Here’s a guide to the tossed, the kept, and the prevaricated in the political world

Pesach cleaning present a stark menu of choices — should you keep that fading newspaper you saved because you wanted to read that article, throw it out, or put it in the undecided pile to leave the decision for a different day?

Similar choices await in the world of politics and current affairs. Multiple election cycles and the twilight of Covid have converged to create a global political Pesach clean. So here’s a guide to the tossed, the kept, and the prevaricated in the political world.

TOSS

Andrew Cuomo

The New York governor is toast, and toast is chometz. Let’s just say that like him or not, New York will be in a state of paralysis just when it needs strong leadership as it comes out of the Covid crisis and begins the reopening process. We need a leader who commands respect.

Masks

Israel was one of the first countries to mandate mask-wearing in public, and the most stringent in its application, with police enforcing masking even in open areas.

But with the “R” infection rate at 0.77 in the wake of the successful vaccine campaign, the country’s Health Ministry is clearing out its rule book, and preparing to end the rule.

For a country of befogged glasses and sweaty-faced citizens, that is indeed a sign of Pesach freedom.

“Social Equity”

We all want equality, and equity is just equality without the “al,” right? So why is everyone getting roiled up with demands for social equity? It’s because equality is about everyone being the same. But equity, to paraphrase George Orwell, is about the government choosing who’s more equal than others.

So President Biden, tackle anti-Asian discrimination with the same zeal you do anti-black bias. And Mayor de Blasio, cut out that “33 neighborhoods” thing of those with “historically” less health care and just do your job. And let’s toss this phrase.

KEEP

Making stuff

Remember when no one cared that it said “Made in China” on everything we buy? Not anymore. As Western policy-makers began to realize that they were dependent on a Communist police state for even medical basics like masks, there was a lot of talk of re-shoring manufacturing. As the China-West freeze continues, expect more of that.

Dr. Fauci

He may be a nice man, but his name has become so caught up in politics and absurdities that it might be best to stop saying it. He could very well stay on leading whichever agency he’s headed since Reagan’s days, but his name should be retired from public discourse. Six feet, three feet, one mask, two masks. Sam I am.

Keep, but toss the name.

Middle East peace

Even as the Biden team try to revive the Iran Deal, ties between Israel and its new Gulf friends keep getting warmer. Clearly, the Abraham Accords weren’t just the Emiratis’ way of getting a foot in the door of the Oval Office, but a sign of a long-term change vis-à-vis Israel.

Undecided

Israeli elections

Donald Trump put it best. “You keep having elections and no one gets elected,” he told an Orthodox Jewish crowd in America after Israel’s second indecisive elections.

Days away from the fourth round, and with the pro-Bibi and anti-Bibi blocs seemingly balanced, a likely scenario is a fifth election.

Driving the deadlock is Bibi’s combination of vulnerability and strength: For the first time, two major political rivals on the right are trying to unseat him. But after a year of triumphs, he still looks like the man to beat.

Emergency powers

When governments accrue power, they don’t easily cede it.

From banning free movement to shutting workplaces, authorities everywhere curtailed freedom during the pandemic. Twenty years after Bush’s War on Terror began, the US president still holds extraordinary powers that were granted by Congress after 9/11 and never revoked. The question is how long the rollback will take this time.

Trumpism

Golfing at Mar-a-Lago, and releasing occasional statements is all well and good, but the big question hanging over American politics is what Trump wants to do next. With a lock hold on the GOP, Trump is in no hurry to announce whether he will run again. But meanwhile, the next generation of Republicans will have to bide their time.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 853)