I always look forward to this blog on Saturday morning! I too am concerned about Christian nationalism which in no way resembles the Christianity I grew up with as the child of two Christian ministers who also had PhDs in Biblical studies. That being said, I’m also worried about what may happen if Muslim immigrants do here what they are doing in the UK and much of Europe: demand that this become a nation under Sharia law. Of course there are lots of nice Muslims who abide by the law of the US and don’t push their beliefs on others but in countries where they get greater in number that’s what happens. More likely than Jews and Mamdani being in the same boat is Mamdani’s friends pushing out the Jews. His staffers and his past speak for themselves. A strong sense of the country as a western Judeo-Christian nation may help keep us from becoming the UK where a Jewish man was just arrested for wearing a Star of David and the people who spoke against grooming gangs were called Islamophobes. Liberals just walk right into that stuff thinking they are being virtuous and tolerant because the immigrants have brown skin. I want to continue to live in a western democracy- not a Christian theocracy or a Muslim caliphate.
Ironically, you are worried about Muslims 'pushing their beliefs' in an article stating all the ways Christians are pushing THEIR beliefs. If you can show me any evidence of Muslims creating anti Christian laws in the US, I'd love to see the examples. Otherwise, it's a Fox News false flag, imo.
And as a Jewish person, I haven't heard this story about a Jewish man getting arrested for wearing a Star of David. Do you happen to have the source? Because otherwise I'm afraid it sounds like a OAN/Newsmaxx story, not even Fox level.
In the UK there is a real issue with the Muslim immigrants who have not been integrated into society. Some have committed horrific crimes.
In the US, Muslims have been integrated and are a small % of the population. I don't think there is a threat at all of Sharia in the US or Muslims pushing out Jews. I don't see it.
Our political ELITE are actually admitting that the unrestricted immigration was and is a deliberate ploy to destabilize our society. It's all very well to talk about love etc.but Nietschze got it right in his analysis of how Weaponised Compassion (my term) is used by the weak to bring down and rob out the strong. He is right. In UK old people are being turfed out of care homes so that the owners can get the much more reliable money payment from the government for having those young men migrants. They are not all criminals. I'm sure a lot of them don't really know why they're here. Not for work. Thats an alibi. Until they get ",right to work" and that can take up to 3 years or more they can't fulfill all those vacant jobs the lazy Brits wont do except when a lazy Brit does apply it turns out the job doesbt exist or he wont be able to communicate as the others all speak Romanian or in Albanian. Please don't shout Holocaust at me to punish me for citing Nietschze.
In NYC because of the Gaza war, US Jews are possibly hypersensitive to anything Muslim. Especially if also espouses Socialism, like Mamdani.
The day may yet come when Jews who fund AIPAC rue the day it swerved towards the GOP. Because the American Right has *always* had deep pockets of unwavering antisemitism and racism in their DNA. Whereas from the Left it's mostly episodic; directly correlating to whatever new nastiness Netanyahu or the settlers cook up in their efforts to keep Israel Jewish-majority. The Diaspora then expected to endure the messes left by Smotrich et al.
J-Street is now the only adult left in the room, because while an angry Libtard may say mean things when riled, they don't shoot up synagogues, or firebomb (Black) churches.
Thanks for this insightful perspective David. I am a Christian and I do believe our nation needs significant immigration reform. However, I don't approve of the way the current administration is going about it. I also didn't think that the open borders policy of the previous administration was correct either. We need to figure out a system that works without going to one extreme or the other. And, to your point, I don't want our nation to become Christian nationalist either. Separation of church and state is a good thing. All too often politicians use religion as an excuse to do what fits their agenda. My wife is from Peru. She is a dual citizen. But she is terrified to drive in Memphis right now by herself. While the national guard was supposedly sent to improve law enforcement (which was needed), they have primarily been profiling individuals who look Hispanic. I think our country finds itself in a dark place at the moment and I sometimes wonder if we will find our way out of this mess.
In Chicago, ICE is literally going up to people that look Hispanic and asking for their papers. And sometimes, of course, they don't ask, but merely kidnap. I'm sorry that your wife feels afraid, but I don't blame her.
To me the important thing about immigration reform is that it stay as a political issue. It's the unnecessary posturing of trying to fit in the current policy to Christian teachings that has me concerned, among many other things.
Immigration reform is indeed a political issue. However, political policy that touches on how the nation, and the government, in the people’s name, treats human beings should be influenced by moral considerations. In a liberal democracy one might expect the moral consideration to emanate from a nation’s developed sense of cultural norms that have been influenced by all its people’s beliefs, not a particular religious subset, even if it’s a majority. That’s theocracy, not liberal democracy.
Immigration has been mismanaged by all parties for much of American history, never more so than since the profound changes instituted in the 1960s, which were ill-considered. I don’t mean wrong. I mean, literally, not well considered (not really considered at all) in their implications. Then, the southern border was badly policed by all presidents of both parties. But there’s a reason we concern ourselves with the southern border rather than the northern; that’s because migration is profoundly influenced by economic and population push-pull factors much broader than any nation’s enforcement efforts.
These are all political policy considerations for the most part. Ethical considerations enter into it on a greater level when Americans recognize that the first responsibility and culpability begin with them through their government. It was the U.S. that ill-considered and ill-managed its immigrations policies for 60 years. Every person who crossed the border illegally during those years – those who aren’t rapists and murders eating cats and dogs – was trying to save their and their families lives in one way or another, as many Americans would do just the same if the fortunes of national wealth and destiny were different. (Let us now at least after all that has happened not fool ourselves that Americans are in any way morally superior to other peoples.) Now, and for many years, we have many millions of people in the country who didn’t enter legally and who live here under a wide variety of circumstances and have done so for greatly differing numbers of years. This creates vastly complex human dilemmas and is where ethics should profoundly enter our considerations.
How do we want to treat our fellow human beings?
That shouldn’t be a difficult consideration. But complex conditions can complicate seemingly simple moral decision making. Unless, that is, we can find a way in our own minds to dehumanize and demonize the human component of the complex dilemma. Then it becomes simple again.
