What Israelis can learn from the collapse of America’s Democrats

A few lessons liberal, democratic Israelis may want to take to heart before the next elections

Despite the thousands of differences between the American and Israeli political systems, it can be helpful to observe that the motivations mobilizing the majority of Americans to re-elect Donald Trump are quite similar to those that continue to support Benjamin Netanyahu. Specifically in common is the electorate’s pervasive lack of trust in the institutions of liberal democracy and the elites they believe control them. The failure of the Democratic party to convince Americans is similar to the failure of Israel’s Center and Left-Wing parties to convince Israelis over the past decade that liberal democracy is something worth fighting for.

Which is why now is a good opportunity for those of us who would like Israel to remain a liberal democracy to take a moment, as the dust settles from the American elections, to see what we can learn from Trump’s victory to avoid our own Democratic implosion.

Nearly every study in the past decade has shown that the Israeli political system is plagued by three main factors that also plague the American electorate:

1. 1. Trust in institutions is at an all time low
   2. The elites have grown increasingly disconnected from the populace
   3. Most communication is algorithmically moderated through elite-owned platforms

Under these conditions, authoritarian populists are the natural pick: Netanyahu, like Trump, has broken the third wall to reach out directly to the people with personable messages to promise he will fight to overturn untrustworthy institutions by wrenching control from out-of-touch and self-involved elites. In response, the Democrats (woke populists aside) sought to use logic and reason to argue, impassively and with intellectual rigor, that their policies have actually benefited the population far more than the populist years of Trump. Despite being correct, they ignored the main rule of sales: it isn’t what you say, but how you make people feel when you say it.

Autocratic populists make people feel good. They reach out through the digital ether to speak eye to eye with a population that feels unseen. They leapfrog traditional media to avoid gatekeepers and establish a feeling of personal connection. They speak of their own hounding by the same elites the population feels disconnected from, and build camaraderie through a shared sense of victimhood. ‘Look at us two,’ they tell the viewer of their videos, the listener to their podcasts, ‘we’re two decent people trying to get by but they just won’t let us. Well we can fight back, together,’ they promise. They cast themselves as the good Big Brother, the one you want on your side when the cool kids won’t let you in and the bullies take your lunch money.

In response, as Micah Sifry points out in his excellent analysis of the failure of the Democratic campaign, the liberal democrats rely on “message testing, data analytics and paid media.” Politics as online sales with another name. Instead of addressing the people as citizens, they addressed them as consumers. They relied on members of their class in the media to share the truth: life is worse under authoritarian populists. They relied on members of their class to tweak the algorithms for that message to get out. They relied on the messages to logically convince the population that the institutions are actually alright.

And they failed, because they forgot that the electorate does not want government as something done to it; the electorate wants government as a process we do together.

When there is no easy means for citizens to become engaged in the daily work of government, they become enraged. When citizens are treated as consumers they go elsewhere, to the people who speak to their hearts, who share with them their hopes and desires, who commit to fighting for the values they hold in common and mold government on their behalf.

To avoid an Israeli democratic implosion, the liberal democratic opposition in Israel – from Lieberman through Gantz and Lapid to Golan – need to take these lessons to heart. Media and marketing and a belief that the truth to get out will not cut it. Relying on polling numbers is a recipe for disaster. Expecting that the populace will remember the terrors of Netanyahu’s tenure is folly. The parties’ failure to lead the post-October 7 response is nearly unforgivable. It is entirely disappointing that most citizens have no idea how to get involved in the parties beyond online listserv registration and a once in a blue moon primary vote (if at all). As if politics and volunteering to better the country and rebuild civil society don’t mix.

Only a holistic approach to connecting with the public directly, treating each citizen as an owner and not a consumer, and communicating that we need to rebuild the institutions together to (re)create the State will win the day.

Were I to advise the opposition today in Israel I would stress the need for a united effort to engage every citizen fed up with the horrors of the past two years and willing to take a few minutes a day, perhaps an hour a week, to participate in the process of government. I would ensure that every citizen who asks ‘what can I do?’ have a concierge in their community able to direct her towards opportunities for action, no matter which party they will vote for on election day. I would counter mistrust in institutions by creating community with those institutions, finding ways for people to engage with the good civil servants doing their best to keep the State afloat. And I would build offline, un-algorithmically moderated, face-to-face opportunities for citizens to interact with their representatives around the urgent needs of the day to build consensus around the policies we will need to enact after the fall of the Netanyahu government to ensure we never again reach the depths of 2023.

We won’t counter the rise of authoritarianism with the tools of data science. We need community organizing to remind people that even folks who disagree can work together for common cause. We need our would-be leaders to treat us citizens as partners and co-creators, owner-operators and not consumer-constituents. The current moment demands we rebuild the grassroots-based political parties of yesteryear where people with shared values gather, get to know one another, and work together to realize their values in their communities, in their counties, in their countries. The best way to counter autocracy is with more democracy. Real democracy. Of the people, by the people, for the people.