GUEST POST BY AVO
I didn’t vote in 2008 and I didn’t vote in 2012. I turned 18 in 2008, just before the election and I could have voted but just couldn’t bring myself to vote either way; a kid who wanted to get into politics didn’t even vote. My favored candidate, Dr. Ron Paul, had been soundly defeated in the primaries and wasn’t offered the vice presidency so I refused to participate. To understand where I’m coming from let me take you on a journey.
I am a Jewish man, raised in Los Angeles in a predominantly gentile neighborhood by two Orthodox parents. My experiences and friends were much more diverse than almost any other Orthodox boy or girl I’ve met. I learned to see things from many many perspectives and I guess this all gave me a very positive outlook of all ideas, peoples, cultures and religions even if I disagreed with them. I came to respect hard work and the free market. I came to respect the masses and trusted that most people make good decisions. I began to despise the government which punishes those who make good decisions but I still didn’t really have framework to fully understand these ideas and feelings. The first time I heard the word ‘libertarian’ I was in a car with an older kid named Yeager who was giving me a ride from Chatsworth to North Hollywood, where I lived. We talked politics a little bit and I found that we saw many things eye to eye. This happened around 2005, the height of the Iraq war and there were intense debates going on and although I didn’t fully understand what was going on I couldn’t get on board to support the war even though everyone I knew strongly supported it and all the other actions of President Bush. When Yeager told me he didn’t support the war either I was floored. I thought I was struggling with a major contradiction by supporting many conservative values but not supporting the war and here there was a more mature kid who was saying exactly what I was thinking!
I decided to look into it a little bit and although the internet then wasn’t as saturated as it is now, I did manage to find some good information...and plenty of garbage. I don’t remember the first time I heard Dr Paul’s name, it was probably on conservative radio or Fox news when they were trashing him but as I began to listen to his words they rang true to me. The economics were ethical and rooted in honesty, the foreign policy endeavored to be true to our Founding Fathers’ attitude of non-intervention, his social stance was of being respectful to those whom he disagreed with but most importantly he went against the grain and stood strong against those who chose to ignore the real threat of a growing federal government. The establishment and conservative pundits were sweeping fundamental American principles under the rug in the interest of the PATRIOT Act and hunting terrorists on the other side of the world, both of which ended all sense of privacy for every citizen in this great country.
Stephen Covey (who was heavily influenced by R Moshe Chaim Luzzatto) in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People advises all individuals to create a personal (and family) mission statement. Once someone has a good mission statement he/she must measure every decision against this and ask themselves if they are acting in line with their mission. As Jews we have a national mission statement, the Torah. Each individual Jew is expected to measure every action for its congruence with the mission statement (as much as possible). If we all improved in this area we would achieve a higher sense of unity and bring light into the world. As Americans, we have a second national mission statement, the Constitution. As long as the Constitution does not interfere with our ability to achieve our Jewish national interests (and it doesn’t), we must abide by it, adopt its mission and guard it for future generations to enjoy. I challenge anybody to find a country with a better and more ethical legal system than what we find in these United States.
You would think that orthodox Jews would have a better grasp on this concept. Our traditions are founded on the idea of a supreme law and subsequent laws cannot contradict any aspect of this founding document. The Talmud has pages upon pages of one rabbi challenging the statements of another, for a perceived incompatibility with a verse in the Torah - Fact is, every Halachic opinion is vetted this way. We have a highly evolved system of precedents (there’s a reason they call it Judeo-Christian values) and somehow we forget to apply this standard to our own country.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a responsibility to finally hold our elected officials accountable to the Constitution just as we do from our Jewish leaders. Obviously, nobody is perfect and we always find ourselves choosing the lesser of two evils but let us choose leaders who at least hold the Constitution in high regard and promise to uphold it.
God Bless America!
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