But since you reference him, David, Mike Johnson speaking as a “Christian” is a complete fraud. He and those like him don’t represent any kind of spiritual Christian argument on the subject of immigration. From the period near fifty years ago when various, mostly fundamentalist Protestant Christian denominations slowly began to enter the political sphere in the United States, their utter spiritual corruption -- and that of the GOP -- was foreordained. Johnson is a theocrat, an autocrat, a man devoid of any moral compass in the pursuit of political power. There’s nothing Christian about it, and, indeed, you’ll find the same moral debasement among Muslims, Jews, Hindus in India, anywhere the so-called spiritual world seeks power in the material world. Jesus knew a thing or two.
Thanks Jay for the wise comment. I purposefully left my own views on immigration out of my essay because I wanted to focus the point on the perversion of Christian principles to support an immigration policy that so clearly goes against Christian ethics and the ethics of Judaism and I suspect pretty much every religion.
My view is amnesty for the people already here. That’s the ethical thing to do. The canard of ordo amoris does not pass any sort of ethical smell test.
And while religion and politics have their own spheres, ethics and morality in politics is a necessary consideration. Otherwise we would still have slavery and segregation and no social safety net.
I presumed from what I know of you, David, and from reading subtext that these were more or less your views. I chose to offer an exclamation point. I limit my "political" writing these days to opposing MAGA and supporting liberal democracy and don't delve into particular policy issues much. Your raising the topic gave me the opportunity to share. So thanks!
Terrific piece, David. “Christian” nationalism chills me. The NYT recently published an interview with a fundamentalist pastor much respected by this crowd. He calls for laws against sodomy, fornication and adultery. He “would not rule out” the stoning of adulterers. E.B. White wrote in 1956, when President Eisenhower envisioned prayer as part of democracy, “Democracy is itself a religious faith. For some it cones close to being the onky formal religion they have. And so when I see the first faint shadow of orthodoxy sweep across the sky, feel the first cold whiff of its blinding fog steal in from sea, I tremble all over, as though I had just seen an eagle go by, carrying a baby.”
Great essay, David. As I’m sure you know, Pope Francis, may he rest in peace, publicly remonstrated with JD Vance about his ordo amoris statements.
The Christian nationalists have been building up to this moment quite deliberately and skillfully since the 80s. They aren’t going away, no matter who is president.
I can't quote the Scripture (because I'm Jewish) but somewhere in the New Testament it says that the Jews must be in Israel for The Rapture to happen. That's why the Right Wing/Christians are supporters of Israel, not because they care about the Jews. I saw a list of the supporters of Trump's Ballroom, and played 'Count The Jews', I counted four individuals, and who knows how many higher ups in organizations that contributed.
That won't help them when it gets down and dirty. Just look at Caitlyn Jenner, a proud Republican who thinks she herself is excepted from the GOP's anti trans laws. Or Dinesh D'Souusa, who is shocked that some MAGA was racist towards him (and that's the Vance kids' future as well).
Mike Johnson quoting Scripture as he lies about wanting to save Medicaid, while he denies food to the poor, while he denies Arizona it's elected Rep (because she will be the deciding vote on releasing the Epstein Files)... he, like Trump, won't make it into Heaven.
You should be way less worried about the white Christian Nationalist bogeyman you think lives under your bed, and way more worried about what Mondaini’s going to do to your pile of gold. Wondering where your tax pain threshold is?
All we’re seeing with Trump is mean reversion. You have to admit, this nation has swung way left and godless of late. A swing back towards the Christian principles that our nation was founded on is a good thing.
I have a task for you. Go outside, find a black person who feels they’re owed reparations and give all your money to them. Next, find a Native American whose ancestors were living in symbiotic harmony with the land that your dwelling exists on, ask forgiveness, hand over your house keys and go wander the western desert searching for cruelty-free land to live on. Go on now…
Morals are universal. You either have them or you don’t. The faith our nation was founded on is the Protestant faith. All faiths are welcome to contribute to the tapestry of the USA, but the fact that Protestants started it all should not be forgotten. And in my estimation, and many others apparently, we’ve strayed pretty far from our Protestant roots. So it’s neither surprising or frightening if we swing back that way.
Once they get CBDC established they'll be after your wealth for sure. Especially if you're not IN THEIR CLUB. You'll need a big mattress to hide it under.
A thoughtful, objective essay, David. Another problem is that every denomination seems to stake a claim on what it means to be a Christian. I'm not anything, but I would wager than Episcopalians and many other denominations would object to the brand of virulent Christianity represented by Mike Johnson. As for Mamdani, I can understand your reservations, but I also recommend Frank Rich's article in New York magazine: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-race-democratic-party-frank-rich.html
I think you are confusing actual religion with religious hypocrisy. What is going on here, as it has gone on for centuries, is the use of religion to enable and then justify behavior that violates every tenet of the religion that is supposedly the basis of that behavior. (If you remember, I wrote in a recent post that, to me, Mike Johnson, not Donald Trump, is the most despicable person in the country...and that takes some doing.) But what I really need to address is your comment that Zohran Mamdani is a "strident opponent of Israel." What his personal feelings are I don't know, but what he has demonstrated is that he is a strident opponent of the Netanyahu government and its behavior in Gaza...and the Netanyahu government, including those two despicable bigots, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, is guilty of precisely the same religious hypocrisy that you are writing about here. If Mamdani is a strident opponent of Israel then so is his political mentor, Bernie Sanders, who has been an observant Jew his entire life. You can't have it both ways. Either religion should be allowed to justify governmental decision making that would not be justifiable without it or it should not be. I firmly believe it should be the latter. Many American Jews have been vocal about their opposition to Netanyahu and then, at the same time, criticize non-Jews who take the same position as antisemitic. That does a disservice both to them and fight against genuine antisemitism, which remains an intractable problem both in the United States and around the world.
Larry, I think Mamdani is an opponent of not just the Israeli government but of the state of Israel existing as a Jewish state. His statements are pretty clear on that. He is anti-Zionist.
Israel, unlike America, was founded as a religious state. It's entire reason for existence is to be a Jewish state. If one does not accept that, then one does not accept Israel.
