With the American presidential election a few days away, there’s a good chance, no matter who wins, that one side will not fully accept the victory of the other.
Kamala Harris and the Democrats have accused Donald Trump, for example, of undermining democracy when his followers breached the Capitol on January 6th to protest an election result they alleged was rigged. Some Republicans have argued that launching an impeachment trial against Trump was a backhanded way to delegitimize his election.
Undermining the Will of the People in the Name of “Democracy”
We have seen how in Israel, the will of the people can be undermined well after a government has been formed. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his mostly religious coalition proposed judicial reforms to make the Supreme Court more accountable to the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), his opponents blocked roads, led nationwide strikes, and threatened to shut down the country and refuse to serve in the IDF, all in the name of “saving democracy,” which they associated with maintaining a liberal, independent Supreme Court. The unrest stifled political debate and overshadowed genuine civil disobedience, leaving Israel internally weak and divided.
In democracies worldwide, the will of the people is increasingly being circumvented by political maneuvers. In countries with a coalition system, parties who receive the most votes are being sidelined by alliances of smaller, less popular parties. Take France. After Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won the largest share of votes in the July 2024 elections, left-wing parties united to keep her out of power.
Last year, Poland’s conservative Law and Justice Party won the largest share of votes but could not form a majority. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders was blocked from premiership despite leading his party to victory. And in Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is systematically excluded from coalition talks despite being the second-most popular party in several states.
It’s often the conservative parties, the natural home for religious Christians and Jews, that are outmaneuvered by their opponents, ironically, in the name of “democracy.” But democracy is actually a system by and for the faithful. It enables people to pursue productive lives–to raise families, go to work, study–without the specter of political violence and constant turmoil, knowing that, with hard work, they can change their government in due time so that it solves the problems that plague them the most.
Dignified Debate: the Hallmark of Democracy
In his book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery, Biblical scholar and political theorist, Yoram Hazony, describes another important feature of genuine democracy: the preservation of national cohesion through dignified debate.
“Today, politics has declined to the point that fearmongering and hurling mud is what is constantly put before the public,” he writes. “No signs of respect, no shred of legitimation for the other side, is permitted to enter discourse between rivals, but only vile expressions of contempt, disgust, distrust, and hatred. This is a dissolute politics, in which concern for the cohesion of the nation is subordinated to personal and party ambition, and the mutual loyalty of the people is burned away on the bleak altar of momentary advantage.”
If you lose an election, the best path forward is to act as loyal opposition and fight for your turn to govern. This requires faith–not faith in supernatural intervention–but faith in the essence of who we are as humans created in the image of God, endowed with awesome creative, intellectual power to continue the creation of God’s universe towards what is good. The will of the people, so long as they live in a society that abides by the basic morals of the Ten Commandments, is therefore expressive of the will of God.
If people don’t like their elected leaders or policies, they should fall back on the main democratic method for protest: debate, which is why freedom of speech and an honest media is so essential to democratic societies.
Don’t sow chaos and violence. Challenge the current rulers, but with a sensitivity towards national cohesion and functioning. Make insulting memes about bad politicians, but, for God’s sake, don’t call them “Hitler.”
October 7th and the Pivot to Trump
Most Israelis and Orthodox Jews in America are hoping Trump will win. Even my very secular friend in Tel Aviv is rooting for Trump because: “He likes us.” And while many are afraid that a Kamala Harris administration would empower antisemites and the genocidal Mullahs–not to mention destroy the American way of life–my religious friends are, at their core, the least worried. “God is in charge,” they say.
I don’t think they’re referring to supernatural intervention. They mean that we must accept reality and work with our God-given powers to change it. Ultimately, we must have faith that when we act morally and effectively, evil will be punished and good will be rewarded, just like when Hitler went down in his bunker. The only question is: how long will it take and how many people will have to die before good prevails?
Many conservatives suspected voter fraud in the 2020 election. Cheating in an election is a horrific act of idolatry. It bypasses the will of the people—and hence the will of God. No wonder most totalitarians are not believers. They want to be gods. But when most legal battles to prove voter fraud failed, Trump supporters had to accept the result and get to work as loyal opposition.
Unfortunately, three years later, God did “intervene.” The weakness of the Biden-Harris administration and Israel’s lack of vigilance arguably led to the October 7th massacre and the ensuing explosion of antisemitism on the streets of Europe and America.
It took avoidable catastrophe on Middle Eastern, European and American soil, combined with the hard work of the Trump team, for prominent influencers like Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and prominent Jews, like billionaire Bill Ackman and actor Michael Rapaport, to realize that the Democratic party could not solve the nation's problems and that Trump was their man.
”Too big to rig” has now become a rallying cry for Trump voters in the U.S. It seems that winning by a landslide will become the only real guarantee for the most genuinely popular politicians and parties to form a government and for true democracy to prevail, in America and beyond.
This article was originally published in the pro-Israel German publication, www.Achut.com and translated by the writer.
Orit Arfa is an author and journalist based in Berlin. Her debut novel, The Settler, follows the aftermath of the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. Her work can be found at: www.oritarfa.net.