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Friends,

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. Another four years of Trump would have been disastrous. Winning the presidency was far more important than winning the Senate or expanding our House majority. Depending on what happens in the Georgia run-offs and in Alaska, Democratic control of the Senate remains a possibility. This is great news for America, U.S.-Israel relations, and the world. This is great news for our democracy--we survived four years of the worst president in American history and restored the soul of America with ballots, not bullets.

Biden and Harris won 77% of the Jewish vote. Republicans are countering with small-sample exit polls of questionable methodology, but it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of Jewish voters rejected Trump, whose values and policies are not ours. The Forward surveyed Jewish community reactions to Biden's victory, including mine.

Democrats have not (yet) flipped any Senate seats, and Democrats lost some House seats even though they retained their majority. Biden's ability to govern will be hampered by a razor-thin Democratic Senate majority or worse, a Republican majority. But winning back the White House far outweighs those setbacks, and we will overcome those too. Congress will remain strongly supportive of Israel, and now we have a president who sees Israel as a true friend, not a political transaction.

According to Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), at the end of the Civil War, asked if he ever doubted the Union would win, Lincoln quoted Seward: "There was always just enough virtue in this republic to save it; sometimes none to spare, but still enough to meet the emergency." We did it again.

Two Senate seats in Georgia will be decided by run-0ff and determine control of the Senate. Both Democrats, Jon Ossoff (who is Jewish) and Rev. Raphael Warnock, are pro-Israel. Read Ossoff's position paper. Read Warnock's position paper. Warnock visited Israel with the National Council of Churches, whose statement, as Ron Kampeas points out, goes to lengths to avoid unjust accusations against Israel. Yehuda Kurtzer explains why supporting Warnock is in the best interests of the Jewish community and U.S.-Israel relations.

It is obvious that Ossoff and Warnock will be strong friends of Israel. But we have to elect them first.

Trump lost, but his warped ideology lives on. For nearly half the country, neither Trump's corruption, vulgarity, incompetence, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia, including his culpability in the deaths of thousands of Americans from COVID, were disqualifying factors. For some, his racism was a feature, not a bug. We need no longer wonder how evil can triumph even in democracies. We now know that nearly half the country, including some of our neighbors, hold--or at are at least willing to tolerate--abhorrent views. But now we have a president who will not embolden and legitimize violence and hatred, and that's a good start.

At least 22 Republicans who support QAnon (an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory) ran for Congress. Trump congratulated QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has made racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic statements, after she won her primary in August. She won on Tuesday.

Trump surrogate Nikki Haley congratulated QAnon supporter Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on her victory on Tuesday. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) does not, to my knowledge, support QAnon, but he is a racist who visited Hitler's vacation home. He won on Tuesday.

Neither party can reasonably be expected to control who wins every primary in every House district or even in every state. But each party must be held accountable for who it elects to leadership, and there too the GOP fails. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and House Republican Whip Steven Scalise (R-LA) are all guilty of racism and anti-Semitism and have never apologized.

No one who remained neutral or backed Trump has standing to lecture us about unity or civility. Many rabbis and Jewish institutions chose to remain silent about this election. Hiding behind their 501(c)(3) status, they refused to even talk about the issues--children in cages, lying about COVID, corruption--yet some of these same rabbis and Jewish institutions spoke out against the Iran Deal, taking the Republican side in a partisan fight (Jewish members of Congress supported the deal by more than a 2-1 margin).

In his June 5 sermon about George Floyd, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch said that "one overriding Jewish principle handed down to us from the very mists of antiquity is: do not remain neutral. Neutrality is the refuge of cowards. To be neutral, to stay out of the fight — indifference — never helps the good people. It is precisely what the bad people count on: indifference to injustice, indifference to hatred, indifference to racism. Progress requires stepping into the fray. Isaiah demands, repair the breach. Do not simply observe the rupture or mind the gap or step into the breach— Repair the breach! Restore the path of righteousness." As far as I know, his sermon did not cost his synagogue its 501(c)(3) status.

Eric Yoffie raised "the issue of those in the Jewish community who have joined the Trump camp, and just how far they will debase themselves to show their allegiance to its leader."

None of this diminishes the significance of Biden's victory or the role that 77% of the Jewish community played in electing him. None of this diminishes the gratitude we owe to those rabbis and Jewish institutions that did speak out against Trump or his policies. But history will not look kindly on those who were silent or worse, who supported Trump and other openly anti-Semitic Republicans, including organizations that backed Republicans under the guise of "bipartisan support for Israel." We don't support Israel by betraying our values.

Trump will no longer have the presidential pulpit from which to fan the flames of hate, but the embers will still burn, waiting for the next demagogue. Republicans upset about Trump's loss will undoubtedly be sharing articles suggesting that they talk to Democrats and try to understand our concerns. Haha. They'll live in the world that Fox News creates for them.

Gerrymandering and vote suppression will continue. The Supreme Court is packed with right-wing ideologues. The Senate and the Electoral College remain inherently, dangerously, and anachronistically undemocratic.

We'd all love to win once and for all, fix the system, let it run on auto-pilot, and go back to whatever it is we did before COVID. It doesn't work that way. Democracy is hard work. Benjamin Franklin said that we have a republic, if we can keep it. We kept it on Tuesday.

Now we must stay involved, live our values, speak our values, and remember that even though half of America might not value our democracy or our values, and even if the system is stacked against us, we can win. We proved it Tuesday. Now we have to prove it every day, for all of America.

Last week's newsletter.

ICYMI. Biden victory will free Israel from Trump’s sinister soul.

Tweets of the Week. Al Franken and Will Roscoe.

Facebook Post of the Week. Yehuda Kurtzer.

Video Clip of the Week. NYC bids adieu to Donald Trump.

Upcoming Events. Thanks to everyone who joined Politics with Dana and Steve during this past election cycle. Dana Goldsmith Gordon and I started this group after Trump won in 2016 to encourage participation in the political process and to host events for candidates who Chicago-area legacy organizations did not consider "viable," "viable" being code for not having raised enough money. As a result, we became a key resource for up and coming candidates.

For many candidates, we were their first introduction to the Chicago Jewish community, and once COVID made in-person gatherings unsafe, we shifted to Zoom and expanded our reach nationwide. Some of the candidates we supported have races still under review. But maybe that's good for our purposes today. Rather than list winners and losers, I'm going to list all of them, because win or lose, we made the right call in backing them in the 2020 cycle:

Watch this space for more events coming up soon.

I guess this is a good problem to have: This list is now so large that while many people are local, even more live outside the Chicago area and have no interest in local news. If you want to be on a list that will receive infrequent newsletters about local issues and events, reply to this email and I'll add you.

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The Fine Print: This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. 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. Intelligent, well-informed people may disagree with me; 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 any 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. 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. © 2020 Steve Sheffey. All rights reserved.