One of the abiding oddities of my seven years in the United States has been the extraordinary disparity between the calibre of the American people and that of their political representatives. Every day, I encounter Americans who are serious, competent, conscientious and, above all, comparatively normal. I’m talking about the sort of chaps who go about their business calmly, hold the elevator for strangers, and demonstrate a reassuring capacity for rational thought and civil disagreement. Yet, through some mysterious political alchemy, scarcely any of these admirable creatures ever find their way onto a ballot.
This puzzle returns with particular ferocity as America braces herself for another midterm election, which, as we are reliably informed every two years, is the most consequential election of our generation. Like so many citizens of this magnificent and bewildering nation, I find myself bristling with consternation at the conduct, opinions, and vocabulary of those soliciting our votes. Our great state of Texas, never one to be outdone, has made its own distinctive contributions to this pageant of the absurd. (Remain calm; I have not come here to offer political opinions, and my readers would be ill-advised to accept them if I had.)
By the time you are reading these words, the Jewish state will also have conducted a national election of genuinely momentous significance. There, the problem seems rather different. Whatever the qualifications of the candidates themselves, the depths to which political rhetoric can descend are scarcely fathomable. No accusation seems too vicious, no insult too extravagant, no political opponent sufficiently respectable to be spared the most outrageous imputations. Nor are such denunciations altogether credible. That a politician can paint his opponent as an imbecilic traitor on Tuesday, and then invite him to join his cabinet on Wednesday, is one of the more delightful follies of Israeli coalition politics.
In both countries, the pursuit of political power has a remarkable capacity to draw out our species’ least attractive qualities. For all who value common decency, common honesty, or common sense, election season is a trying affair indeed.