First, the current Israeli government may have decided it was founded as a "religious" state, but if you check, it was understood to be founded as a "Jewish" state...which is not quite the same thing. Never was it understood by those who voted for partition that they were approving a theocracy, in which land could be grabbed up without payment, those who disagreed with the government could imprisoned without trial, and all the other abuses perpetrated by the current government were legitimized. If the Ben Gvir and Smotrich crowd were dominant in 1948, instead of the Ben-Gurions, the Ebans, and the Golda Meirs, it is questionable if partition would have succeeded. And please, show me a quote from Mamdani in which he denies Israel's right to exist, as opposed to insisting that non-Jews are not denied fundamental human rights...a position with which Ben-Gurion, et al, also agreed. By your reasoning, Israel, by claiming it is defending its identity as a Jewish state, can do pretty much anything it damn pleases. Do you feel the same way about Trump? Because, lest we forget, the United States was indeed founded as white Christian nation. (In many states, Catholics or Jews could not vote, hold public office, or even teach school. And if you were Black, fuggedaboudit.). Mercifully, we grew out of it. Sadly, it didn't seem to take.
If Jews are a religious grouping since they admit they're not a DNA linked grouping how is it so many of them are effing atheists then. But still Bible Thumpers about their Title Deeds.
Mr Roberts,you can ban me or ask me to leave your subs and I will. But Israel was not about a Religious State. The Balfour Declaration is a note written on a scrap of paper in an informal fashion and conveyed from one PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL to another PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL. It was NOT put to Parliament at Westminster. It was not discussed and debated. It was and is an illegal document. Lately I have been researching WW1 (and getting drawn into 2) due to seeking an answer to a simple question and I am finding out that NOTHING is as I was told in all those well researched and authoritative TV documentary series. In fact I'm going up to London next week to look at some books I've ordered at The British Library. We all assume we know the truth about both Wotid Wars because trusted people of known integrity voiced those documentaries. It's too bad that you're a Jew thus on God's Hit List. I'm on God's Hit List too if it's any comfort. I've never committed suicide so,well I can feel the dark forces gathering around me. And I'm not mad,it's real.
I am so glad you are writing about Mamdani's opposition to Israel and it's existence. Nobody voting for him understands what his candidacy represents in terms of the continuity of these new times of continuous permitted antisemitism. There is a short story that starts on page 53 of this years April 14th New Yorker issue titled "From, To". It is written by David Bezmozgis and the protagonist in this story has to deal with the paradox of his daughter participating in the Columbia University encampment protesting Israel's actions in Gaza. Though fiction it seems to factually partially explain why a Mamdani ever got a foothold on being a New York City Mayoral candidate. The New Yorker is mostly far left but in this one short story they gratiously ran a truthful assessment of what is going on that would enable Mamdani to suddenly appear. You may have already read it or might not care to read it. But it would be great to read your thoughts about it, if you might want to share them.
I think the fact of Mamdani's election is far worse than anything he will do as Mayor. So although it seems certain he will win, his margin of victory will be important as signaling just how deep the anti-Israel feeling runs. And most people will not distinguish between being anti-Israel and being anti-Jewish. We do not live in an age of nuance.
It's important to keep speaking out against Christian Nationalism here and abroad. I think all the true evils in the world are due to the effects of nationalism and religious fundamentalism. There, I said it.
Thanks, David, for this thoughtful piece. A snippet I clipped on the topic: In this 2020 Jewish Telegraphic Agency interview, Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain is unequivocal: “You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion,” he said, adding later, “I’m afraid I have absolutely not the slightest shred of sympathy for anyone who, as a rabbi, tells people how to vote." Keep us thinking!
I agree, Carll. I saw a sermon by a Rabbi I know urging people to vote against Mamdani in there election and it felt "off" to me for a Rabbi to be so overtly political.
Excellent article. Although Christian nationalism exists in some ways it is not really Christian because as Matthew Long writes, "All too often politicians use religion as an excuse to do what fits their own agenda." A good Christian takes action that God would want them to take, not their own idea of what God would want. Some people listen to politicians more closely than to their pastor's sermons on what God wants. A good example is when politicians repeatedly argue that lowering the number of unskilled workers will somehow “improve the quality of American jobs.” But judging immigrants primarily on the basis of their economic utility or criminality fails to see them as God does, as His children and family.
Thanks Larry. I think it would be impossible to govern according to the Sermon on the Mount or the full set of Jewish Ethical principles. Max Weber would say that to be a responsible political leader is to make compromises. There's no shame in that. The shame arises when political leaders pervert the teachings to fit their actions inside of them. And also when cruelty is gratuitous.
I always really appreciate your brilliant essays. This one resonated deeply, especially your reflections on religious pluralism and compassion. I did pause at the mention of Mamdani being “a strident opponent of Israel,” only because it seemed to blur the line between criticism of a state and intolerance of a people. Many readers are trying to hold space for both Jewish safety and Palestinian humanity, and that tension feels important to name.
I do think that ZM is more than an opponent of the Israeli government and opposes the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. I don't like the current government in either Israel or in America but I distinguish the government from the country.
Oh, „LOVE“ ! is a wonderful thing, sometimes real, justified, and sometimes false, misused, destructive … just like, for example, HATE: it can be rightful, justified, and can be false, destructive …
Question is: why does only „Hate“ get persecuted ? Why is „Hate(Speech)“ forbidden - only because it gets misused and dangerously raging, which but also and surely not rarely happens from/ through „Love“ ?
Do we forbid Love „because“ it gets misused that often ?
Love should and can be true - and so does hate …!
A German president once said: „I love not ‚my Nation‘ - I love my wife“.
He has chosen his wife - elected her out of many others… he felt she deserved it… but no one can chose his „Nation“ ! So WHY does it get demanded to „love thy Nation“ ?
How can this get demanded ? Even to nations that don´t deserve it …?
But the problem anyway is not a lack of love - because everyone is always ready for love to give it when it feels right - the problem is: the lack of KNOWLEDGE !
The REFUSAL towards wanting to KNOW and being able to bear truth ! „Even“, or maybe especially „when it hurts“. Someone not ready for this barricades his way to TRUE love.
Would you be seen as able to love when you reject the pain sometimes going with it ? if so, why then does it not get demanded from people to want to know, „even“ or especially
when it hurts ?
So they prevent the path to TRUE knowledge/love.
Dunno if you have ever talked (tried to talk) to „Mamdani“ Fans ? These so-called „Democrats“ are (girl)crazy about „someone who is bringing us up again“ … they (DON´T WANT to) know about his Islam inflictions and his Jihad Girlies following him, unbelievable in a 9/11-city…!! They are NO DIFFERENT from the Germans who once followed Hitler who „promised to bring Germany up again from that Versailles verdict“ without ever caring about his real intentions. NOTHING „learned from history“, the same people always complaining about „Trumps dictatorship“.
