Looking back at the election

It’s all over now but the shouting. And the recriminations. And the told-you-sos. And the hurt feelings. And the turned backs. And the anger at each other that’s been smoldering for so long.

When I went to vote in this election, for the first time in my life I felt less than entirely comfortable. One of the many benefits of living in a bubble is that you can assume that no matter how you’re voting, it’s with the majority of people with whom you share a polling place.

That’s not true any more.

To look at it logically, that’s not a bad thing. It’s intellectually and emotionally stultifying to be surrounded by people who think like you do. But it certainly does feel good.

This year, though, who knew?

Just a look at our own opinion pieces shows the range of political beliefs our writers — whom we believe reflect our readers — hold. Over the course of the last two weeks, we published strong opinions on both sides of the most public races.

But now it’s time to try to live with the results of the elections. We have until January to get used to it, but that’s it. It’ll be over then.

Many of us — okay, maybe it’s more accurate to say some of us, a small but voluble group of us — have cared deeply about the outcome of every election, because we’re politics nerds. But the world has moved far beyond that now.

The state of the world seems precarious to many of us. In Israel, here, in Europe, around the world, democracy is tottering. But we can’t let that threaten the Jewish community. We don’t agree on politics, but certainly we can agree that disagreements don’t alter our being one people.

Two things are always true. Am Yisrael chai, and e pluribus unum.

—JP

opinion

comments