One has to wonder when it was in American politics that the concept of reaching across the aisle to collaborate on legislation morphed into seeing the opposition as the enemy who must always be beaten and disparaged. Modern legislative history suggests that the election of former House speaker Newt Gingrich as House Republican whip in 1991 heralded the removal of the keystone of the arch of American democracy, after which the supporting blocks began to buckle as well.
Specifically, in the run-up to the 1990 midterm elections in the US, a pamphlet was sent to Republican candidates with the title Language: A Key Mechanism of Control. The pamphlet was developed by GOPAC, a conservative group headed by Newt Gingrich. In the pamphlet, the authors took pains to develop a set of words, pejorative nouns and adjectives, that would portray opponents as enemies.
One section in particular set the tone for the demise of legislative cooperation where it said, “Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, his record, proposals, and party.”
Among the list were liberal, shallow, disgrace, lie, shame, betray, sick, destroy, obsolete, cheat, pathetic, dangerous, failure, radical, corruption, self-serving traitors, treason, incompetent, steal, and hypocrisy, to name a few. Defining one’s opponents in this way casts them as the enemy, in each case someone who not only had to be beaten but also demeaned. It is, in fact, the playbook used in the extreme by the current administration in Washington and a warning to all democracies to avoid this language trap.
US democratic decline
Some current US examples include heavy-set women referred to as “piggy,” reporters who ask uncomfortable questions being told they are asking stupid questions, elected officials with whom the leadership disagrees being categorized as low-IQ individuals, and politicians who emigrated to the US legally being told to go back to their countries of origin.
Further, it goes without saying that in this climate, one never asks someone from the “other” political party to join an operational government body. Sadly, even the funeral of former US vice president Dick Cheney in November was not enough to bridge the enemy divide.
The result of all of this is that the US now has a non-functional House of Representatives, a Senate so fearful of the wrath of the president that it dares not oppose him, and a president who, rather than selecting the best and the brightest candidates to be members of his cabinet, chooses instead to install sycophants so lacking in knowledge and experience for the job that the most routine aspects of their jobs end up bungled, beset by administrative and legal errors.
Nevertheless, the keystone that was removed by Newt Gingrich 35 years ago was not discarded but simply set aside. The vast majority of Americans still believe in the vision of the founding fathers stated in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the US Constitution and its amendments.
What America needs now is for a group of builders to hoist that keystone back in position so that it can occupy its rightful place, holding up the building blocks of democracy that are elemental to the proper functioning of a free and democratic republic.
Israel's issue
Sadly, this same issue has begun plaguing our government here in Israel as well. We all recall that just two years ago, during the acrimony surrounding the government’s attempt at judicial reform, President Isaac Herzog was moved to appeal to Israeli politicians to “lower the temperature” amid confrontational exchanges between the newly formed hardline, nationalist coalition government and the center-left opposition.
Herzog said in a Twitter (now X) post, “This is a sensitive and explosive time in Israeli public life... I appeal to you, elected representatives and citizens from across the public and political spectrum: Exercise restraint and act responsibly. We need to calm things down and lower the temperature.”
His remarks came shortly after Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel said in an interview with public media that four leading members of the opposition, including its centrist leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid, “are the most dangerous people there are at this moment.”
“They are calling for war,” he continued. “If they were calling for protests, I would give them every right to protest, but they are speaking in terms that I am the enemy – they are speaking in terms of war. For me, that’s treason against the state... and yes, that’s grounds for imprisonment.”
Notice that both Fogel and Lapid use the same words that Newt Gingrich listed as necessary to attack and demean the opposition, and look where that has led the US. At the time of Fogel’s remarks, opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a Twitter post, “This is how democracy implodes.” Indeed.
Israel's democratic future
There are many who say that Israel is now in its most tenuous position since its founding in 1948. Such statements are more often qualitative assessments rather than quantitative measurements. Nevertheless, there is no question that we who live here are being tested once again to see if we can maintain our democracy in the face of both internal and external stresses.
We would do well to remember that on September 17, 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powell asked Benjamin Franklin, referring to the newly established United States of America, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin famously responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
America is being tested as to whether it can keep its republic, just as we are being tested as to whether we can retain our democracy. Let us all hope that both of us can pass the test.
The writer, an international business development consultant, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the current chair of the Executive Committee of Congregation Ohel Nechama in Jerusalem.