Similar with a.o. „AI“ : I have never received any „reply“ from that dummy that didn´t include at least a dozen faults, insufficiencies, blatant inadequacies galore in three paragraphs.
And this thing gets pushed with heaps of billions though its faultiness is clearest for everyone to see (if they WANT to see it...). The „Crown of Creation“ at its best/worst.
„Love“ is such a splendored word, but it not rarely just isn´t enough.
In Europe 50 million Muslims are living - 40 million of them are partly or wholly dependant from „State“ly support.
They consume from „the state“ which in great parts they don´t accept as they wish for an „Islam State“ (as if 57 of them worldwide weren´t more than enough).
Though they came to Europe to WORK ! Now they often do nothing but sitting in their inbreeding cafés with their veiled dames and only rise up for „Anti-Israel“ demonstrations with
„Gas all Jews“.
You think this could be mended or coped with „Love“ ?
No, Europe has to do something about it, but mostly until now they have only looked away from these problems and defamed anyone who wanted to get things solved, as „Racist“ and
„Islamophobe“.
What Trump is doing, may not be adequate and the right thing - but at least he´s doing sth. The „Democrats“ could do something better - but they prefer to freeze in discrimination (!)
of everyone not shouting their paroles.
The German chancellor (Merz) recently uttered something about the „Town Picture“ in many regions being „problematic“ - and a STORM erased: where ? ONLY among the „Free Press“.
The saturated self-acclaimed „critical“, “diverse“ who really are nothing but province leeches of the wealth that their hate objects („Capitalists“) have built.
It turned out meanwhile that Two Thirds of German population are in conformity with the chancellor - but the „Free Critical Press“ still is raging and going up in „demonstrations“ of
„NGO“s (NON-government org.s, paid mostly by … ? … the government).
And those who reject and criticize this rightly, are „racist“, for sure !
If they really were what they think they are (the „majority“), why can´t they finance themselves ?
On all these problems and dumbnesses, „Love“ is not enough.
Look, since I try a lot of sports and often exert myself, I need physiotherapy - my physiotherapist is a „Palestinian“, i.e. an Arab from Israel.
Though he had been living there for nearly thirty years, he knew nothing about Israel and the Jews, except completely false or incomplete things.
As he´s in Germany for no longer than hardly a year, and doesn´t speak good German yet, I gave him several of my essays (in German) about the over 3000 years history of the Israelites
and its current status and problems and translated it into English for him.
He has studied in Jordan, and at least he told that < there are a lot of Palestinians in Jordan running the land - Palestinians who want to BUILD something, go to Jordan.
Palestinians who want to live from others to then DESTROY them, stay in „Gaza“ > …
That ´s what he said already *before* I „educated“ him ! Now we are in conformity saying „Forget about that fairy tale ‚Palestine‘. Give Qatarian money to Jordan to integrate all of them.
Give Gaza back to Israel. As well as Samaria and Judea (now falsely called „West Bank“), Jewish CORE land ! End the heritage „Refugee Status“ of „Palestinians“ etc.
Apart from that, he´s a very good physiotherapist.
Now, if I as an unimportant client of a physiotherapist can have decent talks with „Palestinians“, why can´t/ won´t anyone else ? Why doesn´t anyone seem to try ?
Why did he not know and experience anything but Jew Hate during his decades as an Israel citizen ? Why have „UN“ organizations closed their eyes on that and then the whole
world is „appalled“ from the „Palestinian“ hate breaking out ?
What did „the Democrats“ do about it except yelling paroles „for Palestine“ ? What will „Mamdani“ do positively about it ?
Now I´m a „jew friend“ and as well s.o. trying to „understand Palestinians“ wanting for peace.
Am I a „most honorable Samaritan" ? Someone spreading oh so „Holy Love“ ?
No, only someone trying to spread knowledge and understanding.
I think, I feel, and I speak out. It´s as easy as that.
No „big“ oversized „Christian" Sermon „CK†“-Words, no Gen-Z Muslim upstart Parvenu „Hero“ needed.
Even scarier to me was when Vance recently said it seemed strange to him when the ADL was criticizing people (white supremacists I suppose) whose families go back to the Civil War. This is blood and soil Nazi stuff.
To start off, conditional love and Christian nationalism are notions that would wither under "define your terms"-squaring the circle is an apt analogy. At the same time, the US has a longstanding history of using religion to justify among other things genocide and slavery, so the current behavior is sadly more the norm than the exception (see Illiberal America: A History/Hahn). Lastly the Jonathan Sacks quote- terrible(depends on point of view- mixing religion and politics works really well as a predatory tool) politics and even worse religion (also depends on POV)- is pithy and representative of my political and Judeochristian mindset.
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
As a Christian, I believe in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Democracy needs the moral underpinnings that religious traditions can provide...ALL religious traditions including yours David and mine and others.
I have supported from a distance, the popularity of Mamdani. I celebrate locally here in Michigan the passion of Abdul El-Sayed running for the Senate.
I'm no slouch. And Trump, in my book, may be a Nationalist, but he is no Christian.
I always look forward to this blog on Saturday morning! I too am concerned about Christian nationalism which in no way resembles the Christianity I grew up with as the child of two Christian ministers who also had PhDs in Biblical studies. That being said, I’m also worried about what may happen if Muslim immigrants do here what they are doing in the UK and much of Europe: demand that this become a nation under Sharia law. Of course there are lots of nice Muslims who abide by the law of the US and don’t push their beliefs on others but in countries where they get greater in number that’s what happens. More likely than Jews and Mamdani being in the same boat is Mamdani’s friends pushing out the Jews. His staffers and his past speak for themselves. A strong sense of the country as a western Judeo-Christian nation may help keep us from becoming the UK where a Jewish man was just arrested for wearing a Star of David and the people who spoke against grooming gangs were called Islamophobes. Liberals just walk right into that stuff thinking they are being virtuous and tolerant because the immigrants have brown skin. I want to continue to live in a western democracy- not a Christian theocracy or a Muslim caliphate.
