Q-
Is it a proper opportunity for the Rav to advise us on who to vote for in the upcoming election?
A-
Is it advisable for me to recommend voting for one individual over
another? Yes, absolutely. It's certainly advisable for Jews to back
conservative candidates. Now, exactly which conservative candidate is
the best choice is a matter that requires deliberation. But there's no
question that the Jews have for too long carried on an affair with the
liberals and it has caused them a great deal of suffering. And as long
as the liberals will continue to have power we are going to have a
continuation of the present disorder of society.
All the theories of the liberals as to how to improve society are
garbage. The plain truth is that forty years ago, without any of these
theories, society was relatively stable. And it was based on one easy to
understand principle - and that was that there has to be stern justice.
And that's all! Now, the liberals will say, "No, that's nothing. It's
not true. Capital punishment only increases crime." But that's baloney.
It's sheker vi'kazav. There's one thing wrong with this country and
that's it. Now, don't say that I'm oversimplifying things. Because they
oversimplified in the olden days and we were able to walk in the
streets. Everyone was afraid of the police. Until Mayor Lindsay came
along and emasculated the police, everyone was afraid of a policeman.
And that's what we need. We need more police brutality. And although
innocent people might suffer sometimes, it pays. We need tough police
who don't care what you say about them. We need police who have
headquarters with bosses who disregard the complaints. In the olden days
if you walked into headquarters and complained, the Police Captain
would bark at you, "What do you want?!" That's what he said to you. He
didn't listen to you polititely. "What do you want?!" he said. And you
walked out with your head down.
Capital punishment is the best rehabilitation for criminals. There
used to be a Sing-Sing and it was a perfect educational institution for
criminals. Anyone who went to Sing-Sing and worked on the [garbled] rock
pile, when he got out he had learned that crime doesn't pay. In
[garbled] you didn't have television. All you had was an iron mallet and
you stood in the sun in [garbled] and you banged and you banged and you
cracked rocks and you sweated. And you were thinking all the time, "Why
was I such a fool to get into this?"
It's nothing but yir'as ha'onesh. And even tzadikim need it. The
best people need it. And it would solve almost all crime. But instead
they make a crime-study commission and they spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars and they bring scientists together and the result is that
there's more crime than ever. And you know why? Because it's the
scientists who cause crime. Scientists are causing crime. They're the
ones who say that we should do away with harsh punishment and that we
should listen to the complaints of the criminals. So when the prisoners
recently made an insurrection in the prison and they killed some guards
and they demanded to be heard, what happened? So the Governor appoints a
commission and the members of the commission come to the prison to
listen to the complaints of the felons. Instead of taking them and
putting them into solitary for ten years on bread and water. That's what
they used to get in the good old days. That's what they got and that's
why we didn't have crime. You didn't have crime! What kind of stories
are they telling us that there was always crime?! There wasn't crime. I
remember, I walked home from Mesivta Chaim Berlin every night, summer
and winter, through black neighborhoods. Who ever heard of somebody
snatching a woman's pocketbook in broad daylight. In the olden days -
[At this point the tape ends vi'chaval al di'avdin]
TAPE 125
THE ABOVE QUESTION AND ANSWER WAS RECORDED FORTY YEARS AGO - A FEW WEEKS BEFORE THE CARTER-FORD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1976
