Eight Years Later, Sitting Shiva Again
The wailing and lamentations after Trump defeats Harris echoed reactions to his victory over Clinton.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Eight years ago this week, my column was titled, “Sitting Shiva for an Election Loss.”
“Their grief was palpable,” I wrote. “The unexpected manner in which the deceased passed left them confused, angry, and scared. They consoled one another, shed tears, and gave quivering voice to their anxieties and fears.”
The 71 percent of Jewish voters that backed Hillary Clinton “were sitting a sort of shiva, mourning the death of an ideal, their vision of America,” I continued. “The wailing and lamentations of those stricken began in the dark hours before dawn the morning after Election Day and continued throughout that day and into the days that followed.”
As for President-elect Donald Trump, “Accession to the highest office in the land by a man they regarded with such contempt could scarcely be believed.”
Fast forward eight years and, depending on your exit poll of choice, somewhere in the range of 66 to 79 percent of Jewish voters nationally cast ballots for Kamala Harris. I could, with relatively minor edits, write the same column, as Trump has defeated the second woman to be her party’s presidential standard bearer.
Nearly identical emotions were present in the phone calls, texts, and emails I received on the Wednesday that followed Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and in the days after.
The most striking came from a woman long active in Jewish communal work in Atlanta. “So many feelings today,” she texted. “I feel as if I ought to rip my shirt and pin a piece of black cloth to it.”
Members of an Atlanta congregation received an email that said: “The President-elect of our United States espoused views and promoted narratives during the campaign . . . that run directly counter to the values of our community. Many of us wake with the question –- will we and our loved ones really be OK? And what do we tell our kids, each other, ourselves?”
The election has only exacerbated the political and cultural divides in this country. Assessing reactions in the week since, both sides appear to have written off the other as being worthy of consideration as fellow citizens.
Rabbi Joshua Heller of Congregation B’nai Torah framed the election around the Torah portion Lech Lecha and the relationship between Avram (not yet known as Abraham) and Lot, which fractures as “a dispute among their shepherds leads to the conclusion that ‘this land is not big enough for the both of us.’” They part ways, headed in opposite directions. “It is not hard to draw the analogy to the current moment, as we have come to the end of a contentious fight over who will be our shepherds,” Heller wrote. “There are those who, even now, base their ideology on ‘if you go left, I will go right.’ What matters to them is not whether the path is objectively best, but that it is the opposite of the path chosen by one’s opponent. Each might say that they are on the true path and the others are divergent.”
A few weeks before the election, Edward Lindsey, a Republican and former Georgia House majority whip, who previously served on the state election board, offered a prescription. “It begins with all of us,” Lindsey told an audience at The Temple. “We don’t spend enough time moving outside of our comfort zone. You’ve got to get used to talking to people you don’t agree with. Go back to those friends you’ve written off.”
Strictly my observation, of course, but many of Harris’ Jewish supporters appear to have little interest, at least for now, in having the tough conversations, among themselves or with Trump’s Jewish supporters — some of whom, it must be said, are gloating and exploring the meaning of the German word Schadenfreude.
While we’re on the subject, a few other post-election thoughts:
Georgia remains “red.” Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump — the first Democratic win in Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 — and the U.S. Senate victories of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock gave rise to talk that Georgia had gone “purple,” even trending toward “blue.” I didn’t see it then and I don’t see it now. Those 2020 victories were a veneer. Republicans have held the governor’s office and the state Senate since 2003 and the state House since 2005. If one of those changes, then maybe you can take out a purple crayon.
Only 22 of the 56 seats in the state Senate were contested, the uncontested split fairly evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Just half of the 180 House seats were contested, the remainder likewise evenly divided. Representative government requires more competition — for the good of the citizens of Georgia, as well as the two parties.
Dozens of countries have had women as their head of state. After 248 years, the United States is overdue for a spot on that list. That is not a partisan comment. Women should have the same opportunity as men to succeed or fail in the Oval Office.
More than 72 percent of active registered voters in the state cast ballots. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, that is a good thing.
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