A recent Pew Research Center study reveals that the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian dropped to about 70% in 2015. What happens when a demagogic President decides he can gain advantage by telling the 70% that they are under siege from the "others"?
As a Jew, when I was growing up in Silver Spring MD in the 1950s and early 1960s, I had the feeling that when people said "Merry Christmas," it was never out of malice, but just out of the sense that virtually everyone in their communities was Christian, and it was just a way of being friendly. This felt true even though a significant percentage of the people in my neighborhoods were also Jewish.
I never experienced anti-semitism that I could not easily shrug it off. And on the rare occasions when I was older and out in the world, those rare instances when something came up that could be deemed serious anti-semitism never really bothered me because, in late 20th Century America, being Jewish never was something that disadvantaged me. Indeed, I felt "culturally advantaged" because the Jewish culture in which I grew up fostered education, which turned out to be a very useful tool in navigating and progressing in America. And, in truth, this was the era in which, as with other immigrants before us, "Jews became White" in the view of the majority cultures. When Presidents said "Merry Christmas," it did not seem like an attack; and when they also said "Happy Holidays," they were affirmatively recognizing that we ALL belonged.
As American society became less overwhelmingly Christian, it became more polite to say "Happy Holidays," which encompassed not only Christmas and Chanukah, but also Kwanza and the totally secular and universal New Year's Day. It was not "politically correct." Rather, it was simply a matter of being inclusive.
But as people like the very un-Christian Bill O'Reilly at Fox sought to play on fears of White people (most of whom identified as Christian), they attacked the use of "Happy Holidays" as somehow an attack on Christians. This became a key factor in the culture of victimization, in which some politicians and right-wing groups sought to convince members of the dominant White culture (particularly those whose economic prospects declined as America lost its post-World War II economic advantages once other countries recovered from the War and were able to begin catching up with us) that they were under attack from "elites" (aka, Jews and "intellectuals") who looked down on them.
Still, this phony "War on Christmas" was more a joke than a threat until the leadership of the "defenders" of Christmas devolved to someone with true demagogic skills and a huge platform: Donald Trump.
When Donald Trump says "Merry Christmas," he seemingly always follows up with a comment like, "Isn't it great that now we can say 'Merry Christmas.'" The tone of voice and, most significantly, the snide remarks, turn the benign "Merry Christmas" into a weapon. He is not simply wishing the 70% of Americans who identify as Christian a joyous Christian holiday, but he is telling them that the Jews and the Muslims and the "intellectual elites" have been oppressing them, and that now he -- Donald Trump -- has saved them from these people who, in fact, only reside here by the sufferance of the "real" Americans (aka, White Christians).
As a Jew born in this country shortly after the Holocaust, my view of America included the sense of good fortune that I was born here, in this time and place. I never felt that anyone in the White House was out to marginalize me, or to turn my fellow citizens against me. But now, in the Age of Trump, I am beginning to experience what other minority groups have been exposed to for years (albeit not as overtly in the last half century as before): the potential danger posed by fellow citizens who are told that I am not truly or fully American and that I am their enemy.
In truth, I do not have fear about this deep in my bones. My optimism about America is too pervasive for that. But it is hard to watch what is happening now and not be very concerned that my faith in my fellow citizens may be in jeopardy if Trumpism deepens its hold.
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