Now that the Republican rank and file has accepted the fact that Trump is the party’s nominee, let’s take a careful look at the questions: Despite his foibles and personality defects, as Torah Jews should we still vote for him? Vote for his opponent? Or not vote at all for President?

In this election, as in the last, people have bandied about the determinate attitude, “I wouldn’t vote for this or that candidate even if the alternative is worse!” Because of his characteristics that ostensibly counter our Torah values and midos, should the Orthodox community ascribe to a boycott of Donald Trump? No doubt this question would present less of a challenge had the alternative to Trump not posed such an ominous specter. In 2012 the many in the Evangelical Christian electorate took this stand against the Mormon, Romney. I believe the Evangelicals bit off their nose to spite their face.

We have heard and read several op-eds from Torah oriented pundits that are consummately critical of Trump to the extent that one may deduce the intention of the author was to make a case for unconditional boycott; albeit the writer did not express this sentiment explicitly. Without doubt there are circumstances where principle trumps (no pun intended) practicality. After all, despite the Mitzva of V’chai Bohen, we accept that there are three sins that are Yehoreg V’al Yaavor, and in a case of Gezeras Shmad, that rule would apply to even minor infractions of Torah custom. But would this principle apply to voting for an obnoxious character that is running against an incompetent or arguably harmful candidate?

Just before Pesach I asked a friend, who happens to be relatively intelligent (PhD in math), “Who do you support?” His response, “Cruz.”

“What about Trump?” I asked.

“He’s all Gaava, bluster, nastiness, a narcissist and, despite what he says, who knows if he’s really on our side of the issues as he purports? Just a few years ago he was in the Liberal camp on many of the issues.”

Then I popped the question, “So you wouldn’t vote for him if he gets the nomination? You agree with those who just won’t vote for him under any circumstances?”

The response was instantaneous, “Look, I think my IQ is over 50. Of course I’ll vote for him if he’s the nominee!”

I believe there at least four points of Limud Zechus on Donald Trump.

The first point farbrent Trump critics miss is: Trump and the other candidates for the Presidential nomination were in a prizefight (for a very big prize) and Trump won because he demonstrated better political fighting skills than the others. Don’t think political fights are always like gentlemanly sports. Maybe it would be nice if they were, but let’s face it, they rarely are. It’s more like two MMA fighters in the octagon who win or lose based on offense as well as defense. Certainly there are rules against hitting below the belt in the fight games, and even when those rules are adhered to, the loser (and often even the winner) can be bloodied and broken during the course of the fight. But after the knockout, submission, or when the clock runs out on the fight, and the winner and loser are declared, quite often you will see the two fighters shake hands and even embrace. There is no doubt that despite all of his vitriol and hyperbole about the other candidates during the nomination fight, Trump is smart enough to recognize, while the clock is running or until a knockout or submission, it’s a fight, but a fight that comes to a definitive end. Therefore, Trump will and indeed has menched aus once the fight is over, and made has many conciliatory remarks about the former candidates. But likewise he will put up a “no punches pulled” fight against his Democratic opponent, and again, once he becomes president, he will take a more conciliatory tone (maybe even too conciliatory for many people’s taste). The proof is in how rough he was on Ben Carson and Marco Rubio during the campaign, but after they dropped out, I believe he was sincere in his accolades about them. He even expressed respectful words for Cruz after Cruz’s concession. True, Trump says some outrageous things about his opponents, but he does not burn bridges beyond repair.

The second point highly moral Trump antagonists miss is: Unfortunately, there are way too many low information voters in this country. How else could Obama have won the presidency… twice? The establishment Republicans have no clue or any chance of winning them over in significant numbers. Possibly if every Republican and level headed non-Republican came out to vote, a competent candidate could still be elected. But, unfortunately, we live in the real world where sound reasoning and presentation of facts to those who think, “I don’t like Hillary, but I would never vote for Trump” won’t convince them all to change their minds. Therefore, Trump must appeal to voters that don’t vote based on moral and intellectual factors. Trump’s campaign tactics will pick up for him, not a majority, but a significant percentage of the low information voters, who are lured by his bombast, popularity, entertainment skills and the fact he has made a financial fortune and is constantly letting the world know about it. I believe that Trump’s behavior, while conforming to his reputation, is nevertheless calculated to gain him net votes. But, just wait until he begins in earnest the battle with Hillary Clinton! Trump has changed over the years and is basically on the right course on most of the issues. If elected, he may conduct his presidency more moderately than he talks now. Nevertheless, he will pick up a lot more votes that common logic would have conceded to Hillary than other Republican could have. It would be foolish and unfortunate if he lost a commensurate number of establishment Republican votes for those very same reasons.

The third point: I think it is self evident that Trump is an Ohev Yisroel. In business, he works with Jews all the time. He employs Jews, even religious ones in very high positions in his company. He is realistic about E”Y and certainly favors Israel over the Arabs. I believe he was severely misunderstood when he purported to be “neutral” about peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. I am convinced what he meant was that he would not take a stand as an arbitrator to impose a settlement on the parties, but would merely act as a professional mediator to help bring the parties closer together, whereas other politicians have the peace formula all figured out and it’s “my way or the highway”. When Netanyahu publicly distanced himself from Trump’s strong rhetoric about not accepting Muslim refugees into America, Trump did the commendable thing so as not to create a political challenge for Netanyahu, and cancelled his trip to Israel. I still can’t get over the fact that Trump completely accepts and respects his daughter, Yael/Ivanka, who is (more or less) a sincere convert to Judaism. He has even bragged about it and seems proud that she won’t answer his phone calls on Shabbos. He happily made a lavish Orthodox wedding for her at one of his fancy country clubs. (I doubt if any of his clubs restrict Jews!) Yael, Ivanka is a real class act, moral, intelligent, industrious and diligent, and her siblings appear similar. To me, being such a serious and successful father reflects more on how he will lead the country than his braggadocio rhetoric or his off color remarks about his opponents in the heat of a political battle.

The final point: Hillary has proven by her past performance that she will take a disastrous course, continuing the “awful legacy” (as intoned recently by Bill Clinton) of the Obama administration, and indeed will be much worse than she has presented in her moderate sounding campaign rhetoric to fool the public. I could go through a litany of her personal and policy failures and foibles, which express the differences between her and Trump and how he would be superior to her as President, but I will suffice with one. At the AIPAC conference Hillary got up in front of 18,000 Jews and lectured them that the Iran deal was a good one for the US, for Israel and for the World. She had the audacity, or perhaps foolishness to state this despite the fact that AIPAC spent about $20 million lobbying against it! Trump repeated what he has (and all the Republicans have) been saying ever since the deal was struck; the deal is a disaster and he will negate it the first day in office and renegotiate it.

The bottom line is: The Jewish community should, if necessary, hold their noses, and support the Republican ticket, even though it includes the obnoxious Trump, because we are practical. Even if perhaps we don’t know the real Trump and exactly what he will do, but we do know the real Hillary Clinton and there is no doubt about her dishonesty, incompetence, criminal negligence and destructive agenda.  The bottom line, the final ticket seems to be -- the odious Trump, with an odorous good guy… the jury is out if Mike Pence can increase support for the Republicans, but his record surely squares up with our moral perspective. The time has surely come for the anti-Trump speculation and rhetoric to end.

 

Rabbi Judge Sander Goldberg is Rabbi of Cong. Nachal Chaim in Baltimore. Judge on the Maryland Tax Court. Author of four popular Jewish historical fiction novels, one of which, Gone West, was a serial in Mishpacha. Mechaber Sefer Nachal Chaim Al Hatorah.