My grandmother Charlotte Gerson used to read us a great children’s book by Remy Charlip, ”Fortunately.” It followed Ned’s roller-coaster experiences as “Fortunately,” he was invited to a party, “Unfortunately” it was far away, etc. etc. Up and down he went – with each success balanced by potential disaster – until saved by another burst of good fortune. It offered great character training, cultivating resilience. And it, unintentionally, provided basic training in Jewish history, Zionism – and these days, the nuance and fortitude needed for Donald Trump’s presidential rerun.
There’s much talk about America’s long overdue “vibe shift.” Perhaps that cultural reset can restore appreciation for nuance, subtlety, complexity – and a democratic politics living with paradox.
Consider last week. For starters, “Fortunately” Hamas released seven holy hostages – but “Unfortunately” Israel released hardened terrorist killers. Then, Trump’s inauguration sent Americans – and the pro-Israel community – on a whipsaw adventure.
Fortunately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth agree with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz that “Hamas will never govern Gaza…. That is completely unacceptable.”
Unfortunately… Hamas terrorists saunter around Gaza, acting as if they won thanks to the Trump-imposed ceasefire. Meanwhile, some Trump appointees, like Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Michael DiMino, believe America has “no vital or existential” interests in the region, while others are Tucker Carlson neo-isolationists downplaying Israel’s importance to America’s national security.
Fortunately, Trump’s inaugural welcomed a “golden age,” denounced an “education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country,” envisioned “a society that is colorblind and merit-based,” and embraced an understanding of America as an “ambitious” nation of dream-fulfillers and history-changers, with the “spirit of the frontier… written into our hearts.”
Unfortunately, as the pro-Trump Wall Street Journal editorialized the next day, this patriotic president pardoned “the Jan. 6 Cop Beaters,” including “those convicted of bludgeoning, chemical spraying, and electroshocking police to try to keep Mr. Trump in power.”
Clearly, every day, there will be enough to outrage Trump-haters and charm Trump-lovers, further polarizing American politics. It will be easy to lose perspective as Americans continue their Rorschach test politics. Every “Fortunately” will thrill Trump-worshippers – every “Unfortunately” will thrill Trump-demonizers. Elon Musk’s awkward one-handed salute from his heart to the air will offend those who overlook that Tim Walz – remember him – made a similar gesture while campaigning – and that unlike Walz, Kamala Harris, and Harris’ husband Doug “Superjew” Emhoff, Musk visited Israel and toured Kfar Azza in November, 2023.
Similarly, a little Republican tolerance could go a long way too. Having won, Republicans could be gracious. Is it really that outrageous that at a national prayer service Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde added a “final plea” to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now”? Why did that request infuriate?
In his 2023 book canonizing Joe Biden, “The Last Politician,” Franklin Foer wisely calls politics “the means by which a society mediates its difference of opinion, allowing for peaceful coexistence. It’s an ethos that requires tolerance of competing truths…. It’s a set of rules whereby the side that fails to prevail in democratic decision-making accepts its defeat.” Clearly, even under Biden, America, Israel, and many democracies suffered from an anti-politics. Today’s politicians keep framing politics as good confronting evil, without tolerating competing truths or disagreements.
In a moment when most Westerners doubt God, many inject religion’s absolutes into politics. The devotion traditionally focused on God is now misdirected toward deifying your leader – and demonizing your rivals. This is toxic to democracies.
Perhaps even worse than this intense partisan warfare is the suffocating, all-or-nothing party discipline it spawns. Democracies need doubt, division, debate – within limits. Contained chaos keeps everyone honest, sharper, reducing groupthink. When fair-minded historians start autopsying the Biden administration, we will see how the slavish devotion to racist “anti-racism,” to suppressing “disinformation,” to staying “woke,” to demonizing Trump, and most outrageous, covering up Biden’s deterioration, destroyed his presidency.
Perhaps even worse than this intense partisan warfare is the suffocating, all-or-nothing party discipline it spawns. Democracies need doubt, division, debate – within limits. Contained chaos keeps everyone honest, sharper, reducing groupthink.
I grew up in a world riddled by paradox but tempered by compromise. Racist Southern Democrats governed with liberal Democrats, while William F. Buckley Connecticut conservatives belonged to the same Republican Party as Jacob Javits New York liberals. In Israel Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin fought within the Labor Party.
In healthy democracies, the leader you choose should be the politician who annoys you the least, not some supreme leader whom you never question. True, trying to change tone and moderate opposition with Donald Trump on a roll in the White House again is a big stretch for the 75,019,230 voters who rejected him. Democrats are not feeling magnanimous – especially after Trump’s Inaugural Address disrespected President Biden.
But are people really enjoying this Age of Outrage? Is it that much fun to be disgusted by half your fellow citizens, constantly? Or, more accurately, is it really that much fun to be manipulated by social media algorithms and real-life demagogues, left and right, into detesting half of your country again and again? And are they really that bad? Is every issue that morally clear?
That’s where Remy Charlip’s lesson for children from 1964 comes in. Take a breath, and re-read Trump’s inaugural. Trumpophobes should seek 1, 2, 3, points to applaud – while Trumpistas should find 1, 2, 3, points they reject. If you can’t find anything, if it reads all good or all evil, perhaps you need to take a breath, and take a better, more self-critical, look at yourself.
Professor Gil Troy, a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His latest book, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream,” was just published.
