The Jewish Observer

Yes, I know it is Sukkot. But this election season has made me think of a theme from Pesach – dayeinu – enough already! The song we sing with vigor at our seder expresses our thanks for the countless bounties God granted our people as we left Egypt for freedom. This expresses an important message for Jews. Any one of them would have been enough. Now, however, I offer another message for Jews – we cannot support Trump. Any one of these incidents would have been enough. All are substantiated by Trump’s own words and actions.

If he had only classified most Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers – dayeinu.

If he had only stated that John McCain was not really a war hero (McCain refused release as a POW as others were scheduled before him) – dayeinu.

If he had only tripled down on building a wall between us and Mexico – which is ridiculous, let alone physically and financially pretty much impossible – dayeinu.

If he had only claimed, from 2011 on that President Obama was not born in America despite NO evidence otherwise – dayeinu.

If only he had not only failed to apologize for this bigoted stand when he finally acknowledged Obama was born in the U.S., but stated it was a good thing he forced him to produce his birth certificate (should all presidential candidates be required to do this, or only ones of color?) – dayeinu.

If he had only claimed that Hillary Clinton started the birtherism movement – dayeinu.

If he had only stated he wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. – dayeinu.

If he had only stated there is no vetting process for refugees (there is and it takes 18 to 24 months) – dayeinu.

If he had only stated there should be an ideological test for immigrants (former Soviet Union anyone?) – dayeinu.

If he had only created a shameful ongoing squabble with a gold star family – dayeinu.

If he had only refused to release his tax returns – dayeinu.

If he had only lied about his initial support for the Iraq war – dayeinu.

If he had only lied about getting to know Putin on 60 minutes (their segments were filmed in different locations) – dayeinu.

If he had only refused to acknowledge and condemn Russian hacking of our democratic institutions, and instead wished they would do more – dayeinu.

If he had only stated Putin, a dictator of a country rampant with corruption, was a better leader than our own president – dayeinu.

If he had only hyper focused via tweet on silly issues like Alicia Machado and the satiric portrayal of himself on Saturday Night Live, demonstrating an inability to differentiate between nonsense and important issues – dayeinu.

If he had only declared he knows more about ISIS than our generals (only one of several disses of our military) – dayeinu.

If he had only demonstrated he was receiving propaganda directly from Russia (see the email apparently changed by Wiki leaks that attributed to Sidney Blumenthal words written by a Newsweek reporter, which Trump read before it was released and fact checked) – dayeinu.

If he had only reduced the presidential primary debates to an argument over male body parts – dayeinu.

If he had only said Hillary Clinton laughed at a 12 year old victim of sexual assault from a man Clinton was appointed as a young attorney to defend (if you listen to the whole interview it is obvious she is NOT laughing at the girl) – dayeinu

If he had only delayed distancing himself from David Duke – dayeinu.

If he only used his rallies to inspire violence against those who disagree with him – dayeinu.

If he had only threatened to put his opponent for president in jail, thus reducing our country to a banana republic – dayeinu.

If he had only used bankruptcies to cheat investors and vendors while preserving his own capital and then claim that his business acumen is what the country needs to guide our economy (the best businessmen create a profitable atmosphere for everyone from investors to suppliers to workers, just reference folks like Mark Cuban) – dayeinu.

If he had only bragged about sexually assaulting women and then dismissed that merely as “locker room talk” – dayeinu.

If he had only accused the electoral process of being rigged BEFORE the votes are counted and despite the hard evidence of almost no voter fraud over the last 16 years (Neither Nixon in 1960 nor Gore in 2000 fought the final electoral decision even though their supporters believed they had a case) – dayeinu.

If he had only used anti-Semitic tropes in accusing Hillary Clinton of engaging in an international conspiracy with bankers and the media to destroy our country – dayeinu.

If he had only claimed our country is no longer great. Our country, while certainly imperfect, is amazingly great – dayeinu.

Dayeinu! Enough is enough of a person who is either psychotic or an even greater con artist than PT Barnum. A man so ego driven, who cares so little about anything other than his personal wealth and power, that he is willing to degrade the democratic institutions that make our country the envy of the world. Again I say, dayeinu!