Ironically, you are worried about Muslims 'pushing their beliefs' in an article stating all the ways Christians are pushing THEIR beliefs. If you can show me any evidence of Muslims creating anti Christian laws in the US, I'd love to see the examples. Otherwise, it's a Fox News false flag, imo.
And as a Jewish person, I haven't heard this story about a Jewish man getting arrested for wearing a Star of David. Do you happen to have the source? Because otherwise I'm afraid it sounds like a OAN/Newsmaxx story, not even Fox level.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15219599/Video-reveals-moment-Jewish-solicitor-told-police-Star-David-necklace-antagonised-pro-Palestine-protesters-blasts-Scotland-Yards-disgusting-decision-arrest-him.html
Also in the Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/18/jewish-man-arrested-star-of-david-antagonised-protesters/
Telegraph/Daily Mail are equivalent to NY post: story was debunked. https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/israel-palestine-protest-star-david-arrest-b2848090.html
Thanks for saving me the click!
Everyone gets arrested here in Britain for anything
In the UK there is a real issue with the Muslim immigrants who have not been integrated into society. Some have committed horrific crimes.
In the US, Muslims have been integrated and are a small % of the population. I don't think there is a threat at all of Sharia in the US or Muslims pushing out Jews. I don't see it.
Our political ELITE are actually admitting that the unrestricted immigration was and is a deliberate ploy to destabilize our society. It's all very well to talk about love etc.but Nietschze got it right in his analysis of how Weaponised Compassion (my term) is used by the weak to bring down and rob out the strong. He is right. In UK old people are being turfed out of care homes so that the owners can get the much more reliable money payment from the government for having those young men migrants. They are not all criminals. I'm sure a lot of them don't really know why they're here. Not for work. Thats an alibi. Until they get ",right to work" and that can take up to 3 years or more they can't fulfill all those vacant jobs the lazy Brits wont do except when a lazy Brit does apply it turns out the job doesbt exist or he wont be able to communicate as the others all speak Romanian or in Albanian. Please don't shout Holocaust at me to punish me for citing Nietschze.
You are correct. The majority of Londoners are now foreign-born. Religion aside, that's a real challenge.
In NYC because of the Gaza war, US Jews are possibly hypersensitive to anything Muslim. Especially if also espouses Socialism, like Mamdani.
The day may yet come when Jews who fund AIPAC rue the day it swerved towards the GOP. Because the American Right has *always* had deep pockets of unwavering antisemitism and racism in their DNA. Whereas from the Left it's mostly episodic; directly correlating to whatever new nastiness Netanyahu or the settlers cook up in their efforts to keep Israel Jewish-majority. The Diaspora then expected to endure the messes left by Smotrich et al.
J-Street is now the only adult left in the room, because while an angry Libtard may say mean things when riled, they don't shoot up synagogues, or firebomb (Black) churches.
Thanks for this insightful perspective David. I am a Christian and I do believe our nation needs significant immigration reform. However, I don't approve of the way the current administration is going about it. I also didn't think that the open borders policy of the previous administration was correct either. We need to figure out a system that works without going to one extreme or the other. And, to your point, I don't want our nation to become Christian nationalist either. Separation of church and state is a good thing. All too often politicians use religion as an excuse to do what fits their agenda. My wife is from Peru. She is a dual citizen. But she is terrified to drive in Memphis right now by herself. While the national guard was supposedly sent to improve law enforcement (which was needed), they have primarily been profiling individuals who look Hispanic. I think our country finds itself in a dark place at the moment and I sometimes wonder if we will find our way out of this mess.
In Chicago, ICE is literally going up to people that look Hispanic and asking for their papers. And sometimes, of course, they don't ask, but merely kidnap. I'm sorry that your wife feels afraid, but I don't blame her.
To me the important thing about immigration reform is that it stay as a political issue. It's the unnecessary posturing of trying to fit in the current policy to Christian teachings that has me concerned, among many other things.
Immigration reform is indeed a political issue. However, political policy that touches on how the nation, and the government, in the people’s name, treats human beings should be influenced by moral considerations. In a liberal democracy one might expect the moral consideration to emanate from a nation’s developed sense of cultural norms that have been influenced by all its people’s beliefs, not a particular religious subset, even if it’s a majority. That’s theocracy, not liberal democracy.
Immigration has been mismanaged by all parties for much of American history, never more so than since the profound changes instituted in the 1960s, which were ill-considered. I don’t mean wrong. I mean, literally, not well considered (not really considered at all) in their implications. Then, the southern border was badly policed by all presidents of both parties. But there’s a reason we concern ourselves with the southern border rather than the northern; that’s because migration is profoundly influenced by economic and population push-pull factors much broader than any nation’s enforcement efforts.
These are all political policy considerations for the most part. Ethical considerations enter into it on a greater level when Americans recognize that the first responsibility and culpability begin with them through their government. It was the U.S. that ill-considered and ill-managed its immigrations policies for 60 years. Every person who crossed the border illegally during those years – those who aren’t rapists and murders eating cats and dogs – was trying to save their and their families lives in one way or another, as many Americans would do just the same if the fortunes of national wealth and destiny were different. (Let us now at least after all that has happened not fool ourselves that Americans are in any way morally superior to other peoples.) Now, and for many years, we have many millions of people in the country who didn’t enter legally and who live here under a wide variety of circumstances and have done so for greatly differing numbers of years. This creates vastly complex human dilemmas and is where ethics should profoundly enter our considerations.
How do we want to treat our fellow human beings?
That shouldn’t be a difficult consideration. But complex conditions can complicate seemingly simple moral decision making. Unless, that is, we can find a way in our own minds to dehumanize and demonize the human component of the complex dilemma. Then it becomes simple again.
But since you reference him, David, Mike Johnson speaking as a “Christian” is a complete fraud. He and those like him don’t represent any kind of spiritual Christian argument on the subject of immigration. From the period near fifty years ago when various, mostly fundamentalist Protestant Christian denominations slowly began to enter the political sphere in the United States, their utter spiritual corruption -- and that of the GOP -- was foreordained. Johnson is a theocrat, an autocrat, a man devoid of any moral compass in the pursuit of political power. There’s nothing Christian about it, and, indeed, you’ll find the same moral debasement among Muslims, Jews, Hindus in India, anywhere the so-called spiritual world seeks power in the material world. Jesus knew a thing or two.
Thanks Jay for the wise comment. I purposefully left my own views on immigration out of my essay because I wanted to focus the point on the perversion of Christian principles to support an immigration policy that so clearly goes against Christian ethics and the ethics of Judaism and I suspect pretty much every religion.
My view is amnesty for the people already here. That’s the ethical thing to do. The canard of ordo amoris does not pass any sort of ethical smell test.
And while religion and politics have their own spheres, ethics and morality in politics is a necessary consideration. Otherwise we would still have slavery and segregation and no social safety net.
Johnson is truly awful.
I presumed from what I know of you, David, and from reading subtext that these were more or less your views. I chose to offer an exclamation point. I limit my "political" writing these days to opposing MAGA and supporting liberal democracy and don't delve into particular policy issues much. Your raising the topic gave me the opportunity to share. So thanks!
Terrific piece, David. “Christian” nationalism chills me. The NYT recently published an interview with a fundamentalist pastor much respected by this crowd. He calls for laws against sodomy, fornication and adultery. He “would not rule out” the stoning of adulterers. E.B. White wrote in 1956, when President Eisenhower envisioned prayer as part of democracy, “Democracy is itself a religious faith. For some it cones close to being the onky formal religion they have. And so when I see the first faint shadow of orthodoxy sweep across the sky, feel the first cold whiff of its blinding fog steal in from sea, I tremble all over, as though I had just seen an eagle go by, carrying a baby.”
Thank you. Love this!
Thanks Rona. What a terrific sentence by White!
E.B. White never disappoints!
Great essay, David. As I’m sure you know, Pope Francis, may he rest in peace, publicly remonstrated with JD Vance about his ordo amoris statements.
The Christian nationalists have been building up to this moment quite deliberately and skillfully since the 80s. They aren’t going away, no matter who is president.
I can't quote the Scripture (because I'm Jewish) but somewhere in the New Testament it says that the Jews must be in Israel for The Rapture to happen. That's why the Right Wing/Christians are supporters of Israel, not because they care about the Jews. I saw a list of the supporters of Trump's Ballroom, and played 'Count The Jews', I counted four individuals, and who knows how many higher ups in organizations that contributed.
That won't help them when it gets down and dirty. Just look at Caitlyn Jenner, a proud Republican who thinks she herself is excepted from the GOP's anti trans laws. Or Dinesh D'Souusa, who is shocked that some MAGA was racist towards him (and that's the Vance kids' future as well).
Mike Johnson quoting Scripture as he lies about wanting to save Medicaid, while he denies food to the poor, while he denies Arizona it's elected Rep (because she will be the deciding vote on releasing the Epstein Files)... he, like Trump, won't make it into Heaven.
The Rapture is an invented fringe Protestant belief that is not mentioned in the Bible.
https://www.catholic365.com/article/10475/why-catholics-dont-believe-in-the-rapture.html
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians do not believe in or teach about the Rapture.
Correct - I am Greek Orthodox and never even heard of the Rapture until I came to the USA.
They'll be playing The Devil's Waltz in that Hellfire Ballroom.
You should be way less worried about the white Christian Nationalist bogeyman you think lives under your bed, and way more worried about what Mondaini’s going to do to your pile of gold. Wondering where your tax pain threshold is?
All we’re seeing with Trump is mean reversion. You have to admit, this nation has swung way left and godless of late. A swing back towards the Christian principles that our nation was founded on is a good thing.
God has nothing to do with it. Or do you think God inspired/ justified slavery, genocide of native American tribes etc..
I have a task for you. Go outside, find a black person who feels they’re owed reparations and give all your money to them. Next, find a Native American whose ancestors were living in symbiotic harmony with the land that your dwelling exists on, ask forgiveness, hand over your house keys and go wander the western desert searching for cruelty-free land to live on. Go on now…
I guess God inspired you to write such an asinine response?
Clearly slavery and Native American genocide weigh heavily on your soul. Be the change you want to see. That’s all.
You need meds and a psychiatrist.
Meds and psychiatrists are a big part of what’s wrong with this nation. And stop projecting.
I don't know what foundation you refer to.
John Adams said this only works if we’re a nation of men of faith and morals. That foundation.
Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on faith and morals.
Morals are universal. You either have them or you don’t. The faith our nation was founded on is the Protestant faith. All faiths are welcome to contribute to the tapestry of the USA, but the fact that Protestants started it all should not be forgotten. And in my estimation, and many others apparently, we’ve strayed pretty far from our Protestant roots. So it’s neither surprising or frightening if we swing back that way.
Once they get CBDC established they'll be after your wealth for sure. Especially if you're not IN THEIR CLUB. You'll need a big mattress to hide it under.
A thoughtful, objective essay, David. Another problem is that every denomination seems to stake a claim on what it means to be a Christian. I'm not anything, but I would wager than Episcopalians and many other denominations would object to the brand of virulent Christianity represented by Mike Johnson. As for Mamdani, I can understand your reservations, but I also recommend Frank Rich's article in New York magazine: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-race-democratic-party-frank-rich.html
Thanks Brooks.
I think you are confusing actual religion with religious hypocrisy. What is going on here, as it has gone on for centuries, is the use of religion to enable and then justify behavior that violates every tenet of the religion that is supposedly the basis of that behavior. (If you remember, I wrote in a recent post that, to me, Mike Johnson, not Donald Trump, is the most despicable person in the country...and that takes some doing.) But what I really need to address is your comment that Zohran Mamdani is a "strident opponent of Israel." What his personal feelings are I don't know, but what he has demonstrated is that he is a strident opponent of the Netanyahu government and its behavior in Gaza...and the Netanyahu government, including those two despicable bigots, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, is guilty of precisely the same religious hypocrisy that you are writing about here. If Mamdani is a strident opponent of Israel then so is his political mentor, Bernie Sanders, who has been an observant Jew his entire life. You can't have it both ways. Either religion should be allowed to justify governmental decision making that would not be justifiable without it or it should not be. I firmly believe it should be the latter. Many American Jews have been vocal about their opposition to Netanyahu and then, at the same time, criticize non-Jews who take the same position as antisemitic. That does a disservice both to them and fight against genuine antisemitism, which remains an intractable problem both in the United States and around the world.
Larry, I think Mamdani is an opponent of not just the Israeli government but of the state of Israel existing as a Jewish state. His statements are pretty clear on that. He is anti-Zionist.
