Alan Zendell, September 7, 2023

When we were kids, our parents, teachers, and clerics all taught us to “do unto others…” and “turn the other cheek.” I quickly learned, however, that such idealistic advice didn’t work in my working-class tenement neighborhood in Brooklyn. Do unto others made us look weak and defenseless to bullies who’d been taught to hate Jews. Like the fledgling State of Israel, I knew at a young age that turning the other cheek would simply get the other cheek hit, too.

As much as we would like to live in a world in which everyone treats everyone else with respect and kindness, all those black eyes and bloody noses taught me that Christian values only work when everyone plays nice. Sometimes, the only way to keep from being destroyed is to fight back. I prefer the survival values of the Old Testament to the Christian ethic. “An eye for an eye,” or as I like to phrase it, ‘If you take one of mine I’ll take three of yours,” works a lot better than smiling at the person who’s trying to rip you apart.

Traditional politicians learned that lesson in 2016. Politics is always a nasty business, but Donald Trump elevated it to an unprecedented level. Most politicians won’t even mention their opponents’ names, but Trump named them and assigned them nasty, insulting nicknames. Most politicians exaggerate and many have a problem separating truth from hyperbole, but Trump introduced lying as a normal mode of campaigning.

For the first time in my memory, a candidate whose primary skill was creating chaos turned lying and misrepresentation into an art form. It was despicable, but it was also entertaining to many and proved effective in enabling loud, angry voices of people with grievances looking for someone to blame for their problems. Never before had we seen a shameless clown run for president. The other fifteen Republican candidates had no idea how to deal with him. Some turned the other cheek, some ignored him, and the few who tried to take him on drowned in a deluge of right-wing extremist money.

Trump might have been defeated if not for his opponents’ egos. Stopping him required a coordinated effort by the other candidates, but that meant some of them who were polling so badly they never stood a chance would have to fall on their swords. That hasn’t happened in American politics since Lyndon Johnson took himself out of the 1968 presidential race because his Vietnam policies were so unpopular.

Democrats failed to learn anything after witnessing how Trump picked off and annihilated his 2016 primary opponents. Thus, the politics of lies, misdirection, and slander that won Trump the nomination won him the presidency over Hilary Clinton, who was as helpless against his onslaught as her Republican colleagues.

The new Trump-dominated Republican Party and other right-wing extremists have honed their approach for 2024. Their candidate is carrying ninety-one indictments, many of which could result in decades of prison time if they end in convictions. President Biden, on the other hand, has managed to pass the most impressive package of legislation since the New Deal with a razor-thin majority in Congress. He inherited the economic chaos caused by COVID and Trump’s massive tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals that included runaway inflation caused by pandemic-induced production shutdowns and broken supply chains. His policies have steadily reduced the inflation rate, created millions of jobs, breathed new life into American manufacturing, and brought unemployment down to a fifty-year low, yet he’s tied in the polls.

Trumpers react to the fact that their candidate will likely be on trial against serious felony charges throughout the election campaign by attacking Biden’s son over business dealings that occurred when his father was Vice President over a decade ago, and for which there is no evidence that Biden senior did anything unethical or illegal. They react to our rapidly expanding workforce and economy by repeating the lie that our economy is in a shambles, assuming that if they repeat their lies with millions of dollars in right-wing media ads, people won’t know what to believe.

The sad and dangerous truth is that polls indicate they’re right. The people clinging to Trump’s coattails and defending him are as craven as he is. Their only priority is power and the corrupt wealth that accompanies it, with no regard for the damage they are doing to our country. The sadder truth is that Democrats are making the same mistakes everyone who opposed Trump has made for eight years.

Biden’s nice guy image won’t win in 2024. It’s time he and his supporters took off the gloves and fought back. If you want to fight sewer rats, you have to get dirty, and if Biden wants to win, instead of talking about the working-class values of Scranton, Pennsylvania, he needs to show us the bare-knuckled fighting he learned there. Instead of an election, how about a gladiator match between Uncle Joe and The Donald, winner take all.