Foot In The Door

When I was a young kid, I lived in a working-class neighborhood where the houses were close together some with only walls separating them. Our neighborhood was ripe for the traveling salesmen who came by to sell something that we really didn’t need. Today we have the same situation, but it comes in the form of irritating phone calls to sell us something. By this time in reading my blogs you should get the picture of my mother being aggressive, confrontive, and taking no prisoners. It’s why I am at home with conflict. She always got rid of them quickly. My father would probably have invited them in for coffee. But my mother’s words still resonate with me as she would turn and look at me and say, “Never let them get a foot in the door.” That’s what salesmen were taught to do.

Trump is like those salesmen. “Give him an inch and he will take a mile.” Watch for that in all his deliberations.

We see this in all his executive actions. What are all these executive actions about for our salesman President? For example, is he really concerned about Harvard’s refusal to act positively to his recent action based on the “failure of the university to deal with antisemitism.” He has required more intentional responses to correct antisemitism on the campus. He says that he is concerned about all colleges that are not doing enough to rid their curriculum of anything that supports the Palestinians.

Trump could care less about Jewish people. So, what is this newfound core ideal about? He has his foot in the door for what he really wants to sell. His approach to antisemitism on college campuses is so that he can get more control over the curriculum and the faculty at Harvard. He inched to open the door so he could get bigger things that he has in mind. He has done this to carry out his bullying ways. First, he took away their funding. Harvard has a rich endowment, but people don’t realize that most of those funds are for other things.

Now he wants to take away their tax-exempt status which my former student, John Yoo, a lawyer for Fox News, says he can do. I have been in the education business for a long period of time. For the most part people give money for a specific project. Funds aren’t usually given with the tagline of do with my gift what you want. If the school would want it for scholarship funds and the donor wants it for a new tennis court, the court is where the money will go. Trump inched open the door to law practices who represented clients who used them to find Trump guilty of different crimes. He obtained millions from them via lawsuits and threats. They thought that they were done, but now with his foot, he has now indicated he will use those pro bono services to help him with his own cases or the cases of his administration. He now has an abundance of free legal coverage to use. Trump doesn’t know the meaning of pro bono work.

There are two problems with Trump calling out antisemitism on college campuses. It enables him to get a crack in the doorway to get to other things like controlling everything that the university is doing academically and otherwise. Second, when a group of people in colleges or universities know that antisemitic initiatives by him are for other reasons, my fear is that there will be a backlash on the Jewish students who know that criticism of Israel and antisemitism are two entirely different things. Trump’s policies about antisemitism need to be separated from anti-Israel protests regarding criminal behavior of what Israel is doing by withholding food and services from the Palestinians as well as ongoing killing of the Palestinian people. The Jewish people have experienced a long history of antisemitism and Trump is now adding to it. My basic observance is that if Trump is for something, it is first and foremost for him. In colleges and universities, I have seen no programs from Trump world to put people on notice for racism or classism. He has couched ongoing racism, including not wanting international students, in his DEI initiative. Never forget he is a con man at heart. Harvard hasn’t let his foot in the door.

Leave it up to Bucknell University to clarify between antisemitism and legitimate debate about Israel, the substance of an article by Bucknell professors, Ron Smith. Clare Sammells, and Michael Drexler in the April 17 edition of the Inquirer. Just like my mother, they knew that Trump wanted in to get at more than antisemitism, so they came up with a way to stop his sales pitch.

“Last month the faculty at Bucknell University voted to endorse the Jerusalem Declaration on

Antisemitism, a significant act in the defense of the right to free expression on campus. The Jerusalem Declaration clarifies the distinction between antisemitism and legitimate critique of the actions of the state of Israel. The resolution came as a direct response to the silencing of critical voices related to Israel and Palestine occurring on college campuses and in political debate.” It is based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism which is against what Netanyahu and the state of Israel are doing to the Palestinians”.

Our Governor, John Shapiro who is Jewish, is a model of this declaration. He has indicated that he doesn’t want anyone who would enter a college community to get their foot in the door to take over a university under the guise of antisemitism. He also supports Jewish students when they feel targeted by harassment from others.

I have a thought. What if Trump knocked on the door of my home when I was young to convince my mother that he was there to sell her something that she didn’t want or need with the goal to get his foot in the door to get something else sold inside that clearly was there to benefit him. She never went to Harvard, but Trump would have a bruised foot as he tried to get it in the door. She would know it would not benefit her but certainly benefit the salesman. She would have his foot slammed and stuck in the door while she berated him for trying his slick moves on her. It may be the one time in my life that I would feel sorry for Trump.