Plumbers everywhere believe their country is going down the drain.
By LIAT COLLINSJoe the Plumber supporters 224 ap(photo credit: AP)
The ballots are flying. Wherever you look lately it seems like elections of some type are taking place. The US is doing it the American way - with TV spots and coast-to-coast rallies. Canada has just done it the Canadian way - politely, in two languages. Austria veered to the Right in German. The Palestinians are polls apart with Hamas in Gaza threatening not to recognize the right of Mahmoud Abbas to remain PA president after January 9 and a deadly serious campaign. Israel, meanwhile, is facing municipal elections on November 11 and is clearly gearing up for national polls in the not so distant future.
Even if Tzipi Livni manages to concoct a coalition, holding it together is not going to be easy. Although Livni , who succeeds Ehud Olmert, and whoever takes over from George Bush are not going to have a particularly hard act to follow. Meanwhile, the economic meltdown is stealing the show. It is difficult to get carried away with galloping expectations when the horse has already bolted. And, as a friend of mine likes to quote, the choice seems to be between the evil of two lessers.
Of course, it is the gimmicks that stand out although few get my vote. Barack Obama and John McCain both mobilized the average Joe toward the end of their road campaigns. "Joe the Plumber" - neither a licensed plumber nor even called Joe, apparently - has had more than his 15 minutes of fame in the global village.
I don't know any plumbers called Joe, but I do know two Yossis, the Hebrew equivalent, and though I haven't spoken to either recently, from what I gather from past conversations I suspect plumbers everywhere believe their country is going down the drain and they have ideas how to fix the problem. They just have different ideas and price estimates - the same as the politicians they end up electing.
Actually, with dire predictions of mass layoffs as a result of the financial crisis, Joe the Plumber might be in a good line of business - taxing questions notwithstanding. Ask any plumber you know and he'll tell you that even in the hi-tech world where YouTube rules, people's pipes always need fixing.
Some jobs are like that. They might not be prestigious or well paid but they'll always be there. Once, when I was in my late teens and campaigning for Soviet Jewry, as I did almost every Sunday afternoon in London in the late '70s, I came across a policeman on security detail who seemed to be in a class of his own (in London, you can still tell a person's class from their speech). It turned out that this particular British bobby had studied economics at university and, realizing that a slowdown was about to take place, had joined the force as a graduate, thus ensuring himself a tenured, if not safe, job, in which he might be in the firing line but he would be unlikely to be fired.
THE COPPER came back to mind this week because, no matter who you are and where you live, we all have certain hopes and fears in common. But who is the average Joe/Yossi? Even within a tiny country such as Israel it would be hard to say definitively who is the ordinary man (or woman) on the street, let alone in the huge area that makes up the States. Does the average Joe live in Manhattan or the Midwest? Does the average Yossi reside under threats of Kassams/Katyushas in the North or South or is he the one wondering where all the doves have flown in Tel Aviv?
Phrases like "Americans choose..." and "Israel elects..." make good slogans (and headlines) but what do they really mean?
The Joe the Plumber who got just about the biggest plug possible showed the world how similar - and different - we all are. It is a safe bet that people everywhere worry about the same basic needs as they did even before the birth of democracy: food and shelter. And no politician anywhere is ever going to mount a campaign against education and health care. Nowadays it would also be hard to imagine a politician under the sun - which seems to get hotter and hotter courtesy of global warming - rejecting the need for environmental protection. Read their lip service.
But other issues on which many an American platform has been built seem almost esoteric to the Israeli voter, to whom pro-choice is more likely to be considered a slogan to get people into the polling booth than anything to do with the rights of a woman versus the rights of a fetus. And as to the war of words about gun ownership, well, that as an issue backfires in a country where there is compulsory military service and the wars are fought on home territory, not thousands of miles away. Guns aren't used here to down a deer but protect the Lion of Judah. Same-sex marriage? Not even on the radar. But if a savvy politician were to include the issue of agunot (women whose husbands won't give them a divorce, leaving them unable by Jewish law to remarry or have children) it might grab attention and some votes.
Fighting crime (and that includes corruption) is high on the list of priorities. Changing the election system itself should be a priority - especially as the current coalition negotiations demonstrate how far from democratic principles we are. The war on terror is certainly up there: "Yossi Ha'instalator" (or hashravrav, to use the correct Hebrew for plumber) is no stranger to news about pipe bombs being smuggled in from the Palestinian areas even as Israel's leaders discuss concessions for peace. But the war on road accidents is no less necessary. We need to close economic gaps - by raising the quality of life of the have-nots, not bringing down the haves. This won't be easy in the new post-'08 Crash world.
RIGHT NOW there are plenty of parties but we are not spoilt for choice.
Perhaps it is fortunate that we have the municipal elections coming up first. In Jerusalem it's not so much a matter of getting the trains to run on time as getting the light rail to run at all, since we're already paying for it. Building more classrooms (in all sectors of the population: from secular Jewish to ultra-Orthodox and in the Arab community) definitely is on the list. So is protecting the city's unique architecture and character. The threat of more luxury high-rises is casting a dark shadow in my neighborhood (populated by Yossis and plumbers by the score). We need more (and better paid) jobs and affordable housing. And never forget that we also need to take a break now and again and could do with more events like the wonderful (and cheap) Jerusalem Street Theater Festival held over Succot in the Liberty Bell Garden.
It would be nice if politicians would remember these are elections, not a ratings war. There are real life-and-death issues at stake - and I'm not just thinking of babies who might not be born and wild animals which might be shot down. I'm thinking of babies who might be shot down and endangered animals which might not be born.
Average Joes everywhere want politicians at both the municipal and national level to look out for the little guy - whatever he's called.
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