This is the season of elections. Israel and the United States are heading into what has been labeled one of the most important elections in our lifetime.
The consequences of these two elections, separated by about one week, will significantly impact each other. What happens in one country will have a ripple effect in the other.
In both elections, in Israel and in the US, the most important issue is not which party or for whom you will cast your ballot. Rather, the most important issue is what you will let your chosen side get away with.
Before casting their ballot, every voter must make several decisions. Voters must consider how, if elected, they will hold their candidate and party accountable. And they must determine what another candidate or party might say or do to sway the voters to switch teams before the ballot is cast.
If the answer to those considerations is that nothing can ever change your mind, then you are blinded by a loyalty that prevents you from building a better democracy for your country and a more responsible society for your fellow citizens.
The issue is not what you condemn in your opponents. The issue is what you will excuse in your candidates. What excuses will you make to justify your party and your candidate in conversations with friends, family, and colleagues?
And what, if anything, will sway you, compel you, or weigh on your conscience so heavily that, when faced with the final decision, you will change your vote?
Odds are you support a candidate or a party because of the platform and policies. Nevertheless, ask yourself whether you are holding them to the same standard of critique that you levy against the other candidates and parties. Most often, the answer is “no.”
Often, we vote for the lesser of two evils. While there is nothing wrong with that calculation, it does not mean that we must also whitewash their faults. Wrongs should not be transformed into virtues. Mistakes should not be justified. There must be accountability.
Voting one way or another, choosing one candidate over others, is a privilege given to all voters.
But remember, you are a voter, not a defense attorney. Your task is not to be a modern-day Clarence Darrow, the American defense attorney famous for championing civil liberties and defending outcasts and questionable characters in the early 20th century. An election is not an acquittal.
The direction people want to be governed
An election is a group decision about the future. An election should be the compass pointing to the direction people want to be governed. By the same token, elections do not free people, candidates, or winners of their past mistakes. Winners cannot rewrite history or the record. Inquiries still need to be conducted.
Elections decide who should govern next, and that is it.
So, before you vote, make certain of your decision. Probe your decision-making process and your conscience. Ask yourself what your side needs to do to lose your support. If you find no faults in your decided-upon party or candidate, you are guilty of blind support. It is as if you are issuing a blank check – a very costly blank check.
If your decision is simply based on the “anyone but” school of thought, as it so often is, recognize that you have removed yourself from the educated voter cadre. In essence, you have absolved your team of accountability.
If, after years of defending your party, its policies, and candidates, you now feel the need to ask soul-searching questions, know that this is neither a betrayal of yourself nor of your past choices. It is a realization of changing times, changed perspective, and new priorities.
Both Israel’s upcoming election and the US midterm election are driven by what is termed “negative partisanship.” I call it “anyone but…” elections. Not surprisingly, studies in both Israel and the US show that currently elected officials have embarrassingly low approval ratings that are still dropping.
Often forgotten is that campaign promises are almost always not, and cannot always be, fulfilled.
A vote is a choice, and seldom are there perfect choices. Remember that as you cast your ballot. Remember that as you cast your ballot.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his new TV show, Thinking Out Loud, on JBS.