Israel, unlike America, was founded as a religious state. It's entire reason for existence is to be a Jewish state. If one does not accept that, then one does not accept Israel.
First, the current Israeli government may have decided it was founded as a "religious" state, but if you check, it was understood to be founded as a "Jewish" state...which is not quite the same thing. Never was it understood by those who voted for partition that they were approving a theocracy, in which land could be grabbed up without payment, those who disagreed with the government could imprisoned without trial, and all the other abuses perpetrated by the current government were legitimized. If the Ben Gvir and Smotrich crowd were dominant in 1948, instead of the Ben-Gurions, the Ebans, and the Golda Meirs, it is questionable if partition would have succeeded. And please, show me a quote from Mamdani in which he denies Israel's right to exist, as opposed to insisting that non-Jews are not denied fundamental human rights...a position with which Ben-Gurion, et al, also agreed. By your reasoning, Israel, by claiming it is defending its identity as a Jewish state, can do pretty much anything it damn pleases. Do you feel the same way about Trump? Because, lest we forget, the United States was indeed founded as white Christian nation. (In many states, Catholics or Jews could not vote, hold public office, or even teach school. And if you were Black, fuggedaboudit.). Mercifully, we grew out of it. Sadly, it didn't seem to take.
If Jews are a religious grouping since they admit they're not a DNA linked grouping how is it so many of them are effing atheists then. But still Bible Thumpers about their Title Deeds.
Mr Roberts,you can ban me or ask me to leave your subs and I will. But Israel was not about a Religious State. The Balfour Declaration is a note written on a scrap of paper in an informal fashion and conveyed from one PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL to another PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL. It was NOT put to Parliament at Westminster. It was not discussed and debated. It was and is an illegal document. Lately I have been researching WW1 (and getting drawn into 2) due to seeking an answer to a simple question and I am finding out that NOTHING is as I was told in all those well researched and authoritative TV documentary series. In fact I'm going up to London next week to look at some books I've ordered at The British Library. We all assume we know the truth about both Wotid Wars because trusted people of known integrity voiced those documentaries. It's too bad that you're a Jew thus on God's Hit List. I'm on God's Hit List too if it's any comfort. I've never committed suicide so,well I can feel the dark forces gathering around me. And I'm not mad,it's real.
Not banned but condemned to receive my weekly posts! I value your comments, Jane, even when we disagree.
Thank you so much. I think you are a wise person.
David,
I am so glad you are writing about Mamdani's opposition to Israel and it's existence. Nobody voting for him understands what his candidacy represents in terms of the continuity of these new times of continuous permitted antisemitism. There is a short story that starts on page 53 of this years April 14th New Yorker issue titled "From, To". It is written by David Bezmozgis and the protagonist in this story has to deal with the paradox of his daughter participating in the Columbia University encampment protesting Israel's actions in Gaza. Though fiction it seems to factually partially explain why a Mamdani ever got a foothold on being a New York City Mayoral candidate. The New Yorker is mostly far left but in this one short story they gratiously ran a truthful assessment of what is going on that would enable Mamdani to suddenly appear. You may have already read it or might not care to read it. But it would be great to read your thoughts about it, if you might want to share them.
Larry B.
Thanks Larry. I will check the story out.
I think the fact of Mamdani's election is far worse than anything he will do as Mayor. So although it seems certain he will win, his margin of victory will be important as signaling just how deep the anti-Israel feeling runs. And most people will not distinguish between being anti-Israel and being anti-Jewish. We do not live in an age of nuance.
David,
Here's a Substack article with how Jewish women are standing up against antisemitism. I am hoping more of this starts happening in all the media. https://open.substack.com/pub/danielgreenfield/p/how-antisemitism-turned-cbs-against?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1nv21u
Thanks Larry.
It's important to keep speaking out against Christian Nationalism here and abroad. I think all the true evils in the world are due to the effects of nationalism and religious fundamentalism. There, I said it.
Thanks, David, for this thoughtful piece. A snippet I clipped on the topic: In this 2020 Jewish Telegraphic Agency interview, Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain is unequivocal: “You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion,” he said, adding later, “I’m afraid I have absolutely not the slightest shred of sympathy for anyone who, as a rabbi, tells people how to vote." Keep us thinking!
I agree, Carll. I saw a sermon by a Rabbi I know urging people to vote against Mamdani in there election and it felt "off" to me for a Rabbi to be so overtly political.
Couldn't agree more. Love, C
Excellent article. Although Christian nationalism exists in some ways it is not really Christian because as Matthew Long writes, "All too often politicians use religion as an excuse to do what fits their own agenda." A good Christian takes action that God would want them to take, not their own idea of what God would want. Some people listen to politicians more closely than to their pastor's sermons on what God wants. A good example is when politicians repeatedly argue that lowering the number of unskilled workers will somehow “improve the quality of American jobs.” But judging immigrants primarily on the basis of their economic utility or criminality fails to see them as God does, as His children and family.
Thanks Larry. I think it would be impossible to govern according to the Sermon on the Mount or the full set of Jewish Ethical principles. Max Weber would say that to be a responsible political leader is to make compromises. There's no shame in that. The shame arises when political leaders pervert the teachings to fit their actions inside of them. And also when cruelty is gratuitous.
I totally agree.
I always really appreciate your brilliant essays. This one resonated deeply, especially your reflections on religious pluralism and compassion. I did pause at the mention of Mamdani being “a strident opponent of Israel,” only because it seemed to blur the line between criticism of a state and intolerance of a people. Many readers are trying to hold space for both Jewish safety and Palestinian humanity, and that tension feels important to name.
Thanks Ashley,
I do think that ZM is more than an opponent of the Israeli government and opposes the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. I don't like the current government in either Israel or in America but I distinguish the government from the country.
Oh, „LOVE“ ! is a wonderful thing, sometimes real, justified, and sometimes false, misused, destructive … just like, for example, HATE: it can be rightful, justified, and can be false, destructive …
Question is: why does only „Hate“ get persecuted ? Why is „Hate(Speech)“ forbidden - only because it gets misused and dangerously raging, which but also and surely not rarely happens from/ through „Love“ ?
Do we forbid Love „because“ it gets misused that often ?
Love should and can be true - and so does hate …!
A German president once said: „I love not ‚my Nation‘ - I love my wife“.
