The unflattering media coverage of Likud supporters, which often comes coupled with racism, has created a public perception that the party's right-wing base should automatically be pigeonholed as an unsophisticated deplorable group of voters that are rowdy and vulgar.
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It's funny that it is the socialist elites in Israel that have made sure Israeli politics would become this dividing line. This is how they have cast their narrative for decades upon decades: the honest vs. the rule-breakers; the civilized vs. the uncivilized; the democrats vs. the fascists.
In this election campaign, another element has been evident: the dismantling of the intra-Right solidarity. The many years of psychological attrition have taken their toll, especially on those who have feared losing their social capital if they were to be associated with the "deplorables." As such, they are trying to create a distinction between the "Good Right" and the "Bad Right." The former is supposed to be with good manners, above the fray and unthreatening, while the other is supposed to be perceived as the exact opposite.
Such psychological engineering can only be countered by someone with a spine, like Prime Minister Menachem Begin did against the Left's racist attacks on his voters. Those who cannot cope with it, adopt the narrative that has been created by the elites and even employ their vocabulary by embracing their claim that the Right has lost its way.
But this snobby approach is the very manifestation of the Left losing its way. Being civilized and above the fray doesn't mean you have to be gray-haired and in fancy suits, or know how to articulate yourself. It is about being connected to the base, about empowering those left behind by the elites and introducing them without any apology to our democratic holy institutions. This is what propels the right to power time and again.
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