Part One:
Talking Elections – IN ISRAEL
Before turning to last night’s Democratic primary elections, we take note of another election cycle – in Israel. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu will go on trial (as the defendant accused of various counts of corruption) in just a few weeks, even as his country has still not completed its elections to determine whether he or anyone else will become Israel’s new P.M. For a year now, Israel’s elections have been inconclusive: neither Netanyahu nor his major opponent, Benny Gantz, have won a majority of votes in Israel’s Knesset (its parliament). Nor has either candidate succeeded in putting together a coalition that commanded a majority.
So the question now is: In the weeks before the country holds a new election — simultaneously with Netanyahu’s corruption trial — will either candidate be able to negotiate a coalition that can succeed in forming a government? Gantz has relented and now is willing to join forces with the Joint Arab List, but who knows what they will demand in the way of policy concessions to end the oppression of the Palestinian people? Meanwhile, Avigdor Liberman, a former Netanyahu ally who left the government to form his own political party, Yisrael Beiteinu, has said that he’d be willing to enter into a coalition with Likud, Netanyahu’s conservative party, but only if Bibi himself steps down as Prime Minister. That’s not happening any time soon. Will Liberman switch sides and join with the centrist Gantz, even though this would violate Liberman’s previous refusal to partner with the Joint Arab List? What a complicated mess!
WHAT DO YESTERDAY’S PRIMARY ELECTIONS MEAN?
We discuss yesterday’s Democratic primary elections with Dave Levinthal, political editor for the Center for Public Integrity, and with Steven Greene, professor of political science at North Carolina State University. Everyone agrees that Joe Biden now has a lock on the nomination for president. But how will he beat Donald Trump? Surely, it will help if the Democratic Party can come together and enthusiastically support its nominee. What will it take to bring such unity to become reality? Is it likely to happen?
Part Two:
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
We speak with Bill Curry, who was twice the Democratic nominee for Governor of Connecticut and later a White House advisor in Bill Clinton’s administration. We agree that Joe Biden has won the nomination for president, but that doesn’t mean that Bernie Sanders should get out of the race, or that future debates should be canceled. The important thing is the tone with which we proceed. We need gentleness and empathy, even as we embrace change.
It is, of course, crucial to defeat Trump, to replace the authoritarian-in-chief. But Democrats don’t have to pull back from all progressive policies in order to do so. The majority of Democrats (and the majority of Americans) support many of the progressive policies that Sanders and Warren have been advocating. Biden can run on Obama’s 2008 platform and, this time, with the help of Congress, finish implementing it. We hope that, during the general election campaign, Biden will be able to explain to voters the ideas that Democrats believe in, in a tone that attracts voters, perhaps modeling his message on Dr. King, Gandhi, Mandela and Vaclav Havel.
Bernie will need a little bit of time to heal from his losses, and we hope he will come to recognize the enormous contributions he has made to the American people. We note that, during this primary process, Bernie has been far more civil to his opponents than they have been toward him. We hope that he will soon be able to communicate, with a respectful nod to Biden’s victory, while articulating his ideas for binding up the Party’s (and the nation’s) wounds, unifying, and moving forward to a progressive, democratic (with a small d and a capital D) future.
