Rav Avigdor Miller on the Lies of the Democratic Media

A:

And the answer is, that this person like many others is a victim of listening to the radio and reading the newspapers. We don’t realize how much wickedness, how much hate has been poured out unjustly upon the President’s head. The President so far has been proved of no misdeed.

Now, the only thing that happened, what yesterday was discovered, there was one tape that was partially erased. Now, I ask you in all fairness, must the President reveal every word of his conversation to the world? Maybe one of the people present or maybe the President himself made a dirty joke? It’s not possible?

And couldn’t it be that there was something that was compromising but not criminal? There are a lot of things that are not against the law, but would be very compromising if they would fall into the hands of enemies.

Now look here, you have to realize the Democratic organization is a very big organization and they have a billion dollar investment in the elections. Because there are a lot of jobs to be given out, a tremendous amount of graft. They’re all waiting to start the graft! And now the Republicans are in office and taking the graft. And so they’re very much interested that the next election should be theirs.

And therefore, they’re spending a tremendous amount of money – don’t deceive yourself – in trying to discredit the present administration. So who is going to be a victim to the propaganda of politicians?

Now, if any one of us was in Nixon’s place and we had so many – you know, there are thousands of detectives on the job ferreting out every detail of the administration, every nook and cranny in Nixon’s past life – if we had even one detective on our tail, we would be cooked. There’s plenty to find out about each one of us. If Nixon had crossed a red light once, it would have been in the newspapers. A criminal!

If you want to know the tenor of the accusations, listen to what one writer said about two months ago. Listen to this – he said with a straight face, “I fear our Republic has been lost.”

I’m afraid that there are some dupes that read that and didn’t bat an eye.

So don’t you understand what’s taking place? No matter who would be President. America today is a wild country. Did you ever hear before – maybe you don’t know, but when I was a boy, nobody burned down colleges. Nobody made sit-in strikes. Nobody smashed windows in front of high schools. Today they’re running wild. It’s a wild generation.

And therefore, why shouldn’t they be wild against the authority of a President, especially when he won the elections? That’s an unforgivable crime! And he won it with a landslide!

And so, on one hand you have the whole Democratic party trying their best to make sure that the next election is theirs. They won’t let up. If they won’t find something, they’ll hint, innuendo. Maybe he did this, maybe they did that. And the ‘maybe’ they’ll leave out. And on the other hand you have a great big liberal – pseudo-liberal – community that’s rearing to go. Where? They don’t know, but they’re rearing to go. They want to tear down the world.

And so, what’s the best target if not a President who’s trying to hold the line, who’s trying to maintain a little bit equilibrium between the right and the left and follow the middle road. A President who came out with such atheism that it’s against permissiveness?! You hear such words?

And so there’s no wonder that he’s a target. Anyone in his place would have had the same fate. This man is being martyred. He’s a martyr.

Now, friends, I have to tell you that there are certain things that we cannot entrust to the minds of individuals because you think that you have free will and free choice in your opinions. You don’t realize that you’re entirely bamboozled by the public media. You don’t realize you’re a victim of the lies of the New York Times and the CBS and the NBC. These are wicked media. They have no principles. They’re corrupt. And you poor people, you can’t trust yourselves. Every little nobody thinks that he or she understands.

The best thing is, the old Jewish way, we follow in the footsteps of our Sages. What do our great men say? Let’s ask them! שאל אביך – ask your teachers!

The Agudas HaRabanim, they had pondered the problem. Rav Moshe Feinshtein, zol zein gezunt, and all the great men there, they have come to the conclusion, it’s the duty of all Jews to stand behind the President. And they instituted that Orthodox synagogues should every Shabbos say a prayer. In our shul, we say a prayer every Shabbos for him now. The Agudas HaRabanim told us.

So what, is every Tom, Dick and Yenta going to make national decisions on his or her own because of these wicked pseudo-liberals who have no principles? Especially the Jewish pseudo-liberals — they’re the worst. Let’s follow our great rabbis.

Now great rabbis doesn’t mean your local rabbi. Freg ehm ba cherem. Your local rabbi doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. His wife listens to the radio and the wife tells him what to say.

Let’s listen to our gedolei Yisroel! Old rabbonim, they’ve been through it. They know history. They’ve been through the Russian revolution. They know. This is a preparation to overthrowing a government, chalilah. And once you overthrow a mill-of-the-road government, then chas v’shalom a pandora’s box is going to be opened chalilah of troubles. They know. They’ve been through it!

We support the government.

And don’t go prying into it. Nixon is a decent man. I can tell you he’s a decent man. There’s no question about it. And even – this will surprise you – I say that Spiro Agnew is a much better American than the whole caboodle of his detractors. So it was found that when he handed out contracts, he allowed people to contribute, he allowed them to contribute to his election fund. He didn’t put it in his pocket. Election fund, that’s what it was. He didn’t want to fight in court, because he was a proud man so he let it go by default. It was election money.

You think if they would look into the Democratic president’s records – all the presidents – they wouldn’t find?

Let me tell you something. When Lincoln was alive, The Chicago Tribune – just one example – said that this man is one of the most wicked men who ever lived. He’s a corrupter of the country. He’s an enemy of the constitution. There’s a whole list I could read of the paper’s accusations against Lincoln – worse than against Nixon.

What happened? As a result of this newspaper campaign against him, so one wicked man was encouraged to assassinate him.

Now, there was a Negro, a Black Panther in San Francisco who said that at his first chance, he’ll murder Nixon. What happened? Immediately CBS put him on the television.

So what’s the use of our wrestling with our little minds with these problems? שאל אביך – ask your father. Ask our great men and that’s the consensus of Agudas Yisroel, of old Rabonim. They’re beki’im b’Shas and poskim. And if you want to debate with me further, I’ll be happy to talk to you later, but not now.

(January 1974)