What's the right way to beat the left?

Commentary magazine's executive editor Abe Greenwald addressed the question of campaign strategy in an Aug. 6 newsletter, drawing on a discussion between National Review senior writer Noah Rothman, Commentary editor-in-chief John Podhoretz, and senior editor Seth Mandel about how Republican Sen. Mike Rogers might defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's midterm elections.

The panel examined whether it would be more effective to attack El-Sayed on socialism or his connections to jihadism. Greenwald noted that "I suspect it would be profitable for Rogers to hit him on both counts, but there's a potential risk in focusing the race too narrowly on El-Sayed's radicalism altogether."

He elaborated on a broader pattern: "It's become clear in high-profile elections over the past few years that naming and shaming the big, glaring, awful thing that defines one's opponent doesn't have the persuasive power we'd like to think - no matter how accurate the characterization. We've seen this approach flop on both sides of the aisle and in primary races."

Greenwald used this observation to assess Israel's upcoming Knesset elections on Oct. 27, warning that the right's focus on discrediting opposition figures seeking to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu risks backfiring. He cited Netanyahu's main challenger, former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, along with far-left chairman Yair Golan and Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas as examples of figures targeted by such attacks.

Drawing on recent American electoral history, Greenwald pointed out: "The 2016 presidential election left no doubt about the exact nature of Donald Trump's flaming outlandishness, and he stunned the world by becoming the GOP nominee and then president. Starting years before the 2024 election, Democrats made a full-time job of repeating that Trump was a threat to democracy, a sexual predator, a grifter and a convicted felon, and then he was elected president by a greater margin than in 2016."

He also warned that "when a candidate makes his opponent's unfitness the central message of his campaign, he also makes the race all about his opponent."

Instead, Greenwald suggested: "Perhaps the best way to go after a radical opponent is to get a jump on offering a compelling vision of your own that competes with the dark one he's peddling."