The conventional wisdom is divided, as everything is nowadays. Republicans believe that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to suspend his campaign in the swing states and endorse Trump could boost Trump by a few crucial points.
Democrats, on the other hand, are downplaying the "defection" (after they spent millions trying to exclude him from the ballot all over the country, even in deep-blue New York). They say RFK Jr. is going to be a liability for Trump.
So which is it?
When Biden was in, RFK Jr. was a liability for the Democrats. He gave those who did not want to vote for Biden but could not stomach a vote for Trump a symbolic alternative. It could have cost Biden several swing states.
With Kamala Harris replacing Biden, RFK Jr. was a liability for Republicans. The Democrats now had a different, younger, candidate, and the remaining RFK Jr. voters were likely independents for whom Trump was not a first choice.
But RFK Jr. decided he did not want to help the Democrats -- and who can blame him? They smeared him as an antisemite; they tried to sue him off the ballot, they used his family against him; and they denied him Secret Service protection.
The effect will be to move some -- not all -- of the RFK Jr. vote to the Trump column.
But it's more than that. RFK Jr. also validates Trump's campaign -- the Kennedy name still counts -- and gives it new energy, a new edge.
If you listened to RFK's speech -- and it was awesome (here's the transcript: https://im1776.com/2024/08/24/rfk-address-to-the-nation/) -- you heard him throw down a serious challenge to the Democrats, the media, and the country's governing establishment.
RFK Jr. reframed Kamala Harris from the candidate of "joy" to the puppet of party leaders, a media oligarchy, and a state apparatus that have conspired to suppress democracy in the name of defending it. He called out her emptiness.
He also laid out the case against U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine.I don't agree with him entirely, but leave that for the moment: the point is that no one had heard it before. Think of that: $200 billion later, and never a counterargument.
Finally, and most consequentially, Kennedy talked about his major issues: free speech, preventing war, and addressing the crisis of chronic health problems among America's children, especially through nutrition and poor regulation.
These are fresh ideas. The free speech issue has been raging for a while, but as long as Republicans were the main victims, no one really cared. With Kennedy pushing the issue to the forefront, it's impossible to ignore -- at least, it is now.
Some pundit -- I forget who, and it might have actually been Nikki Haley -- said during the primary that since many American voters were sick of Biden and Trump, whichever party nominated a younger candidate would win.
Harris is the Democrats' younger candidate. JD Vance doesn't quite fit the bill, somehow, maybe because he's the vice presidential candidate, or maybe he's just SO young (just 40). But Kennedy, though 70, has a youthful energy.
I, for one, am grateful that Kennedy has established his pro-Israel credentials so clearly. If he hadn't done so, all the media would be talking about would be that Trump had embraced an "antisemite" (what a lie!), and you know the rest of it.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
