As the results of the US midterm elections began to come in, I was digging into a massive piece of meatloaf at a restaurant in Blue Hill, Maine. The restaurant is called Stowaways Town Tavern, and it was humming with activity on the evening of November 3.
A large television in one room showed the results. A CNN team was live in Portland, Maine. Portland is the largest city in Maine. It is on the coast, closer to Boston than most of the rest of Maine.
CNN had come to Portland because Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was up for election, and she was trying to continue her tenure in the Senate, which had lasted 30 years.
Democrat Troy Jackson was running against Collins, and polls had him ahead. Therefore, Maine became one of the closely watched races for the Senate, along with those in Michigan, Alaska, and elsewhere.
At Stowaways Tavern, the conversations seemed mostly to be about random topics, such as how to make a Cuban sandwich, or whether brown sugar should be in a Mojito.
If elections weren’t the central discussion here, it might be because Mainers had been flooded with election materials and were finally able to unwind. Post-office boxes have been overflowing with brochures slamming Jackson or Collins. Roadsides are covered in signs.
Even in rural Maine, Iran, Israel on people's minds
Speaking to people over the last week, it was clear that even in rural Maine, in areas further east and north of Blue Hill, the Iran war and Israel were on people’s minds.
I was asked several times about the Israeli elections, who had won and how they work. The general consensus among people was that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seen negatively. He’s a polarizing figure and was rarely seen in a positive way in many areas.
The criticism of Israel wasn’t the stereotypes we heard. It was more pragmatic. Why is Trump involved in Iran? Why is Israel at the center of chaos in the Middle East? Why is America, yet again, dealing so much with the Middle East, when Trump had promised to end endless wars?
Unlike some campaigns in which Israel appeared to be a topic among politicians, such as in Michigan, it didn’t appear to come up in debates between Jackson and Collins. That makes sense, because there’s no reason Israel should be a central feature of local politics.
Nevertheless, there appears to be a good reason that the unpopular Iran conflict has become central. Gas prices are higher, and people don’t understand what the US is doing or why it is involved in a conflict with Iran.
This isn’t because people think Iran is good. It’s because they don’t see a clear explanation of what the conflict is achieving and what the goals are.
One talking point about the Iran conflict has been that Tehran must not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The nuclear sites haven’t been a main target in the most recent conflict, which began on February 28.
This is perplexing to people. It is as perplexing as the sense among some that there would be renewed US bombing.
The lack of an explanation to Americans on the eve of the election about the continued conflict is unique in US elections. Usually, Americans have been told why they are fighting wars, even if the wars are unpopular.
No Republicans appeared to campaign on the Iran war or on what might come next there. This is a major break from the lessons learned after the Vietnam War.
Under the Powell Doctrine, formulated by secretary of state Colin Powell in the early 1990s, the US got involved in the Gulf War in 1991 against Saddam Hussein with the understanding that it had to have clear, obtainable goals.
The lack of articulation of a clear goal, or how to obtain it, left many Americans uncertain on the eve of the midterms.
Trump's promise to end aid too little too late
Israel also seemed to be a center of some discussions. For instance, President Donald Trump said the US would end the billions in annual aid to Israel. His comments came amid a sense that aid to Israel has become more controversial.
Trump’s comments appeared aimed at the Michigan Senate race, where progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was running against Republican Mike Rogers.
Trump’s last-minute announcement, however, wasn’t enough to change that close race. Sayed won by several hundred thousand votes.
Trump’s comments before the Israeli election, twice endorsing Netanyahu, also didn’t seem to sway the polls much. Ultimately, Likud performed better than expected, but it didn’t win enough with its allies to form a coalition.
That confusing outcome was on the minds of some people I spoke to. They find it difficult to understand Israel’s complex elections in which no party gets 50% of the vote.
Most people thought Israel needed new leadership. They don’t hate Israel, but they do think that things are on the wrong path. They feel the same way about the Iran war and Trump’s trajectory.
It will take time for the blame game over the midterm elections to shake out. Some have predicted that the Trump administration, not needing to face another election for a while, will escalate against Iran.
There appears to be a large number of people in the US and Israel, however, who have grown tired of the weekly headlines about a new round of bombing. I didn’t meet one person, including Republicans I spoke to, who are enthusiastic about more war with Iran without a clear goal.
There may be lessons here. In Israel, over recent months, there have been headlines almost every week promising a new operation against Iran. Frequently, the headlines claim that an operation was about to happen but was canceled or postponed at the last minute. This happened in July and also in October.
What will be achieved with new bombing? Reports promise massive destruction, “intense” airstrikes, and bombing of infrastructure and energy facilities, apparently damaging and destroying things that civilians rely on.
In October, on the eve of the Israeli election, Netanyahu said he had ordered the overthrow of the Iranian regime. Overthrowing a regime that rules 80 million people is a major endeavor, one whose outcome and methods have not been explained to average Israelis.
Israelis, like their American counterparts, were not provided with an explanation of how renewed conflict would be different than in the past. When it came to the ballot box in both Israel and the US, voters registered their disapproval with the current trajectory.