He has chosen his wife - elected her out of many others… he felt she deserved it… but no one can chose his „Nation“ ! So WHY does it get demanded to „love thy Nation“ ?
How can this get demanded ? Even to nations that don´t deserve it …?
But the problem anyway is not a lack of love - because everyone is always ready for love to give it when it feels right - the problem is: the lack of KNOWLEDGE !
The REFUSAL towards wanting to KNOW and being able to bear truth ! „Even“, or maybe especially „when it hurts“. Someone not ready for this barricades his way to TRUE love.
Would you be seen as able to love when you reject the pain sometimes going with it ? if so, why then does it not get demanded from people to want to know, „even“ or especially
when it hurts ?
So they prevent the path to TRUE knowledge/love.
Dunno if you have ever talked (tried to talk) to „Mamdani“ Fans ? These so-called „Democrats“ are (girl)crazy about „someone who is bringing us up again“ … they (DON´T WANT to) know about his Islam inflictions and his Jihad Girlies following him, unbelievable in a 9/11-city…!! They are NO DIFFERENT from the Germans who once followed Hitler who „promised to bring Germany up again from that Versailles verdict“ without ever caring about his real intentions. NOTHING „learned from history“, the same people always complaining about „Trumps dictatorship“.
Similar with a.o. „AI“ : I have never received any „reply“ from that dummy that didn´t include at least a dozen faults, insufficiencies, blatant inadequacies galore in three paragraphs.
And this thing gets pushed with heaps of billions though its faultiness is clearest for everyone to see (if they WANT to see it...). The „Crown of Creation“ at its best/worst.
„Love“ is such a splendored word, but it not rarely just isn´t enough.
In Europe 50 million Muslims are living - 40 million of them are partly or wholly dependant from „State“ly support.
They consume from „the state“ which in great parts they don´t accept as they wish for an „Islam State“ (as if 57 of them worldwide weren´t more than enough).
Though they came to Europe to WORK ! Now they often do nothing but sitting in their inbreeding cafés with their veiled dames and only rise up for „Anti-Israel“ demonstrations with
„Gas all Jews“.
You think this could be mended or coped with „Love“ ?
No, Europe has to do something about it, but mostly until now they have only looked away from these problems and defamed anyone who wanted to get things solved, as „Racist“ and
„Islamophobe“.
What Trump is doing, may not be adequate and the right thing - but at least he´s doing sth. The „Democrats“ could do something better - but they prefer to freeze in discrimination (!)
of everyone not shouting their paroles.
The German chancellor (Merz) recently uttered something about the „Town Picture“ in many regions being „problematic“ - and a STORM erased: where ? ONLY among the „Free Press“.
The saturated self-acclaimed „critical“, “diverse“ who really are nothing but province leeches of the wealth that their hate objects („Capitalists“) have built.
It turned out meanwhile that Two Thirds of German population are in conformity with the chancellor - but the „Free Critical Press“ still is raging and going up in „demonstrations“ of
„NGO“s (NON-government org.s, paid mostly by … ? … the government).
And those who reject and criticize this rightly, are „racist“, for sure !
If they really were what they think they are (the „majority“), why can´t they finance themselves ?
On all these problems and dumbnesses, „Love“ is not enough.
Look, since I try a lot of sports and often exert myself, I need physiotherapy - my physiotherapist is a „Palestinian“, i.e. an Arab from Israel.
Though he had been living there for nearly thirty years, he knew nothing about Israel and the Jews, except completely false or incomplete things.
As he´s in Germany for no longer than hardly a year, and doesn´t speak good German yet, I gave him several of my essays (in German) about the over 3000 years history of the Israelites
and its current status and problems and translated it into English for him.
He has studied in Jordan, and at least he told that < there are a lot of Palestinians in Jordan running the land - Palestinians who want to BUILD something, go to Jordan.
Palestinians who want to live from others to then DESTROY them, stay in „Gaza“ > …
That ´s what he said already *before* I „educated“ him ! Now we are in conformity saying „Forget about that fairy tale ‚Palestine‘. Give Qatarian money to Jordan to integrate all of them.
Give Gaza back to Israel. As well as Samaria and Judea (now falsely called „West Bank“), Jewish CORE land ! End the heritage „Refugee Status“ of „Palestinians“ etc.
Apart from that, he´s a very good physiotherapist.
Now, if I as an unimportant client of a physiotherapist can have decent talks with „Palestinians“, why can´t/ won´t anyone else ? Why doesn´t anyone seem to try ?
Why did he not know and experience anything but Jew Hate during his decades as an Israel citizen ? Why have „UN“ organizations closed their eyes on that and then the whole
world is „appalled“ from the „Palestinian“ hate breaking out ?
What did „the Democrats“ do about it except yelling paroles „for Palestine“ ? What will „Mamdani“ do positively about it ?
Now I´m a „jew friend“ and as well s.o. trying to „understand Palestinians“ wanting for peace.
Am I a „most honorable Samaritan" ? Someone spreading oh so „Holy Love“ ?
No, only someone trying to spread knowledge and understanding.
I think, I feel, and I speak out. It´s as easy as that.
No „big“ oversized „Christian" Sermon „CK†“-Words, no Gen-Z Muslim upstart Parvenu „Hero“ needed.
Even scarier to me was when Vance recently said it seemed strange to him when the ADL was criticizing people (white supremacists I suppose) whose families go back to the Civil War. This is blood and soil Nazi stuff.
To start off, conditional love and Christian nationalism are notions that would wither under "define your terms"-squaring the circle is an apt analogy. At the same time, the US has a longstanding history of using religion to justify among other things genocide and slavery, so the current behavior is sadly more the norm than the exception (see Illiberal America: A History/Hahn). Lastly the Jonathan Sacks quote- terrible(depends on point of view- mixing religion and politics works really well as a predatory tool) politics and even worse religion (also depends on POV)- is pithy and representative of my political and Judeochristian mindset.
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
As a Christian, I believe in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Democracy needs the moral underpinnings that religious traditions can provide...ALL religious traditions including yours David and mine and others.
I have supported from a distance, the popularity of Mamdani. I celebrate locally here in Michigan the passion of Abdul El-Sayed running for the Senate.
I'm no slouch. And Trump, in my book, may be a Nationalist, but he is no Christian.