Throughout the campaign, I was disgusted.
I’ve been disgusted by his behaviour. His brash, rude, and dismissive attitude, his ego, his clear and unabated narcissism. I resented how he either switched sides so fast or sold out his values for the presidency. I found his “locker room talk,” even if it was from 11 years ago, extremely offensive. I do not like any of his picks for cabinet and other positions, with one exception: David Friedman. I am genuinely worried he will set America backward and understand the worry of many Americans who fear their rights will be taken away.
If I were American and lived in the U.S. I would have definitely supported Hilary. Although I disagree with her embrace of the Iran Deal, and some of the “pay for play” activities of the Clinton Foundation freaked me out, I am much more supportive of the Democratic platform domestically. I believe in protecting oppressed people, empowering minorities, and helping the poor and disadvantaged, even if it means charging the rich higher taxes. I believe in legalizing marijuana, finding ways to open up opportunities in education, and to deal with housing insecurity. Socially and domestically, I am a solid democrat.
I am also what many would consider a proud feminist. I believe in absolute equality between men and women and believe “complementarity” is a complete social construct. I see feminism as the ultimate freedom to choose with zero restrictions: career, family, or both if one can handle it; teacher, doctor, engineer, astronaut, mechanic, welder, soldier…. the sky is the limit to what a woman can do. Like many of these marchers, I see gender as fluid, and that there is a continuum of maleness and femaleness that can even fluctuate by the hour or day or even year based on mood, life experience, etc. I am 100% in favour of legalized abortion and a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body even if I wouldn’t choose it for myself. As a Jew, I agree with the Torah view of abortion as allowable if keeping the child would endanger the woman’s physical or psychological health, and support unlimited abortions no matter what the reason under 20 weeks, five weeks before the fetus becomes aware of its existence.
Furthermore, I believe in full rights for gays and lesbians, and want to live in a world where getting married to a man is just as accepted as getting married to a woman. I am the ultimate “queer ally” if there ever was one. and also believe in a sexual orientation continuum like the Kinsey Scale. I also support complete trans rights to use whatever bathroom they choose, which will get me some flack from this readership I am sure. I have no qualms about gay or trans adoption, and have marched in many gay pride parades all over the world, and attended many trans allyship workshops. So basically, socially, I am as leftist as they come without going off the deep end.
However, I was embarrassed by the behavior of over 2.9 million of my fellow social progressives at the American Women’s March, which replicated itself with other satellite solidarity marches across the world, including one in Tel Aviv. I think the whole concept of the march was silly and melodramatic, and reeked of entitlement that the left built up after being coddled and nourished by Obama for so many years. It also appeared to me as a giant temper tantrum of young children who didn’t get their way in a fair democratic process. There are three major reasons I refused to show any solidarity with the marchers, despite the fact that many of my close friends participated, that I agree on many of their appraisals of the situation, and that I share many of their worries and concerns regarding how Trump will treat his most marginalized and downtrodden citizens.
The Girls Who Cried Wolf
One of the biggest reasons why I am worried, and why I see these protests proof of a gigantic sense of entitlement the left has nurtured and abetted for many years, is because Trump hasn’t actually done anything objectionable yet as president. He got inaugurated the night before the protests. Has he said many objectionable things on a regular basis during his campaign? Absolutely. Do his cabinet picks seem problematic? Absolutely, but they haven’t done anything yet so please stay calm for now. Is he probably going to do equally objectionable things as president? I sure hope not, but I predict so. However, my main worry is that if these Trump haters keep protesting every little thing, including basically the democratic process that led to his election (a process they didn’t complain about until he was actually elected), then when President Trump actually does something objectionable and worth protesting, they won’t be taken seriously.
These women are protesting Trump because he was elected and they don’t like him.
To any outsider, they seem to be behaving like spoiled brats used to always getting what they want, throwing a tantrum when they didn’t win after a fair process.
…But What About The Other Scumbag Presidents?
A lot of past presidents were total douchebags. Some were cheating scumbags. Many of those who were cheating scumbags, or even moderately bigoted, were decent presidents relatively speaking. Jimmy Carter had no cheating scandals in office, nor did Barack Obama, but they weren’t great as far as presidents are concerned and had atrocious foreign policies with catastrophic results. John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and even the much-loved FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt), had presidencies racked by numerous affairs and cheating scandals, yet went down in history as arguably among the best presidents to ever take office, at least in the 20th century. So no, even if he has a weakness for women and can’t maintain a relationship without being a jerk, that doesn’t mean he will make a bad president. That’s like saying that because Stephen Hawking is a brilliant physicist then he must be a brilliant Political Scientist too, which we all know is not the case since he came out in support of BDS.
They should give Trump a chance, so that if he actually gives them something to protest, people will listen and not write them off as sniveling sore losers, which is exactly what they looked like despite all the positive messaging and evident camaraderie and bonding that went on at the march.
Dangerous Liaisons
I was very skeptical when I found out that community activist and noted Israel-hater Linda Sarsour was running the movement. Sarsour is a proud Palestinian pro-Sharia Law activist who pretends to be a progressive and uses her charm to endear progressives to the highly regressive Sharia Law (yes, she is probably a genius if she can do that, I’ll give her that).
She is also known for hitching her wagon to other popular causes and carefully leaching Palestinian sympathies into them, exactly the same strategy that was used to steal the #BlackLivesMatter zeitgeist. Throughout her speech at the women’s march, Sarsour injected some pretty subliminal anti-Israel messaging, as did activist Angela Davis and others. There was also some subliminal Islamic proselytizing going on, with a station where march participants were fitted with American flag hijabs. Such an outcome didn’t surprise me in the slightest given Sarsour’s past behaviour and evident agenda. So no, I don’t want anything to do with her or her activism, because I always know that her end goal is to undermine Israel and popularize the anti-Israel movement, which she did empowered under Obama’s mentorship.
Any self-respecting Jew should steer clear of her and anything she is involved in as well, no matter how noble the cause may seem. There is always an ulterior motive to “inject” anti-Israel, terror-apologist, and pro-Islamist rhetoric, no matter how subtle, in all she does. Don’t be fooled by her feigned concern for social justice and gender equality when she supports the oppression and ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people from their homeland and a legal system that says a woman is three fifths of a man in court. I refuse to participate in anything she does because she is not genuine, she injects her agenda in everything she does and the only reason she is big on “progressive causes” (that totally contradict her personal beliefs) is because she knows she can harness the incredible passion people feel for them as a vehicle to advance her own agenda. She is a Trojan Horse, and you don’t want her infecting you, trust me.
So, activistas: relax, he hasn’t done anything yet. Stop whining and complaining, unless Trump actually does something worth complaining about. When he actually starts to take our rights away I’ll be the first to join you on your march. In the mean time, check yourself before you wreck yourself, or your whiny attitude might just land Trump a second term.
