Many of the callers to my radio show on Sunday made similar points about Bob Dole: they admired him, but his reach-across-the-aisle stye of politics is the reason America is in this mess.
I'm not sure that's fair. It's true that Dole was not a conservative champion, and when he tried to play the role of firebrand in his 1996 campaign, it felt like he was stretching to do it, so it fell flat.
But the fact is that when the chips were really down, and the question was whether to back Trump or oppose him, Dole bucked the rest of the GOP establishment and defended The Donald.
I think the explanation is simple: Dole understood that the country's politics had shifted dramatically to the left since he left politics. After he lost to Bill Clinton, the Lewinsky impeachment emerged, damaging Clinton's ability to fight for the "third way" politics he had championed and creating a new opening for the left to take control of the Democratic Party. Under Obama's influence, Democrats became more "woke" -- and more anti-American in their outlook.
Dole saw Trump as the antidote to that -- as the only way for American politics to come back to what he, Bob Dole (as Bob Dole would have said), understood.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
