It’s the defining paradox of politics: the egotism propelling politicians toward power makes most of them resist relinquishing it. Constantly putting their needs first, politicians often blur their own needs with the nation’s.
In a world that loves denigrating old, white men – and assumes that the first name of “masculinity” is always “toxic” – this column should write itself.
Why won’t the 81-year-old, worn-out President Joe Biden quit – even though presidents must appear commanding, let alone complete proper sentences, not to mention that he risks losing to someone he believes threatens democracy?
And why won’t the 74-year-old, washed-up Benjamin Netanyahu quit – even though leaders shouldn’t spend nine of the diciest months of their nation’s life dodging their constituents while denying their own catastrophic mistakes, so that too many soldiers die wondering whether their prime minister cares more about staying in power than saving their country?
Here’s where historians are party-poopers. What about all those whippersnappers who keep lying to keep their bosses – and themselves – in power? And what about women, from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Kamala Harris, who resist quitting, when their stubbornness proves harmful, too?
Spurning that sloppy, deterministic, race-gender lens, it’s about politics, power, and partisanship. Politicians are particularly self-obsessed. You have to enjoy entering rooms festooned with super-sized posters of yourself, with people shouting your name, with supporters crying with joy when you win – and in despair when you lose.
You need the arrogance to dial for dollars, telling people to part with their hard-earned money, so you can get a job. And once in office, you need enough confidence to make life-and-death decisions, which can go as right as they did when Israel repelled Iran’s missiles in mid-April, and as wrong as they did when Israel blew it on October 7.
Refusal to step down
SUCH SUPREME self-confidence makes it hard to let go. Amplifying the attention and glory is power, that most addictive drug. “There is a lure in power,” said Harry Truman. “It can get into a man’s blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do.” And not just men. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a legendary Supreme Court Justice. But her refusal to retire gave Donald Trump the opportunity to replace her, when she died at 87. Her replacement, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, rejects many of Ginsburg’s values.
Similarly, Kamala Harris has been about as unpopular a vice president as Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney – and far less popular than Joe Biden or Al Gore as Veeps. In September, I suggested in Newsweek that if she retired, it would free Joe Biden to also retire – and open the Democratic Party to the robust selection process it needed then to find a candidate to defeat Donald Trump.
Unfortunately, the 59-year-old Harris surrounds herself with identitarian totalitarians and sycophants. They blame her unpopularity on sexism and racism, not her blunders and word salads. The fact that Biden is more popular than Harris probably encouraged him to break his implied one-term presidency vow. Being stuck, knowing that if he dropped her, many Democrats would label him sexist and racist, reinforced his and his staffers’ addiction to the presidency’s power – and goodies.
Partisan toxicity intensifies the pathology. Why few Democrats until the debate admitted this aging emperor had no clothes – or far fewer brain cells – reminds us of Machiavelli’s insight that you first judge “a prince” by “observing the men he has around him.” In their hyper-polarized Washington bubble, the people in Bidenworld, the media establishment, and the Democratic Party blasted anyone who suggested Biden was aging – no matter how obvious it became.
THE DISASTROUS result proves how blinding partisanship can be – they challenged Trump to debate. Blinded with fury by Trump’s lies, Bidenites lied to themselves and the American people, suggesting that Trump’s party is not the only party of liars.
The post-debate media frenzy may have boosted Trump even more than Biden’s poor performance. These Democratic devotees professing surprise that Biden was frail instantly validated Trumpians’ nine-year rant about “fake news,” the “deep state,” and “the legacy media.” It equated the two camps morally, undermining Democratic warnings that Trump and his minions uniquely threaten America and democracy itself.
“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations,” John F. Kennedy elegantly noted. “When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.” Historians are not poets. But in a war-mobilized Israel, there’s a different poetry at work: the poetry of patriotism, the gritty yet soaring song of noble soldiers putting everything on hold, ready to sacrifice life, limb and peace-of-mind, to save their country, the Jewish people, and Western civilization.
And, in defense of old men: Amiram Bogot, a 64-year-old friend who is a prominent lawyer, joined the latest phenomenon – a company in the Hendlerim (the Hendelers), a battalion of older reservists, organized by the former minister of communications, 49-year-old Yoaz Hendel.
On Facebook, one soldier described how these geezers – who finished their reserve duties years ago, some of them decades ago – relieved him of his post deep inside Gaza last week. As the young’uns teased this Bengay Brigade, the 24-year-old smart aleck recognized his 54-year-old high school science teacher freeing him to go home.
True, most not-so-over-the-hill warriors sport bulges in their bellies alongside bulges from their sidearms. But their big hearts – and every soldier’s ongoing sacrifices in this war – remind us that, ultimately, you’re not necessarily your color, your gender, your profession, or your blinders. Some people transcend, living poetic lives; others less so. Fortunately, America and Israel are more defined by their poetic, patriotic citizens than their flawed leaders.
The writer, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His next book, Identity Zionism: Letters to My Students on Resisting the Academic Intifada, will be published this fall.