The last quarter of a century has witnessed the decline of civility in U.S. politics.
Of course, there were earlier ugly periods—especially, the McCarthy Era. But now we’ve had a prolonged period, beginning with the Clinton scandals and impeachment, the vilification of George W. Bush as a “new Hitler,” the attacks on Barack Obama’s nationality and patriotism, and now–alas–the Obama Administration’s questionable attacks not only on partisan opponents of its Iran nuclear deal but on Israel and Israel’s Jewish friends including Senator Schumer.
Let’s be clear. The Obama Administration is not the first to play hardball of this kind. During the controversy during the Reagan Administration over the U.S. sale of AIWACS surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia, attack dog Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was unleashed. Then Secretary of State James Baker played the same role during dustups involving Israel under George H. W. Bush. One troubling thing about the current ugliness is that it never before happened under a Democratic President. Bill Clinton, bless him, kept his quarrels with Bibi Netanyahu pretty much private.
More generally, the decline of political civility in this country or any country is not good for the Jews. When Cole Porter wrote “Anything Goes” in 1936, the democratic, tolerant Weimar Republic was already long gone, with Einstein among the first to use a one-way ticket to the U.S.
Of course, Donald Trump is the current flashpoint for the media firestorm over The Donald’s misogyny and xenophobia. Trump threatens to launch a third party campaign that would sink the GOP. Ross Perot–a man of much higher moral character–did this in 1992. Nor is Trump the first great American showman to enter politics.
One could argue that Benjamin Franklin originated the breed, but most historians say it started with P. T. Barnum who went from museum and circus promotion to the circus of politics, which he practiced successfully at the local level in Connecticut.
This is what Barnum wrote decrying incivility of the kind Trump personifies: “Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.”
The best that can be said about Trump, in my view, is that he is not an anti-Semite. But then neither was Senator Joe McCarthy, the archetypal American demagogue.
The historian Henry Adams, the grandson of a president, joked that the evolution of the U.S. presidency from Washington to Ulysses S. Grant was enough to disprove Darwin about the progressive development of species. The evolution in pitchmen and politicians–from Barnum and Perot to Trump–is a more recent illustration of the same proposition.
Karl Marx said that history repeats itself–first as tragedy, then as farce. I fear that we are experiencing the farce now, with the tragedy coming later.
