Those threatening to not vote for Biden should re-evaluate

Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu won’t let anything stop their abhorrent killing of innocent civilians. Putin justifies massacring Ukrainians by gross disinformation. Netanyahu justifies annihilating Palestinians by Hamas’s horrific October 7 attack which, of course, deserved strong response.

Any chance of stopping the two will probably have to happen internally. Internal resistance to Adolf Hitler’s atrocities was exemplified by world-renown German Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who felt God’s calling to help assassinate Hitler. Author of the Evangelical Christian classic, “The Cost of Discipleship”, Bonhoeffer paid the ultimate cost — executed by Hitler.

Hopefully, the carnage can end without assassinating the autocrats. To avoid harsh retribution, organized Russian or Israeli groups resistant to Putin or Netanyahu would have to lie low. Both leaders have extensive opposition from within, as shown by huge Russian turnouts protesting dissident Alexei Navalny’s death and longtime massive Israeli protests against Netanyahu’s corruption and power-grabbing.

Many Americans are understandably upset at President Joe Biden’s lukewarm, tardy criticism of Netanyahu. However, those threatening to not vote for Biden should re-evaluate.

Among Biden’s accomplishments: Funding IRS to audit rich tax cheats; expanding benefits for toxic-exposed veterans; protecting reproductive rights; increasing middle-class wages, exceeding inflation; creating most jobs ever; rallying world support for Ukraine; taming COVID pandemic; appointing first ever Public Defender/Black woman Supreme Court justice; expanding health insurance; and rebuilding our long-neglected infrastructure.

Donald Trump wants to be dictator; is a convicted felon; opposes Ukraine aid; admires Putin and Netanyahu; will appoint only political lapdogs; and exercise harsh retribution against past and present opposition. If you believe him, his scapegoats would surely be immigrants and likely persons of color.

And the zeal of Trump’s voter base is frightening: Many White Americans who self-identify as “Evangelical Christians” have abandoned Christ for idolatry of Trump, violating the Second of the Biblical Ten Commandments.

Norm Luther