Of Soiled Doves and Yiddishe Nazis
155 years ago today (December 6, 1865), the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution became the law of the land. Simply stated, it formally abolished slavery. It provided that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Without question, its enactment has long been a high point in American history. All it took was a war between the North and South which nearly wrecked a nation and cost more than 600,000 deaths. Sadly, there are still those who, despite being unable to identify precisely what the Constitution’s 13th Amendment outlaws, act as if it never came into existence. Sadly, the words of Irish statesman Edmund Burke (or Winston Churchill or Spanish Philosopher George Santayana) still ring true: “Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
I begin this week’s post in this manner because today, the 6th of December 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis chose to recognize this anniversary on his Facebook page. Governor Polis, who is a friend of mine (I wrote a lengthy biographic essay of him in my 2010 work The Jews of Capitol Hill), reprinted the Amendment’s 32 words and succinctly noted that “With these words, the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the Constitution.” Unsurprisingly, the Governor’s post received as many nasty putdowns as warm-hearted accolades. One nasty respondent wrote: “Great post, Jared. Now maybe you should read the parts about Freedom of Religion and the Freedom to Bear Arms. Might do you good to brush up on the First, Second, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments considering you've violated all of those being the good little Nazi that you are.”
I rarely answer these Facebook tirades; responding to the diatribes of moral/political albinos is not my idea of a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. In this case, however, I made an exception due to both my anger and disbelief. I wrote back to this fellow “I cannot imagine anything more vile or less civil than accusing a practicing Jew of being a Nazi. Shame on you, Mr. . . .” Thank G-d my response elicited dozens upon dozens of replies which backed up my pique, and agreed with my analysis. Another civic cretin stated with great certainty that Governor Polis was nothing short of being a communist conspirator being paid by George Soros! (It should be noted that Jared, who along with his family founded such online behemoths as Pro Flowers and Blue Mountain Greeting cards is easily worth more than $300 million.) To this right-wing automaton I wrote “What planet do you come from? Do you really, truly believe the tripe you just posted?” My response received lots and lots of “thumbs up” and heart emojis. Nonetheless, despite all these very supportive reactions, I still found myself burning up inside.
Another online thread has been going on and on about President-Elect Biden’s having suffered a broken foot while playing with one of his future “first dogs.” Through a bit of simple photoshopping, there are tons of pictures of him wearing a boot on either his right or left foot - which leads hundreds of thousands of cyber simpletons to conclude that he is either: a) faking it, or b) “a moron who needs his filthy wh*re of a wife to label his shoes right foot or left foot because he is both feeble and stupid.” To this one, who turned out to be so utterly simpleminded as to get my obvious sarcasm, I wrote: “I never knew these things about the Bidens. Please, could you provide me with the link to this information so I can share it with my online posse?” Of course, I never received a reply . . .
Dr. Jill Biden a strumpet? (or “soiled dove,” “victim of frail sisterhood,” “pavement princess” “demimondane” or “skank” - there are tons of synonyms); The President-Elect a mental midget? Governor Polis a Nazi? Where in the world do so many people come up with such noxious tripe? Do they really, truly believe that Dr. Biden is a woman of loose morals but that Melania Trump is a vestal virgin? Do they really truly believe that “According to everyone in Joe Biden’s law school class, he was the dumbest student at the school” but that “Donald Trump is a genius!” or that “QAnon people are true patriots,” but that Jared Polis is “a murderous Nazi?” Also, which would be worse? That they really, truly do believe these things or that they do not? What kind of world do they wish to live in? One in which assailing, threatening and browbeating those who have different backgrounds constitutes the gold (or in this case, the pyrite) standard of society? One in which fear is the fuel and ignorance the ideal? How did we ever wind up with so many cynical, shallow and utterly graceless citizens?
Over the past several weeks I’ve communicated with an awful lot of people who I will lovingly refer to as “the political pompom brigade”; folks who, like the Munchkins of Oz, cannot wait to sing out “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!” Sorry gang, as much as I share your joy and elation at the elevation of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the devolution of Trump and Pence, I do not believe that things are suddenly going to be doing a political 180. There are simply too many politically-charged incendiary devices buried beneath the nation’s surface. Need proof? As of 48 hours ago, there were a mere 27 of 249 Congressional Republicans who had found the courage to publicly admit that Joe Biden actually defeated Donald Trump. According to interviews with all the GOP members of Congress conducted by the Washington Post, two Republicans consider Trump the winner despite all evidence to the contrary. And another 220 GOP members of the House and Senate — about 88 percent of all Republicans serving in Congress — will simply not say who won the election. How shocking; how depressing; they might as well believe that Sandy Koufax was a right-handed reliever for the Yankees! And of course, there are other buried I.E.D.s . . . such as last-minute stacking of the Pentagon and Intel agencies with Trump/Pompeo loyalists . . . to what end, not even the good Lord knows.
And while it is indeed true that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and those they have named to staff and lead the incoming administration are far more competent, worldly and professional than those we’ve be putting up with these past 4 years, undoing what they have done (or doing what they have undone) isn’t going to happen in the first 100 or even 1,000 days. We’re still going to be dealing with the many interminable roadblocks which have been strewn across the path of progress, not to mention all those who are more than willing to sit on their hands until 2022 or 2024, and the Trump base which will continue believing that the new administration is illegitimate, the first Lady a "soiled dove,” and anyone who disagrees with them a Communist, a Nazi or a traitor.
Do keep in mind the (slightly altered) words of Bette Davis in All About Eve: “Fasten on your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy flight.”
Let’s keep our chins up, our eyes on the prize and our collective energy level at full bore. Together, we will make it!
29 days until the Senate elections in Georgia;
43 days until the Inauguration.
Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone