Sunday, April 07, 2019

Trump And God, A Dyad


He's out of touch, and not only because he likes touching men and women who don't want to be touched. When criticized for praising GOP members of Congress during the fall campaign, Joe Biden responded in January

I read in the New York Times today that one of my problems if I were to run for president, I like Republicans. OK, well, bless me father for I have sinned. From where I come from, I don't know how you get anything done. I don't know how you get anything done unless we start talking to one another again.

From where I come, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but he has his Christian church and I have mine.

Switching awkwardly from the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament to the people of solely the Old Testament, I refer to Wikipedia, which explains

Dayenu (Hebrew:דַּיֵּנוּ) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word "Dayenu" means approximately "it would have been enough", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed" (day in Hebrew is "enough", and -enu the first person plural suffix, "to us"). This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. The earliest full text of the song occurs in the first medieval haggadah, which is part of the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram.[1] The song is about being grateful to God for all of the gifts he gave the Jewish people, such as taking them out of slavery, giving them the Torah and Shabbat, and had God only given one of the gifts, it would have still been enough.

If we had the Internet and not YouTube, it would have been enough. Still, we have one of the interpretations below from YouTube and lyrics here





Nonetheless, you need not bother with learning those lyrics praising God for what he did not have to do, yet chose to do. Norm Coleman, who was somehow a United States senator from Minnesota until the great Al Franken (barely) defeated him, is now chairperson of the Republican-Jewish coalition. Introducing President Trump on Saturday at the organization's annual convention, he

led the audience in an adapted version of the Passover reading “Dayenu,” as he recounted what Trump had done for Israel.  “Dayenu” which roughly means "it would have sufficed" is a song of thanks found in the haggadah traditionally sung at during the Seder.

Coleman praised Trump with a speech riffing off the song with phrases like, "Had President Trump only put two conservative Supreme Court judges...Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, we would say: DAYENU. Had President Trump only appointed Nikki Haley ambassador to the UN, sending a powerful message that we will not tolerate the UN's anti-Israel bias: DAYENU."

Coleman was helpfully blasted by Jews including respected blogger Joshua Micah Marshall, William Kristol, and Alaska senator Brian Schatz, the latter asserting “This is not my kind of Judaism and I suspect I’m not alone in that view."

Credit to all those speaking  up for the Judaism Coleman chose to denigrate. Donald Trump has denigrated Christianity for a few years now, and there has been far too little pushback from Christians, especially from those who know better. The Jewish community, the vast majority of which has refused to be suckered by Trump, can handle this swipe at Judaism.So for those of us not Jewish, the main issue is somewhat different.

If Coleman's remarkable insinuation is roundly criticized by Republicans, I'll issue a mea culpa. The chance of that happening is slim and none, and slim has been observed riding out of town.This is not Donald Trump's party. He has not only taken over the party; the party is now Trump.

While most GOP politicians probably don't actually believe that President Trump is God, they at least want voters to believe that he is. Therefore, there will be no compromise. There can be no compromise with God.

Forty-five of every 82 Republicans with an opinion believe God wanted Trump to be President. Sarah H. Sanders claimed God "wanted Donald Trump to become President and that's why he's there."  It was a slippery slope from God putting Trump in the White House to Trump becoming God. God no longer has chosen sides. He is one side.

The disease infecting the GOP is not limited to Donald J. Trump, who retains the approval of nearly 90% of the Republican electorate.Unfortunately, Biden isn't the only Democratic presidential hopeful who does not understand that the problem is not limited to one man. O'Rourke, Buttigieg, are among those who don't recognize that the GOP, headed by the man with God's blessing, believes it is in a death match with its enemies.

However, Biden alone served as Vice President to a President whom Republican voters were unconvinced was born in the USA and whom they wanted obstructed at every opportunity. The other Democrats who want to be President are relatively inexperienced and may still learn.  Joe Biden has had plenty of opportunity and seems still to be completely unaware.



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