opinions & letters
letters A House Divided
Michael Gelman
P olitical disagreements
are nothing new. But in
a healthy democracy,
ideological and
policy disagreements are settled
through elections, and citizens on both sides respect
the outcome and the rule of law.

More than 40 years ago, the Watergate scandal
tested the strength of our democracy. For the first
time since just after the Civil War, a president faced
imminent impeachment. Some feared violence and a
constitutional crisis. But Republicans and Democrats
put principle before politics and Republican leaders,
to their credit, called upon Richard Nixon to step
down for the good of the country. The system worked
because both sides, despite significant ideological
differences, ultimately shared common values related
to our democracy.

Today’s Republican Party refuses to recognize
fundamental democratic values. The U.S. Capitol
was not attacked during the Civil War, nor did angry
mobs storm the Capitol in support of Richard Nixon.

But on Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent,
deadly insurrection designed to impede the peaceful
transfer of power. Yet, instead of condemning Trump
and the insurrectionists, 147 Republican members of
Congress voted to overturn the lawful results of the
2020 presidential election.

The recent indictments of Trump on 37 felony
charges should have been followed by bipartisan calls
to respect the judicial process and the rule of law.

Instead, Republicans have defiantly echoed Trump’s
implicit threats of disorder and violence. Speaker of
the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on June 9
that the indictments are “going to disrupt this nation
because it goes to the core of equal justice for all,
which is not being seen today. And we’re not going
to stand for it.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said, “We have now
June 8 Poll Results
Have you ever served
on jury duty?
Haredi Not Pulling Their Weight
reached the war phase. An eye for an eye.” Rep.

Clay Higgins (R-La.) referred to the indictments as
“a perimeter probe from the oppressors.” Kari Lake
of Arizona said that most Trump supporters are
“card-carrying members of the NRA.”
None of the Republican presidential candidates have
explicitly condemned this rhetoric. We cannot pretend
that any of this is normal or acceptable. Republicans
want to restrict voting rights, restrict reproductive
rights, restrict minority rights (including LGBTQ
rights) and ban books. Xenophobia, Islamophobia,
antisemitism and other forms of hate — all marginalized
and condemned in the Democratic Party — are
tolerated, emboldened and even embraced in the
Republican Party, where white supremacists and
right-wing extremists have seats at the table. This
was clearly demonstrated by the record number of
extremists who, according to the ADL, ran for office in
the 2022 election — all as Republicans.

It is concerning to observe that, 153 years after the
Civil War, many of the states that rebelled against
the Union are still susceptible to this extremism and
anti-democratic demagoguery. Equally concerning is
that most Republican presidential candidates are still
unwilling to criticize the most corrupt president in our
nation’s history even as they run against him in the
2024 GOP presidential primaries.

Some might find it difficult to be optimistic about
the future of our country when such deep divisions
persist. That is certainly understandable under the
circumstances. However, the most effective way to
safeguard our democracy is by overwhelmingly voting
the anti-democracy Republicans out of office. We
need to vote and encourage others to vote. The
consequences of not doing so will spell the end of our
country and its government as we know them. ■
Michael Gelman serves on the national board
of directors of the Jewish Democratic Council of
America.. He is a member of the owners group of
Mid-Atlantic Media, which publishes the Jewish
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NO YES
I was quite upset by the editorial “Budgeting for
Haredi Isolation” on June 1.

That fact that they are given many millions from the
national budget without making contributions to the
economy is bad enough.

However, I was appalled by their exemption from
serving in the military. They were 3% of the popula-
tion in 1948 and 13% of today’s population.

They are currently 25% of newborns. This means
the total numbers of individuals from the general
population available for the military is gradually
decreasing. This definitely is a subtle weakness of
Israel’s military might.

Sidney Rubin, Wynnewood
Media Response to Antisemitism at Fault
The hate speech at CUNY (“A Test of White House
Policy,” June 8) should never have happened, but the
university’s response of condemnation was correct.

However, CUNY, the White House and the editorial
skipped over mitigating issues, namely that the U.S.

press leans toward the same anti-Israeli bias until
they are pressed.

The New York Times — I single out the Times since
CUNY is in New York — and many other otherwise
diligently unbiased publications regularly publish
articles about the Middle East from biased sources
without due diligence on accuracy. When, later,
after the headline or front-page story is shown to be
inaccurate, a retraction is published but not with the
same attention-grabbing headlines.

Commencement speaker Fatima Mohammed was
ill-informed with a bias that he was carefully taught.

Then, in the U.S., he had that bias reinforced by
inaccurate reporting of events in the Middle East.

No wonder that he only saw the headlines that
supported his misconceptions and never saw the
retractions that might have corrected his views. ■
Aaron Grosky, Cheltenham
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Letters should be related to articles that have run in the print or
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letters@jewishexponent.com. correction
The June 8 article “Tredyffrin Jews Respond to
Antisemitic Incidents” incorrectly reported that there
are no synagogues in Tredyffrin Township. Chabad
Lubavitch of Chester County is based in Tredyffrin
Township. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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