Obama.” If you want to have fun, imagine Republicans using this language.

Does anyone remember the lengths we went to, after 9/11, not to make Muslim Americans feel an iota of guilt or blame for the attacks committed in the name of their religion? Imagine if someone drove a car full of explosives into a mosque preschool in 2002 with an intent to cause maximum carnage and a state political party inscribed in their platform that it was due, in part, to “actions taken by the Taliban.”

According to the Washington State Democrats director of communication, Stephen Reed, the language was submitted by delegates in the 23rd Legislative District. This encompasses part of Kitsap County and Bainbridge Island, where there is a robust pro-Palestine organizing presence.

According to Reed, the language was accepted without any debate, and it was sent to the Jewish Legislative Caucus and the Jewish Federation for review, but neither allegedly had enough time to review it before it was published.

“I would like to reiterate that hate has no place in Washington state, and we work to create a welcoming environment,” Reed says. “We don’t always get it perfect, but we do our best.”

A Jewish legislator who asked not to be named added that party platforms have little meaning, but rather serve as “meat for the base.”

“I’ve never met a legislator who cares what’s in the platform,” he says. “It has no bearing on what they do.” Many delegates are activists, people with time to burn at council meetings who are often “radically out of touch with what the party wants,” he says.

But who, exactly, is the base eating up this meat? Are party leaders so disconnected from their constituents that they let them drop in harmful language, because no one listens to them anyway?

Shortly after our conversation, on July 2nd, the party put out a press release titled, “WA Dems’ Convention Delegates Urge Halt to Military Aid for Israel.”

Pushed through by delegates, the press release points to a resolution that reads like a Purim shpiel:

THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that this resolution be announced in a press release published within two weeks of passage, be put on all Washington Democratic party social media platforms and on the Washington Democratic party website within two weeks, be sent to all state Democratic elected officials within two weeks, be sent in a letter to Senators Murray and Cantwell and all other state Democratic Congressional members and party leaders within two weeks.

Seriously though.

Dispatches were sent to all the provinces of the king, to every province in its own script and to every nation in its own language, that every man should wield authority in his home and speak the language of his own people. (Esther 1:22)

Hark, that dispatch doubles down on military aid:

Washington State Democratic party urges the Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation to call for both a full arms embargo and suspension of giving equipment, training, and any other military aid or intelligence resources to Israel.

This isn’t a resolution. It’s a ransom note. Do Democratic leaders realize they are in a self-made hostage crisis? Do they have Stockholm Syndrome? Are they so allergic to the Republicans that they will cut off their own nose to spite their face?

(Look no further than the Democrats rallying around Graham Platner to oust moderate Republican Susan Collins in Maine. Apparently, deposing right-wing fascists is as simple as backing a Nazi!)

These activists, to their credit, muster up the time and energy to organize resolutions, serve as delegates, speak at council meetings, and put the state Democratic Party in a headlock to create the illusion that Palestine is the cause upon which the survival of humanity hinges.

We have our own primary in August, where notorious socialist Kshama Sawant is vying to unseat Congressman Adam Smith, a moderate Democrat. In the 37th (CID-Beacon Hill-Rainier Beach), DSA-backed Jaelynn Scott is running against a college student for position 2. In the 43rd (Downtown-Capitol Hill-Laurelhurst), anti-Israel DSA member Shaun Scott, who has been fined for multiple finance violations, is running unopposed for position 2. “I’m eager to go back to work for the people of the 43rd L.D. as the first open socialist in the Washington State Legislature since 1914,” Scott says in his candidate statement.

In the 32nd (northwest Seattle up to Lynnwood), left-wing and Washington Education Association-backed Cindy Ryu is challenging moderate Jewish Democrat Senator Jesse Salomon. Also in the 32nd, local CAIR executive director Imraan Siddiqi is looking to unseat Lauren Davis.

In the 46th (Greenlake-U District), far-left Iranian-American Dariya Farivar will hold onto her seat, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has endorsed Ron Davis over longtime progressive representative Gerry Pollet. Wilson has also endorsed newbie Hannah Sabio-Howell over Democratic Majority Leader Jamie Pederson, a gay Yale graduate and state rep since 2007 in the 43rd. This looks like a Mamdani-inspired attempt to pull the city away from establishment Democrats (even progressive ones) and drive it even further left. Let’s hope it doesn’t fall right into Elliott Bay.

We need to step up

When I got up from shiva for America after Trump’s election, I realized that it was time to relearn American history. I spent 2017 reading about the founding of the country and all its crazy tangents. Turns out, this country has always been a little bonkers. From the enterprising Europeans in Jamestown and the cultish Pilgrims to the tent revivals and the birth of the Quakers, Shakers, Christian Scientists, Latter Day Saints, Scientologists, Nation of Islam…the absence of a supreme power or state religion allows lots of people to believe lots of different things without much consequence. Even Judaism has benefited from the freedom of America. Neither Reform Judaism nor Chabad could have flourished in another country the way they did here.

I also connected with my own American story for the first time.

I knew I was a Mayflower descendant, but that knowledge sat in a drawer in my brain labeled “legend.” It so happens that American ancestry is pretty easy to track. You don’t need to travel to Moscow to look in some box for a paper you hope wasn’t burned in a pogrom. It exists in English on Wikipedia. One day, I typed in my ancestors into Google and within minutes discovered that I’m second cousins, eight times removed, from President John Adams.

So, yes, I am invested in the success of the American project. Ten years ago, the existential threat appeared to be Trump. But we can be concerned about two problems at the same time. The right always maintained the devil we knew. The left is producing a devil that our radar is not picking up.

The DSA is taking advantage of Americans by telling them it can solve their problems and create a better world, but it’s like telling someone they can fix a chair by taking two of the legs off. Their ideas are bad. They are bad for the Jewish people. They are bad for America. And we are on the front line.

With no disrespect to our local organizations and leaders who have been chipping away at this noxious invasive weed of an ideology, it’s high time we got our shit together on a much bigger scale. We don’t have the luxury of dismissing this movement as a fad anymore than dismissing right-wing, anti-Semitic populism as a fad. We have to field candidates for office. We have to work together.

Like the Torah, we are all owners of this project. It’s very easy to look at our lives and see what’s missing. The Israelites left Egypt — they were literally freed from slavery — and yet all they could do was complain about what they didn’t have. They were wrong. Let’s not be like that.

Happy 250th, America. Let’s celebrate. Let’s get to work.

We Need to Fight Harder for America

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