This week, my organization, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, held an event in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, the district of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Forty Christian pastors—white, black, Hispanic—attended to speak out in support of Israel.
We brought these Christian spokespersons into the backyard of one of the most aggressive voices in the U.S. Congress speaking out against Israel and supporting the terrorism and aggression against the Jewish state.
But a crucial element in our message is that the policy turf being staked out in this debate has implications far beyond providing moral and material support to Israel.
We’re talking about values that are as central and crucial to the future of our own country as they are for Israel.
Regarding Tlaib, per Census Reporter, her district is 43% black; the poverty rate is 21% (150% the national average); and 61% of adults are unmarried—a rate 25% higher than the national average.
Tlaib’s voting record is hardcore Left. She gets a 100% rating from NARAL and Planned Parenthood, reflecting her support of abortion. She gets a 100% rating from teachers unions, reflecting support of failing government schools and opposition to parental choice in education. And she gets a 0% rating from organizations supporting lower taxes and spending, such as Americans for Prosperity, Campaign for Working Families, and National Federation of Independent Business.
Tlaib consistently supports, along with her colleagues of “the squad”—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts—the left-wing agenda expanding the welfare state, tilting at climate change windmills, and supporting values like abortion that contribute to the breakdown of the traditional family.
In other words, Tlaib aggressively supports the very policies that keep her district poor.
These are also the values that are bankrupting our country, as government spending now sucks up 25% of our gross domestic product and we drown in debt.
In 2020, when the country was torn apart with riots after the death of George Floyd, my organization did a campaign posting billboards in low-income neighborhoods promoting the “success sequence.”
The “success sequence,” based on policy research in Washington, points to the personal behavior that leads to the best chances of avoiding poverty and moving from low-income status to middle class. That is, finish high school, get married, and take any job.
When we posted billboards with this message that this is the way to avoid poverty, Black Lives Matter went to the billboard company and demanded it take them down.
What about our message so offended Black Lives Matter?
They reject, along with all those on the Left, values that rest on personal responsibility. They embrace only a culture of victimhood and blame.
In this worldview, the only explanation for achievement is exploitation.
This is their explanation for the success of Israelis, who built, from nothing, a modern country with per capita GDP higher than most European countries. And this is their explanation for those who have achieved success and wealth in our own country.
This year, for the first time ever, in the Gallup annual survey asking about sympathy for Israelis compared to sympathy for Palestinians, those identifying as Democrats expressed sympathy for Palestinians 11 points higher than Israelis. Our youth, those born between 1980 and 2000, expressed sympathy for Palestinians two points higher than for Israelis.
The culture of blame and victimhood has captured the Left and our youth.
These values are incompatible with the values of a free country, which can only exist when individuals take personal responsibility.
It should be clear that those expressing opposition to Israel are also voices antipathetic to America’s future as a free country.
Our shared values with Israel go beyond democracy. They are about the most basic ingredient of a free society. Personal responsibility. This is the value that the Left so deeply hates.
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