Can A Jew Be President?

Last night I joined some colleagues from the local political blogosphere for drinks, food and discussion (in the real world!) at a forum called "Drinking Liberally". I met many lovely people and was enthused by the conversations, which were mostly insightful and interesting.

At one point, though (perhaps unavoidably) we turned our attention to which Democrat might stand the best chance of winning the Presidency in 2008. This is when one very jovial colleague was asked about the chances of a Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin.

I paraphrase here, but his reponse was something like, "a Jew will never be elected President of this country".

It would be an understatement to say I was taken aback. Here was a group of supposed progressives talking about a leadership race (which race I thought was "political" and not "human"), and then--BAM!--the anti-semitic stink bomb. I'm usually pretty good at seeing those coming, but this one caught me totally off-guard. Am I the last one to figure out why I was the only Jew at a gathering of progressives in Chicago?

To my added horror, most at the table just nodded in agreement--not the sort of uncomfortable agreement which Borat coaxes from an unsuspecting dunce after uttering his famously anti-Jewish hyjinxes. Nope, this was a full-throated agreement, a sort of "Ya, Herr Kommandant!" Another colleague quickly added, "yeah, no one named 'FEINGOLD' will ever be elected in my lifetime".

I understand these statements were not so much solemn vows as observations of the speakers' sense of reality, but either way, it's a problem.

At the risk of standing up for my peeps, whom history's authors have preferred to see powerless, I spoke out. "Just what does it take", I asked, "for a Jew to be considered a full citizen of this country [which, if you are a global reader, you should know is the United States, not Iran or, say, Khazakstan]?

As that question was met with puzzlement over my sense of obvious agititation, I tried to deflate the situation by suggesting my colleague soften the impact of his assertion just by stating it as his opinion, and not some irrefutable law of nature. Regrettably, my suggestion was met with a patronizing "oh honey..."

I wanted to say, "oh honey, nuttin, mutha fucka", but I held back. Instead, I responded that the principles upon which this country was built allow all Americans to achieve anything they desire though hard work, intellect and ambition.

This is when one of the more cynical and world-weary among us instructed me (as only a liberal Democrat can) that I need to understand the speaker was only speaking about "the 'residual anti-semitism' that exists in all non-Jews".

WHAT!??

I challenged that notion, saying, "well I'm not black, and I don't harbor residual anti-black feelings", thinking that might settle the issue. But no such luck--these were the intelligentsia.

"Sure you do", my world-weary friend again instructed me. At this point several of those assembled seemed intent on convincing me there was, indeed, a "residual anti-semitism" which would keep a Jew out of the White House (or at least out of the chair behind the desk in the Oval Office). It wasn't them, of course, but all those other people. Surely I had noticed it....

That was all I needed to hear; I have seen the enemy, and it is us.

What is a progressive, if not someone who--to paraphrase Robert Kennedy--dreams of things that never were and asks why not? But here was a group of lefties telling me that's just the way it is. Jews need not apply. Apparently "arbeit" will not "macht frei".

While I took pains not to accuse my colleague of anti-semitism, I told him "I still felt it, and after all, one cannot argue with another's feelings". Apparently I was wrong; as I was again instructed that one can too argue with another's feelings, and mine were wrong.

Reflecting upon this lively conversation, I can't help but wonder if it would have made a difference in my father's decision enlist in WWII and later Korea (where he won a Silver Star for bravery in combat), if he would have known he was fighting for the right of gentiles to govern themselves with the quiet understanding that the White House would remain off-limits to Yids.

These were not so much progressives, I felt, as defeatists--submitting to some (one would hope) lamentable truth. I suppose that's easier done when the offending words don't fall like shackles limiting their own ambitions.

This group which, to a person, would claim to believe that people should be limited only by their abilities and ambitions, mostly insisted I should reexamine my position, and assured me that no anti-semitism was intended.

Of course not. People are far too savvy these days to actually intend anti-semitism. They just speak of it as a fait accompli. But it's the unintended bigotry--the accepted wisdom, if you will--which we should most strenuosly challenge.

Despite what my colleagues maintained, a Jew can become president if she has the requisite Constitutional qualifications and wins a majority of electors. To maintain otherwise is to accept (and not merely acknowledge) a bigotry which is contrary to our Declaration of Independece, our Constitution, and our laws. These defeatists may be resigned to consigning others to a pre-determined existence of limted accomplishment, but I am not.

Each of us is responsible for the effect of our words. To accept an unsatisfactory reality for which we blame others is disingenuous in the extreme. It is the moral equivalent of "just following orders", and is a position devoid of integrity.

Yes, a Jew can be elected President, and I believe it will happen in my lifetime. It may even be a certain Senator from Wisconsin whose apparent mistfortune it is to be named "Feingold".