I’ve been reading all sorts of ‘theories’ about why we lost this election to Donald Trump of all people. Some blame the millenials. Some blame whites. Some blame the folks who voted for Gary Johnson! (I’m waiting for someone to blame the Democrats who were hospitalized on election day).
All this blaming reminds me of a story told by an old friend of the family. He was a Jewish immigrant from Europe:
Back in the bad old days of Nazi Germany, some Brown Shirt Nazis caught an old educated Jewish man and started beating him and shouting at him that the Jews cause Germany to lose WWI. They stopped the beating and asked him “Why did we lose the war?”
He replied, “There were several reasons ...” and they slapped him into silence and commenced the beating and the shouting.
“Why did we lose the war?”
“There were many reasons ...”
More shouting and beating
This continued until the man had taken a horrible beating and finally when they asked, “Why did we lose the war?”
He said “Because of the Jews ...” and before they could respond in triumph, he added “… and the bicycle-makers.”
The confused Nazis asked “How did the bicycle-makers cause us to lose the war?”
He said “How did the Jews cause us to lose the war?”
So from this point on, I’m blaming the bicycle-makers for the Trump presidency and focusing on what I can do for the people I care about.