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Friends,

Voting Republican means voting to keep assault weapons legal, voting to make abortions illegal, and surrendering our democracy. Thursday's hearing demonstrated not only Donald Trump's perfidy, but the complicity since then of the entire Republican Party except Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Find me one Republican in the House or Senate speaking out against Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination. You can't. None of them deserve to be reelected. I'm fond of saying elections matter, but if we lose our democracy, elections won't matter anymore. That's why this election matters more than ever. If you haven't watched the hearings, before you watch the latest on Netflix, take eight minutes to watch Cheney's closing remarks.

If someone votes Republican for other reasons it doesn't matter--they are voting for the entire Republican agenda whether they intend to or not. Pick three from column A and two from columm B are not on the menu. We vote for one party or the other, for better or worse, and all that comes with that party. Voting the person not the party is no longer a rational strategy. Nothing matters more than party affiliation, and which party controls Congress determines the legislative agenda. Party affiliation is itself a policy position--the single most important policy position.

Changing the law means changing the lawmakers. If we want to illegalize assault weapons, codify Roe v. Wade, and keep our democracy, we have to maintain Democratic control of the House and increase the Democratic majority in the Senate by at least two so that we can eliminate the filibuster and pass the laws the way the founders intended laws to be passed in the Senate: by simple majority, the way state legislatures in every state, even the most Republican states, pass laws.

We have guards stationed in front of our synagogues. Our kids participate in active shooter drills. Friends and loved ones are wounded or killed in mass shootings. Our wives and daughters may soon lose their lives because of abortion bans. Is this how you want to live? Then vote Republican, because they will block all of the reforms that Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering outlined in her July 20 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yet even within our community, some refuse to vote Democratic and change the lawmakers.

Only 25% of Jewish Americans identify with the Republican Party, but they are a vocal bunch, and often they claim that concern about Israel and antisemitism is the reason that they vote for the party that wants to keep assault weapons legal and make abortions illegal. Is the tradeoff worth it? That's an interesting academic question, but in the real world, it's nonsensical because the Democratic Party is strong on Israel and the GOP has mainstreamed antisemitism.

The Democratic Platform leaves no doubt that the Democratic Party supports Israel. Read it yourself: "Democrats believe a strong, secure, and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States. Our commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself, and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding is ironclad."

President Biden entered office with the longest and strongest record of support for Israel of any U.S. president, and his record since taking office is outstanding. The Joint Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership signed by President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid reaffirmed "the unbreakable bonds between our two countries and the enduring commitment of the United States to Israel’s security" and reiterated the U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge, never allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, full compliance with the Obama-Biden Memorandum of Understanding (which provides a record-breaking $38 billion assistance package to Israel over ten years), and "while fully respecting the right to freedom of expression," firmly rejecting the BDS campaign against Israel. Read more about Biden's amazing trip here.

Democrats in Congress overwhelmingly support Israel. Republicans love to talk about the handful of Democrats who are outside the mainstream on Israel. If votes in Congress were weighted based on Twitter followers or media hits, I might be worried too. But that's not how it works. The votes in Congress prove the strength of Democratic support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism:

Congress does not constantly take votes on Israel and antisemitism, although some organizations seem to think so. The two key resolutions in 2019, H.R. Res. 246 and 326, were not introduced in subsequent sessions since Congress is now on the record, and the Iron Dome emergency vote was a one-off vote. Aid to Israel, aside from the emergency Iron Dome bill discussed above, is generally part of a much larger package of must-pass legislation and it passes overwhelmingly every year. Israel currently receives record levels of aid pursuant to President Obama's Memorandum of Understanding with Israel, which requires, and receives, congressional appropriations every year.

If your Republican friends think this list is cherry-picked, ask them to name one--just one--piece of anti-Israel legislation passed or even called for a vote under Democratic control of the House or Senate. They won't be able to name any because there are not any. Ask them to name one--just one--piece of pro-Israel legislation that did not pass with overwhelming Democratic support. They won't be able to name any because there are not any.

Republicans occasionally play political games to create the false impression of divisions on Israel, but the voting record is clear: Democrats overwhelmingly support Israel and oppose antisemitism.

But what about the handful who are out of pattern on these votes? I don't think it's lowering the bar to say that 96% of Democrats voting for emergency funding for Iron Dome is pretty good. I will concede that it wasn't unanimous. The Republican vote wasn't unanimous either, and it took six months for the funding to reach Biden's desk because a Senate Republican, Rand Paul, blocked it. If you are concerned about the Squad, you should be apoplectic about Rand Paul--he has more power than the four of them combined. But if the choice is legal abortion and an assault weapons ban or Iron Dome passing 421-8 instead of 420-9, what do you think we should prioritize?

Some Democrats, including the same Democrats who routinely support pro-Israel legislation every time, sometimes criticize specific policies of the current Israeli government. Millions of Israelis do too. It's not unpatriotic to support the United States and criticize certain U.S. policies, and it's not anti-Israel to support Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and criticize certain Israeli policies.

