The Hopeful Mogul

Not since the 1860’s during the Lincoln-Douglass debates has American campaign politics been so bitter and vitriolic. I have been watching the politics enjoying the circus-like atmosphere minus the popcorn and the cotton candy.

This has been a spectacular campaign, hopefully never to be repeated, filled with name-calling, lies and insults. In one way, it reminds me of our own Knesset!!!

It appears certain that the war of words will now continue between Donald Trump, the hopeful mogul, and Hillary Clinton whose dream is to return to the White House which she once occupied with husband Bill.

Trump happens to be an amazing personality (or many personalities), a representative of the American people who flock to him as bees flock to honey-suckle. Why? What is the attraction of the American middle class to this multi-billionaire real-estate mogul, born with a golden spoon in his mouth?

He speaks the words they want to hear. He says unpopular things which become popular when he says them. Build a wall. Keep the illegals out. Deport the Mexican rapists. Abolish Obama health care. Do away with the dreaded tax mafia, the Internal (more popularly called the Infernal) Revenue Service.

He wants to make a great country great again. And the people lick up every word. The present Obama administration, considered the worst in American history, is seen both at home and abroad as weak and without power or influence. Donald Trump promises to make America strong again.

The truth is that most Americans, particularly the Republicans (the party of the beloved great president Abraham Lincoln), agree with what mogul Trump says. But many object to the way he says it. He lacks a steady temperament and speaks from the hip, not from the head or heart.

If Donald Trump can defeat Hillary Clinton in November, the American government will undergo its greatest metamorphosis in its history.

For Jews, we are happy to know that Trump is a friend to the State of Israel and has openly supported the rights of settlers to establish more settlements on disputed land. He is also philo-Judaic, having an Orthodox Jewish daughter, son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren. He is the last person on earth who could ever be accused of anti-Semitism.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has extensive political experience as a First Lady, a Senator from the state of New York, and Secretary of State under the Obama administration. She is considered friendly to Israel, but then, so say all political aspirants in search of Jewish votes.

The divisiveness between Republicans and Democrats resembles our Likud and Zionist Union. The difference is that Netanyahu and Herzog, who may not personally like one another, do not publicly humiliate each other and name-calling is kept to a Jewish minimum. Nu? Ma efshar l’hagid? So what can one say?

In the short end, I prefer our Israeli campaigns and elections to those of America.

I would not be unhappy to see strong-man Vladimir Putin “convert” to Americanism and become a presidential candidate. America needs a strong and defiant leader except for the fact that Putin was not born in America.

Meanwhile, the hopeful mogul may yet become an American president and probably he will surprise everyone by being a compromising and respectful president.

Manhattan was bought from the native Americans for twenty-four dollars and strings of beads.

Mogul Trump can definitely do much better.