I've said before (as recently as last weekend) that Trump remained the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024. The disastrous dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes did not "prove" that Trump is a bigot, because his record shows otherwise, but he clearly is not exercising his best judgment.
The primary process will sort some of this out. It will either produce a candidate who replaces Trump -- but without his enthusiastic following; or it will produce a weakened nominee in Trump who cannot win a general election, and who hurts the party along the way. There is also the distant possibility that a non-Trump candidate brings along the Trump base. Ron DeSantis has the best shot, if he runs; Nikki Haley will try, and she is, at least, not bashing Trump right now.
But here is the bigger picture. Trump showed the Republican Party how to win, how to expand its appeal, and how to govern effectively. The party lacks another leader. He is weakened, meaning the party is confused and somewhat chaotic.
That means there are huge challenges ahead. But the mess is also an opportunity for conservatives to examine what it is that they truly believe. And though Trump's victory in 2016 created a mystique that is hard to shake off, it is far better to sort through conservatism in the wake of that victory than it would have been had he lost that election and left a smug establishment in charge.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