At a time when the Republican Party is unanimously opposed to codifying Roe v Wade into law, at a time when Republicans want to keep assault weapons legal, and at a time when the fate of our democracy hangs in the balance, is now the time to worry that pro-Israel legislation is passing with with "only" 96% Democratic support?

If all of the 109 insurrectionist Republicans backed by AIPAC had voted against Iron Dome, the funding still would have passed with the 2/3 vote required for emergency funding. Israel should not be an issue in the 2022 election, and we should not let anyone use Israel as an excuse to support Republicans, not with the stakes in this election.

If Republicans return to power, look for more mass murders, more women dying because they were denied health services, and less democracy. A vote to expand the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate is a vote to make assault weapons illegal, a vote to keep abortions legal, and a vote for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. You don't have to compromise any of your values in November.

The Republican Party is the party of racism and antisemitism. For all their professed concern about antisemitism, Republicans have remained completely silent on Trump’s long record of antisemitic rhetoric, not even after reports that Trump said Hitler “did a lot of good things.” Trump is not an outlier. He is the man the GOP twice nominated for President of the United States.

The days are long gone when mainstream Republicans stood with mainstream Democrats against bigotry. On June 7, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) introduced a resolution condemning the mass shooting in New York on May 14, condemning the Great Replacement Theory as a white supremacist conspiracy theory, and reaffirming the House of Representatives' commitment to combating white supremacy, hatred, and racial injustice.

What could possibly be controversial about that? All it's missing are clauses supporting baseball and apple pie. Yet not one Republican signed on as a cosponsor. The marchers in Charlottesville carrying tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us" subscribed to the Great Replacement Theory.

Why don't Republicans support the resolution opposing white supremacy? Maybe because Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party–it doesn’t get more mainstream than that–referred to the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville with tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us” as “very fine people.” Does that sound out of character for Trump? On January 6, he told the rioting insurrectionists "we love you, you’re very special." The insurrection did not lack for antisemitic symbols and sentiment.

Maybe because the #3 Republican in the House, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), hardly a fringe member of the GOP, supports Replacement Theory Stefanik also backs Carl Paladino for Congress.

Or maybe because the #2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), blamed“radical, Soros-backed elements of the Democratic Party” for violence against Republicans in 2018 and previously described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.”

Or maybe because the #1 House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), is an insurrectionist who tweeted the day before the horrific Tree of Life synagogue massacre that three Jews, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and of course George Soros, were trying to buy the 2018 election. 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently refused to directly condemn Replacement Theory. Adam Serwer explains how this racist theory entered the Republican mainstream. Just last week, we learned of Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor Doug Mastriano's association with the antisemitic Gab website.

If you are Jewish and you don't oppose racism and those who support racism simply because racism is wrong, then shame on you, but at least have enough of an instinct for self-preservation to recognize that Jews don't fare well in racist societies, especially when the government itself is run by racists.

Last week's newsletter.

ICYMI. Alan Dershowitz’s Martha’s Vineyard Cancellation.

Tweet of the Week. Don't do it Emanuel.

Twitter Thread of the Week. Josh Hawley running away to a variety of soundtracks and then watch this bonus.

Video Clip of the Week. From a simpler time, when music was better.

Upcoming Events. Please join me, Dana Gordon, and Marcy Fleisher & Steve Kanner plus a growing list of co-hosts (check out the invitation) for an in-person (outdoors if the weather is nice) reception in support of U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) candidate for U.S. Senate, on Wednesday, August 24 at 6:30 PM at a private residence in Highland Park. RSVP using this link.

We need at least two more Democrats in the Senate to move forward with our agenda. With our help, Tim Ryan can be one of them. Ryan is great on our issues, and he's running against J.D. Vance--this 30-second clip is all you need to know.

This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read. And it's the original source of the viral Top Ten Signs You Might be at a Republican Seder.

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The Fine Print: This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. If you receive it as an ICYMI on Wednesday it's because you didn't open the one sent on Sunday. Unless stated otherwise, my views do not necessarily reflect the views of any candidates or organizations that I support or am associated with. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. I am willing to sacrifice intellectual consistency for intellectual honesty. I might be wrong: Read opposing views and decide for yourself. A link to an article doesn't mean that I agree with everything its author has ever said or that I even agree with everything in the article; it means that the article supports or elaborates on the point I was making. I take pride in accurately reporting the facts on which I base my opinions. Tell me if you spot inaccuracies, typos, or other mistakes so that I can correct them in the next newsletter (and give you credit if you want it). Advertisements reflect the views of the advertisers, not necessarily of me, and advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements. I read, value, and encourage replies to my newsletters, but I don't always have time to acknowledge replies or to engage in one-on-one discussion. I'm happy to read anything, but please don't expect me to watch videos of any length--send me a transcript if the content is that important. Don't expect a reply if your message is uncivil or if it's clear from your message that you haven't read the newsletter or clicked on the relevant links. Dedicated to Ariel Sheffey, Ayelet Sheffey, and Orli Sheffey z''l. ©2022 Steve Sheffey. All rights reserved.