Is Calmer Speech in This Election Cycle a Pipe Dream?

Ever since the Biden-Trump debate debacle on June 27, I’ve read obsessively about the unraveling of the Biden campaign. His obvious and alarming physical and mental decline — furiously denied by much of the media and White House staffers — has been proven beyond all doubt. The emperor may still have bespoke suits and super cool sunglasses, but there is increasingly no “there” there. 

The lies about the president’s condition have infuriated the public. For Democrats who have insisted since 2016 that Donald Trump posed the clear threat to democracy, David Suissa has parried with this: “If you hide for years from American voters that their president is mentally unfit for the job, how is that not a flagrant undermining of democracy?”  

I’ve also been riveted by the Biden family psychodrama, where his inner circle, seemingly his wife Jill and his son Hunter, support his decision to stay in the race. These people are pathologically selfish. Joe Biden cannot even finish a sentence that isn’t read from a teleprompter. It is cruel and demeaning to allow him to dodder on this way, and it threatens national security. Who’s been making the decisions in the Oval Office and sliding papers in front of Joe, saying, “Just sign here”? And for how long?

In the midst of these Democratic party agonistes, Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt. It was miraculous. In turning his head at just the right angle at just the right second, he only lost part of an earlobe instead of his life. I hope that even those who despise Trump appreciate what a gift this was. Had he been killed, the country would have seen a dangerous outpouring of anger and frustration that would have spilled onto the streets.  

The photos and videos of Trump, literally bloodied but unbowed, insisting on standing up to face the crowd and making the Secret Service wait while he offered his trademark fist bump and yelled “USA!” against a backdrop of an American flag, will become iconic images in American history.

At 78, the physical and psychic stamina he displayed, his calm and determined response under literal fire, will only further diminish the rapidly shrinking Joe Biden. Some believe that Trump’s surprisingly brave and controlled reaction to the shooting has decisively won him the election. He came across as indomitable, someone with divine protection, someone with the presence of mind to show moxie and leadership in a moment of terror. Who knew? 

Still, 25% of survey respondents told Pew Research in May that they dislike both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the highest unfavorable ratings of any presidential candidates in 30 years and an unfavorable rating that doubled since 2020. Much of the public feels depleted by the ugliness of the political games, by the hyperbole, the lawfare, defamations, threats that the world will end if “he” gets elected, and the open contempt of those who disagree with their political views. Both Biden and Trump have lied chronically and recklessly and are guilty of contributing to this atmosphere.

Much of this language cheapens real evil. George W. Bush was compared to Hitler, as Trump has been. In 2016, feminists conjured dystopian images from Margaret Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale,” predicting that women would lose all rights to self-agency under Trump. Right-wingers engage in their own fearmongering, and extremists on both sides warn that if their opponent wins, it may be the last democratic election we will ever have. Enough already. 

None of the name calling or threats are new. In his time, George Washington was called a hyena, a horse beater, a spoiled child and a tyrannical monster. Teddy Roosevelt, while assistant secretary of the Navy, said President William McKinley had “no more backbone than a chocolate éclair.” At the Bull Moose convention in 1912, former President Roosevelt warned delegates, “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.” During that same campaign as a third-party candidate against Republican President Taft, Roosevelt was shot in the chest while delivering a speech. “I have been shot,” he told the crowd, “but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” (Trump probably would be jealous.) 

Vitriol will always be part of the political game, but Americans rightly worry about the “culture of contempt” that our current levels of animosity foster. Political differences have fractured or destroyed so many relationships, and infected the workplace with militant stances that brook no dissent. We have also suffered from an increasing amount of political violence that further tears at the fabric of society.  None of this is sustainable. Democrat, Republican or Independent, we are in this together and need to find a way forward more peacefully. 

How we speak to and about one another is key. Judaism teaches us how careful we must be in choosing our words. As the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “Words can create worlds and words can destroy worlds.” In politics, if you can’t make your case without resorting to bashing the other side, you’ve got a weak case indeed.

As the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “Words can create worlds and words can destroy worlds.” In politics, if you can’t make your case without resorting to bashing the other side, you’ve got a weak case indeed.  

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of the Boca Raton Synagogue has noted that the Hebrew word for anger is “ka’as,” which is connected to the word “chaos.” Anger loosens our inhibitions, even “takes us out of this world,” according to Pirkei Avot, and in extreme circumstances lets us rationalize violent acts against others.

We’re still four long months from the next presidential election. The drama is likely to stay high, but we can try to lower the temperature on the political talk. There’s just too much at stake.

Judy Gruen is the author of “Bylines and Blessings,” “The Skeptic and the Rabbi,” and several other books. She is also a book editor and writing coach.