Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 29, 2023
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
Zealotry is the enemy of democracy
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
          WASHINGTON — Is Israel holding a mirror for America? The headlines coming out of Israel tell the story of a deeply divided nation trying to hold off the worst consequences of an authoritarian push to the right by its leaders. And when zealots – religious, racial, language, gender, etc.; take your pick – are in charge, democracy is in trouble.
          The most right-wing government in Israel’s 75-year history is led by religious zealots, anti-LGBTQ bigots, and authoritarian nationalists who together are determined to turn Israel into an Iran-like theocracy. Although the nation was founded as a haven for Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust, it remained a secular, rather than a religious nation, which is why major sectors in the country are pushing back.
          With Israeli doctors walking off the job, military reservists (the mainstay of the nation’s defense) announcing they will stay home, labor unions threatening widespread strikes, and tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets, Israel is on the brink of civil strife.
          At the heart of the dispute is a law just passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, which negates the power of the Supreme Court to overturn Knesset laws, an interference with judicial review, an essential element of modern democracies
          These anti-democratic forces were set in motion by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government cobbled together by and an assemblage of small ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties. Together they are the dominant force in the Knesset.
          The secular Netanyahu, like Donald Trump, cynically embraced hard right religious and other zealots to gain and retain power. Also, like Trump, he has been indicted and would personally benefit under the so-called “reform package” advanced by the Knesset that makes it harder to declare a prime minister “unfit for office,” and trigger a new election.
          But before we get on our high horse and denounce these undemocratic reforms, we need to reflect upon our reflection in a mirror, the flip side of the Israeli imbroglio.
          We have a Congress that struggles to put together the votes needed to pass essential legislation, but when it does, our Supreme Court is increasingly taking judicial review to a new hard right level.
          Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., worked long and hard to achieve a super conservative Supreme Court majority, personally shepherding the process and changing rules to achieve the outcome he wanted, which culminated in three Trump-appointed Supreme Court judges joining three sitting conservatives to overturn precedence and make new conservative law.
          With the Israeli Knesset and U.S. Supreme Court zealots defying founding principles as they spin from their orbit’s center, the fragility of democracy is exposed.
 
          Eleanor Clift’s latest book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
          Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
          © 2023 U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
          Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.
END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND