Where Jews and Judaism Meet the Political Road!
The Next Steps: Finding a Political Home
So, where do we position ourselves politically in this climate? We begin with an acknowledgement that for many of us neither the Party of the President (formerly, the Republican Party) nor the Party of Zohran Mandomi (formerly, the Democratic Party) will serve us well!
As our two major political groupings have been taken over by the MAGA crowd in the case of the GOP and correspondingly, we see a growing infusion of Democratic Socialists moving to capture power and influence among Democrats.
There is an absence of mainstream political leadership, further contributing to this sense of abandonment, as the current climate seems to have left the political center devoid of any dominant actors.
To better understand what has happened to American politics, we need to dissect the organizing elements that contributed to the Trump Revolution, just as we need to study how the Progressive Left is currently mobilizing. We need to recall that both Donald Trump and Zohran Mandomi have only been successful because the groundwork for their rise to power must be seen as tied to a series of actions, defined below. Each of these organizing steps allowed both political camps (the Progressives and MAGA) to capture power:
- Creation of Think Tanks: Framing the Ideas
- Extensive Polling Research: Examining Social Trends and Priorities.
- Community Listening Tours: Responding to Citizenry
- Cultivating Leaders: Identifying, Educating, and Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders
- Creating Social Media Platforms, Identifying Media Allies and Supporting Thought Leaders, While Underwriting New Media Initiatives
To successfully achieve the outcomes that both groups are seeking, it became essential that these political camps build a vital fundraising structure.
Both these movements established very clear sets of political priorities, appealing to specific constituencies. By contrast, mainstream Democrats have generated a far less definitive platform, seeking rather to build a broad consensus. This model worked for an earlier generation of voters but appears to be less helpful to today’s electorate.
There are five distinct major voting groups within the American electorate:
• Independents
• Rural
• Suburban
• Urban
• Religious Values
We would find for example that the Democrats in 2024, only “won” one of these sectors outright, the “Urban” vote and even here Republican gains were significant with every major ethnic and racial community in this sector.
The two parties split the “Independent” vote, except in the key “battleground states” where the Republicans outperformed the Democrats. Losing the “Suburban” vote by four percentage points represented a key factor in explaining the Democratic defeat in the 2024 election.
Moving forward, whatever politics will ultimately emerge, including a reconstructed Democratic Party, an amalgamation of mainstream Republicans and moderate Democrats into something new on the political horizon, or some other initiative to reflect a “third way”, any of these efforts will require a similar organizing framework.
What will be the “keys” to this next step in framing a political formula must be constructed around a set of value-based propositions, focusing on five propositions:
• Social Trust and the Quest for the Truth
• Consensus-Based Thinking and Action
• Moderated Messaging and Civil Discourse
• An Emphasis on Accountability and Transparancy
• Commitment to the Constitution, Due Process, Checks and Balances, and Separation of Powers
In framing an alternative formula for governance, there will be no room for extremist policies or actions. Nor will there be any tolerance for political retribution or an “enemies list”. In measuring the success of such a political movement, there will be a specific focus on results-based measures and an assessment of impact, so how did such policies and programs touch the lives and improve the well-being of citizens?