Reality-based rock bottom
By now you’ve probably heard all about the Winograd Commission report, released today, which found that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decisions regarding the 2006 Lebanon War were a “severe failure”. There’s one piece of this story that gives me hope about Israeli democracy, relative to American democracy: all the news articles are reporting that Olmert’s approval rating sits between 2% and 3%.
In the United States, even when a president spends 6 years accomplishing one severe failure after another, such that no one’s definition of success has been achieved except for multibillionaires and Al Qaeda recruiters, his approval rating will still never fall below 25%. For the “base”, loyalty is just that strong that it outweighs all empirical reality.
Israelis, on the other hand, whether they’re on the left or on the right, appear to be part of the reality-based community. When their government enters a disastrous war, they recognize this and hold their leaders accountable. Americans have much to learn.
This, I think, is also reflected in the workings of our respective political systems. A majority of the knesset can oust the prime minister and request the president to appoint someone else to assemble a coalition. This has happened several times, and more often the PM resigned in anticipation of such a move. in the US, once you have a president, you’re stuck with them until their term is up, resulting in lame-duck administrations such as this one, who know they can do whatever they want in Iraq since congress couldn’t really interest them and they’re not up for reelection anyway.
This guy has no plans to resign… he made that clear enough.
Hey Amit, talk to Kennedy and Nixon, then tell me we’re stuck with a President once he’s in office.
Yeah, and you can add Abe Lincoln to that. Come *on*.
Fair enough… but in order to truly compare Israel and the US, Israel would have to be a democracy, and it isn’t.
I mean, come on!!!