(American troops defend the Old Stone House in the Battle of Brooklyn)
On the evening of August 29th, 1776, General George Washington accepted a humiliating defeat against the British and began his retreat, evacuating his army across the East River, out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan.
The defeat was emotionally devastating. The Battle of Brooklyn was the first battle the Americans fought after signing the Declaration of Independence, and it looked as though the brave and inspired words of American independence would not be matched by brave and inspired fighting of American soldiers.
But there was more bravery and inspiration in that retreat than in many of history’s greatest victories.
First, there was the bravery of the Maryland 400 on August 27th, a small group of southern soldiers who continued to attack the British to provide cover and time for the 9,000 other men in Washington’s army to reach Brooklyn Heights so they could cross the river. Most of those brave men died fighting so that their brothers-in-arms could live to fight another day.
Second, there was the dedication of the Massachusetts mariners who ferried everyone across the river.
And third, there was the wisdom of Washington, who understood that a strategic retreat was preferable to a noble final stand.
When the sun rose on August 30th, all of the men had not yet crossed, but after an evening of incredible dedication and effort, G-d delivered the Continental Army a miracle: fog.
The fog hung low over Brooklyn Heights that morning, allowing the rest of the army to slip across the river before the British realized what had happened.
Washington’s strategic retreat ensured that the American Experiment would live another day.
He continued to flee the British as summer turned to fall, and fall turned to winter, biding his time and saving his resources.
After this election, those who honor the nation those brave men sacrificed for must do the same.
To speak of the election as a “Blue Tsunami” or even a “Red-Green Tsunami” does not touch on the heart of what has happened.
This election was the culmination of something that began long ago – the un-Americanizing of American politics.
It began in 2015, when both political parties abandoned basic American principles in order to curry votes.
The Democrats did this by pre-selecting Hillary Clinton before any primary votes had been cast. The DNC had placed its thumb on the scales for her and did everything they could to ensure her selection.
The Republicans, by contrast, selected a man whose disdain for basic electoral decorum turned our political culture into reality television.
Both sides claimed to support democracy when really both sides just wanted to win.
Since then, nearly all of the basic elements of American political culture have withered away.
The Democrats won a major victory but, in order to do so, they had to court the deeply illiberal politics of Islamism and Marxism.
They made a calculation that the antisemitic vote was far more important than the concerns of their Jewish constituents.
Not only has someone with known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood been placed in the upper house of Congress, but the two largest cities in America are now governed by avowed Marxists with a track record of contempt for Jews in their own cities.
In response to his party’s defeat, J.D. Vance, a 2028 presidential hopeful, admonished his party for not doing the same.
If his warning is heeded, as in all likelihood it will be, the 2028 presidential election will be determined by whoever is most hostile to the Jews and their ancestral homeland.
Those of us who still value the ideals of Washington and the founding generation have been left wounded and alone.
We, like Washington in Brooklyn, are surrounded on all sides.
The only option that remains for us is to retreat.
We must accept that we have been defeated by the forces of ignorance and illiberalism and flee with whatever is left of our army. We must live to fight another day.
And that day will not be in 2028, nor even in 2032.
The scars of this election will last for at least a decade.
My generation, the young millennials and the old Zoomers, is already lost, but the next generation is not.
The generation of young Americans who are coming of age now has seen the failures of both parties, and many of them are looking for an alternative to the petty politics of winning at all costs.
And we must give it to them.
We must give them inspiration that better things are possible if they are willing to work for them, and we must teach them to love what America once was so they can rebuild it into the country it was always meant to be.
We must retreat from the ballot box to the classroom and pour all of our energy into teaching and training the next generation.
As a teacher, I am blessed to get to work with these young men and women every day. They have brave hearts and sharp minds that need to be cultivated before they are corrupted.
We are like a basketball team filled with aging stars and young prospects. At some point, we will have to make the hard choice to blow up the team and turn our focus from our aging stars to those young prospects. We will struggle, for many years, before those prospects develop into stars in their own right, but failing to do so only means mortgaging the possibility of a strong future for a moment of weak success.
To that end, we should stop investing our time and energy in politics and turn our focus to education.
There are three very promising developments in education that should give us all hope: the classical school movement, the charter school movement, and the renaissance of Jewish education.
If you are Jewish and interested in the preservation of American-Jewish life, there are many new Jewish Day Schools to be excited about.
Organizations like the Kovner Foundation give students scholarships to attend private schools while also promoting excellence in charter schools and public education.
If you are not Jewish but believe in American renewal through education, the Great Hearts Academies have developed some of the finest classical schools in the country, schools that teach students to read the Great Books and develop the ability to think through big questions on their own.
The promise of these schools is already becoming apparent. Students who are educated in these schools are being introduced to the great works of Western Civilization, taught to think critically about the world around them, and encouraged to aspire to something greater than personal success. At a time when so much of our educational system seems dedicated to lowering expectations, these schools are raising them.
Beyond the classical school movement, new charter schools across the country that are cultivating children with deep souls and critical minds.
These three developments in education are our best hope for raising a generation prepared to fight the empty bitterness of modern politics.
I have the privilege of teaching in one of these new schools. (In the interest of my students’ safety, I will not publicly say where, but if you are curious, please DM me.)
The students in these schools will be the leaders of tomorrow. We have an opportunity to develop these students and shape them into deep thinkers with big souls who will be unafraid to fight for what they believe.
They will have the opportunity to decide if we will continue down the road of ignorance and illiberalism, or if we will forge ahead, as both a nation and a civilization, in the direction that our founding fathers established for us.
A long night stands before us. A night filled with Marxists and Nazis on the rise, but soon the day will dawn when these students are poised to take their place in the sun.
The only question that remains for us now is: How will we arm them?
Will we bequeath unto them all of the gifts of Western Civilization and the American Dream? Or will we remain trapped in the cycle of political pettiness that has landed us here?
I have decided to throw my lot in with theirs and spend my life cultivating young men and women who are better than me.
I hope you will too.
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Spread Love, Spread Light,
Am Yisrael Chai