America Won, the Democrats Benefitted

Americans woke up on Election Day, did the right thing and voted out of office many of the people who they saw as responsible for the economic stress most of them are suffering, the wanton murder of US citizens on the streets of their country in the name of immigration enforcement by agents of their own government and the unbridled corruption visible to all at the highest levels of government that has enriched the elites at the expense of the working class.

There are those who will lament the fact that in order to do so certain progressives had to be elected to office whose allegiance to the continued growth of traditional American culture is questionable. Fair enough. Others are concerned about those newly elected and the position held by many of them vis-à-vis Israel and what that may mean, long term, for the America-Israel relationship. Those are all valid concerns.

However, in a country structured politically on a two-party system, as is the case in the US, voting for someone about whom you are less than enthralled, may simply be the cost of getting more damaging people out of office. It may be a lamentable negative of the two-party system but until someone can come up with a better alterative those are the options. As such, America won big time, and the Democratic Party benefited as a result.

The good news is that some really awful people were kept out of or removed from office. In Ohio, Amy Acton, who had an enviable record as the former Secretary of Health there, easily defeated Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate who authorized a despicable ad getting Acton’s mother, who abandoned Acton and her brother almost 50 years ago, to say Acton was a liar and unfit to be governor. Everyone in political circles there condemned the ad except for Ramaswamy and his sponsor, President Trump, who said if he had such a story as candidate he would use it as well. Good riddance, Vivek.

In Texas, Democrat James Talarico handily beat former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by 11.5%, the first time a Democrat won a statewide race in Texas in 32 years. Paxton was strongly supported by President Trump over the incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who had held the seat since 2002 but lost the nomination because he stood up to President Trump. Cornyn most likely would have prevailed over Talarico hands down, but Paxton was simply unqualified and anathema to the voters.

In 2015, Paxton was indicted on state securities fraud charges relating to activities before taking office; the charges were dismissed nine years later without any requirement to admit any wrongdoing. In 2023, Paxton was actually impeached by the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives, although the Texas Senate voted later in 2023 to acquit Paxton of all articles of impeachment. The fresh-faced Talarico gave the voters a reasonable alternative and they took it.

Democrats notched an upset victory as well in South Carolina, where Annie Andrews toppled Republican Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed this year to succeed her late brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham and was heavily endorsed by President Trump. Andrews, a pediatrician, will be the state’s first Democratic senator in more than 20 years. Graham drew criticism for lacking fluency on some policy issues and admitted in a debate with a Republican rival that she was “not that informed on national security,” in spite of which she went on to win the GOP nomination. She basically had no qualifications to be a US senator whatsoever and the electorate knew it.

As for the America-Israel relationship moving forward, the election of Abdul Al-Sayad to the US Senate representing Michigan has been a benefit from the standpoint of helping to gain control of that body for the Democrats. Nevertheless, his position on Israel gives many of us pause and time will tell if his stated positions will prevail and thereby negatively affect the bilateral relationship that has been nurtured since our founding in 1948.

What should give all of us here in Israel some level of comfort, however, are the words of Lord Palmerston in an 1848 speech to the British House of Commons, when he stated: “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”

During the Nixon years, then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger paraphrased Palmerston when he said: “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” On that point, nothing has changed and whenever the interests of our two countries converge, we will see cooperation and support continue. Much of what we have heard in this campaign has been campaign rhetoric, nothing more.

There will be a great deal of post-election analysis, posturing and words of caution uttered. Yet one thing this election has shown us: Abraham Lincoln was right when he said: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

For some years now, US leadership has acted as if this adage did not apply to them. Those of us watching from the outside worried whether or not America had passed the tipping point and could not change direction. Yesterday the citizens of the United States said, loud and clear, “Enough.” All of us who consider ourselves part of the Western world should be grateful to them for a job well done.