The Economist - USA (2020-10-17)

24 United States The EconomistOctober 17th 2020

2 ThousandsofHasidimwhocaughtthe

virusdonated theirplasmaforantibody

treatment.Despitethat,adherencetoso-

cialdistancinghasremainedpatchy.Police

hadtobreakupa largefuneralheldfora

rabbiinApril.InJune,someHasidimused

boltcutterstoopenclosedplaygrounds.

The city closedseveral yeshivas, Jewish

schools, for flouting social-distancing

rules.Conversationswithmanyultra-Or-

thodoxJewssuggesta widespreadbutmis-

takenbeliefthattheyhaveherdimmunity.

Similarmisinformation spreadlast year

duringa measlesoutbreakina Hasidicen-

claveinBrooklyn.SamuelHeilman,anex-

pertonOrthodoxJudaismatQueensCol-

lege,points out that theHasidim are a

particularlyinsularsectwitha strongmis-

trustofseculargovernment.Theyareespe-

ciallyresistanttobansongathering,given

howcommunalmostactivitiesare.“The

ideaofprayingalone,”hesays,“theydon’t

reallyknowhowtodothat.”

Theriskisthatunlessthevirusiscon-

tainedinmicro-clusters,it willbuildintoa

secondwave.Anothercitywideshutdown

wouldcrippletheBigApple,whereunem-

ploymentisstillat16%.Thecityandstate

arealreadyinfiscaldistress.

Amongelectedofficials,thereisopti-

mismaboutthenewrestrictions.Mrde

Blasiosaidtherehasbeen“somelevelling

off”incommunitiesafflictedbytherecent

spikes.MrTischlerwaschargedwithin-

citement to riot. Mr Cuomo reminded

thoseopposingtherestrictionsofpikuach

nefesh, theJewishprinciplethatthepreser-

vationoflifeoverridesnearlyeveryother

religiousrule.“Thepointhere”,hesaid,“is

tosavea lifeandnotendangerothers.” 7

S

ometimes senatorsdecide matters of

national importance, such as confirm-

ing a Supreme Court justice, or whether to

convict an impeached president. Some-

times their concerns are more prosaic. At a

ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new bell

tower in Auburn, Susan Collins, a Republi-

can seeking a fifth term as Maine’s senator,

reminds guests that she helped secure

$246,000 for the surrounding infrastruc-

ture. The previous day in Waterville, Mike

Roy, the city manager, said Ms Collins se-

cured funding to help improve its centre.

Ms Collins’s Democratic opponent, Sara

Gideon, the speaker of Maine’s House of

Representatives, hopes that national con-

cerns prevail. At an outdoor dinner be-

neath a tent in Farmington, she told the

crowd that “we feel very left behind” by Ms

Collins’s “decision...to side with” Donald

Trump and Mitch McConnell. She discuss-

ed the Supreme Court and health care, and

won applause for deriding the amount of

money in politics and proposing a lifetime

ban on members of Congress becoming

lobbyists. Mr Trump currently trails his

Democratic opponent by more than 13

points in Maine, so Ms Gideon’s strategy—

lashing Ms Collins to Mr Trump—makes

sense. It also appears to be working: she

leads Ms Collins, who won her last Senate

race by 37 points, by 3.6. If that lead holds,

Democrats will celebrate: they would prob-

ably need Ms Collins’s seat to retake the

Senate. In time, they may also come to rue

the extinction of her kind of Republican.

Maine tends to elect centrist senators.

William Cohen, a Republican, served in Bill

Clinton’s cabinet. Olympia Snowe, like Ms

Collins, was a pro-choice Republican. An-

gus King, who serves with Ms Collins, is

one of just two Independents in the Senate.

And Ms Collins stresses her centrist cre-

dentials, often reminding Mainers that an

annual study from Georgetown University

has ranked her as the Senate’s most biparti-

san member for seven consecutive years.

Ms Gideon argues that this reputation is

outdated—that Ms Collins “has lost her

way”, is “putting someone else’s interests

above ours”, and has become a rubber-

stamp for the right. Though no Senate Re-

publican has voted with Mr Trump less of-

ten than Ms Collins, she has become fam-

ous, in a country split between two camps,

for her habit of neither condemning nor

supporting the president. Many Mainers

are still cross about her vote to confirm

Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Te-

resa Forster, who drove down to Farming-

ton from a nearby town to see Ms Gideon,

had previously supported Ms Collins, but “I

didn’t like her vote, and I didn’t like her

apology. She’s trying to have it both ways.”

The backlash to that vote sparked a wave

of donations. Even before Ms Gideon won

the nomination, national liberal groups

had raised millions for Ms Collins’s chal-

lenger. Ms Collins complains about out-of-

state money, of which Ms Gideon has more,

while Ms Gideon criticises Ms Collins for

taking corporate donations, but both can-

didates keep writing cheques—with

spending already reaching $100m, this race

is the most expensive in Maine’s history.

Ms Gideon has made inroads among the

sorts of independent-minded women who

had long supported Ms Collins alongside

Democratic candidates—in 2008, for in-

stance, Barack Obama won Maine by 17

points, while Ms Collins saw off a Demo-

cratic challenger by 23—forcing Ms Collins

to shore up her right flank. But she is het-

erodox, deliberative and socially liberal,

making her an awkward fit for a Trumpified

Republican Party.

Wave elections tend to wash party mod-

erates out to sea. If Ms Collins is among the

Republicans looking for a raft on Novem-

ber 4th, few Democratic tears will fall. But

Mainers might miss what she does for

them locally and the Senate her willing-

ness to cross the aisle. The country might

miss New England Republicanism.^7

AUBURN, FARMINGTON AND WATERVILLE

Maine’s Senate race reflects the declining appeal of bipartisanship

Elections in Maine

Shaken Collins

The campaign in Maine turns largely on the blame