You Can't Always Get What You Want ...

... and that's ok. Because sometimes you get enough.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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If You Want A Friend … Get A Dog

Earlier this week, a host of Arab-American leaders in Michigan met with representatives of the Trump campaign … and it didn’t go well.

The meeting — which took place at chain Italian restaurant Maggiano’s in Troy, Michigan — featured about 40 Arab American leaders, [Ric] Grenell [Trump’s shadow secretary of state], Trump’s son-in-law Michael Boulos, and Boulos’ father, Massad Boulos. According to two sources in attendance for the private dinner, Grenell came off as unsympathetic to the plight of Palestinians while actually angering some participants by reiterating a comment from Trump’s other son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who said in March that Israel should remove Palestinians from the valuable “waterfront property” in Gaza.

“He repeated Jared Kushner’s statement about beachfront property, which I think floated like a lead balloon in the room,” one of the meeting’s participants said of Grenell, who was Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence.

Another participant in the meeting stressed that Grenell kept saying how “brilliant” Trump was with his handling of the Abraham Accords, which were agreements Israel signed with certain Arab countries in 2020. But this person also mentioned that Kushner’s comments about turning Gaza’s waterfront property into world-class beaches fell flat.

“This is either too naive or too stupid of him to say something like this. Even the Israeli press made fun of Kushner when he said that,” this source said.

“Frankly, the guy — I don’t want to say bad stuff — is clueless on the Middle East,” this person added.

Before Grenell rose to prominence as a Trump foreign policy crony, he was, quite literally, an Internet troll. Indeed, he seemed to spend much of his time sliding into the Twitter mentions of Democratic/liberal foreign policy pundits and acting like a jerk.

Now, he does that, more or less, professionally, which means that selecting him to do outreach to the Arab-American community was a sub-optimal decision. However, these Arab-American leaders did get, um, one concession from the Trump team.

The sources said Arab American leaders didn’t leave entirely empty-handed, however. Grenell “promised” leaders that Trump wouldn’t enact a “Muslim ban,” as he called for in 2016, according to these sources.

My heart goes out to these folks.

They’re unhappy with President Biden’s policy on Gaza, and the GOP alternative is less than ideal. But this situation is also a useful reminder that politicians are not your friends.

An interest group’s relationship with politicians is almost purely transactional: you provide votes, and they advocate on your behalf or fight for policy outcomes that benefit them once they reach office. Chances are you will agree on most things and disagree on others … and that’s ok. Because as is the case in politics — and life — there is no such thing as perfection, and everyone has to make some concessions.

For example, I can assure you there are plenty of Jewish voters who are not happy with Joe Biden these days. There is a not insignificant contingent of American Jews who believe he has sold out Israel to curry favor with pro-Palestinian activists. There are some American Jews who could argue that Trump would be better for Israel than Biden. But I guarantee you that most of these Jewish voters will still vote for the president in November. Why? It’s not just that the other guy is so horrible; it’s that on most issues that Jews care about, Biden is on the same side as them.

For Arab Americans, no matter their beef with Biden … consider the alternative: a bigoted former president who doesn’t care about Arab Americans, doesn’t care about the Palestinians, and the best thing he can do for them is forsake a ban on their co-religionists (yes, I know all Arab-Americans are not Muslims and that many are Christians). If you put together a Biden pro and con list, this likely isn’t a close call for the Arab community. But of course, we know that people’s voting decisions are not always rational or coherent. If Arab voters are pissed enough about Biden’s Gaza policy, that can undoubtedly cloud their vision and allow them to ignore the other side of the ledger and all the reasons why he’s probably a better president for them than Trump. I get it. But expecting perfection from political leaders is a fool’s errand, and even if Arab-American voters have concerns with Biden, who is likely to hear them out as president — Biden or the guy who sends a flunky to Michigan to insult them?

For their sake as much as the rest of ours, it would be best if they remember that while you can’t always get everything you want from a politician, sometimes you get what you need — and that’s enough.

Actually, that’s a good lesson for all Americans of voting age!