Only constant in US is change
Many of America’s closest political observers both here and abroad were shocked by the results of this month’s midterm elections, as the Democrats significantly outperformed expectations during a cycle when the president’s party usually suffers at the polls. The Democrats will hold onto control of the Senate and may even add a seat when Georgia’s runoff election occurs in December. While the House of Representatives now shifts to the Republicans, their majority is razor-thin.
And clearly, we have seen nothing like the landslide so widely predicted. The lesson for countries in the region and elsewhere around the world is unmistakable: America is never a predictable country, nor is it one-sided or cardboard. It always entails a multitude of views, Democrat and Republican, conservative and liberal, old and new — and these need to be grappled with and balanced. Ultimately, they must be embraced.
As we now make sense of the new political reality of a divided Congress, we are reminded that there is no silver bullet for how to engage the US.
Twice this month, I have traveled to the Gulf for historic occasions. First, as a participant in Pope Francis’ historic visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain. And, just in these last days, as an interfaith ambassador at the World Cup, opening the first kosher kitchen for Jewish fans traveling to Qatar.
Given the political significance of the midterm elections in my home country, it was impossible in my meetings with friends and partners, civil society leaders and just plain citizens to avoid questions about America’s political trajectory.
I said much of what I say now — and which I counseled in an Arab News editorial several months ago. The countries of the Gulf should not expect a simple answer. The US political culture is inherently dynamic and no one-size-fits-all solution ever emerges in our body politic.
Our close partners and allies in the region should continue their fruitful engagement with the Biden administration. And by all means, the Gulf should forge new relations and strengthen existing ones with Republicans, who now control the House, but in a way that maintains the breadth and depth of their collaboration with Democrats.
Above all, make no predictions about 2024, when the next US presidential election will occur, or think the result is scripted or preordained.
For those from elsewhere trying to come to terms with all that has recently occurred in the US, I can only counsel one approach: Engage this country, its people and its political system in all its complexity, through all its participants.
If the recent midterms teach us anything, it is that the one-sided approach always fails in the long run. Because the America of tomorrow is never the same as that of today.
Rabbi Marc Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and a noted adviser to many Gulf states. He is recognized as one of the most influential Jewish figures in the Muslim world.