Palestinians and their allies must build on down-ballot wins, while recognizing the limitations of electoral politics in the face of Israel’s genocidal campaign.
By Samer Badawi, +972 Magazine
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, I exchanged daily voice messages with a close relative in Lebanon who had fled her home soon after the Israeli army began leveling entire buildings with American weapons. That these arrived courtesy of a Biden-Harris administration that had already sunk more than $22 billion into Israel’s “war of self-defense” — straining even the Pentagon’s resources — had long since alienated many would-be supporters of the Democratic ticket. So when my relative asked what would happen on election day, I told her that many American opponents of Israel’s genocidal campaign had chosen to sit out the election or, at most, lend their votes to anyone but Vice President Kamala Harris.
Not long after the first results began rolling in, it became clear that Harris had alienated a significant proportion of what had been the Democrats’ base. Among Arab and Muslim Americans, her repeated refusal to break with the Biden administration’s unquestioning support of Israel pushed tens of thousands of voters toward Green Party candidate Jill Stein or even Donald Trump.
Progressives abandoning the Democrats over their ongoing support for Israel certainly wasn’t the only factor that swung the election for Trump, or even the most pivotal. For one thing, the president-elect’s margin of victory, both in the national popular vote and in states that President Joe Biden had won in 2020, outstripped the number of Democratic voters who had cast “uncommitted” protest ballots in the spring primaries.
But Harris also did little to galvanize progressives in the last days and weeks of her campaign. Having already doubled down on her record as a California prosecutor and tried to paint herself as a tough-on-immigration candidate, her final pitch to American voters drew on the dubious support of neo-conservatives like Liz Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney, one of the architects of America’s disastrous “war on terror.”
Recent Posts
Biden’s Post-Election Pep Talk Was Pathetic
November 8, 2024
Take Action NowDemocrats must prepare to fight Trump’s policies, not surrender to the tide of history.By Norman Solomon,…
The Answer To Trump’s Victory Is Radical Action
November 8, 2024
Take Action NowAs ever, don’t expect the Democratic Party to save us. Now is the time for grassroots action.By Natasha Lennard,…
Will Iran Hawks Staff The New Trump Administration?
November 7, 2024
Take Action Now“The Iranian view is that Trump wants to make a deal, but it depends on whether he appoints the same neoconservatives…
Trump’s Victory And Elite Power Over The Democratic Party
November 7, 2024
Take Action NowThe Democratic Party is still plagued by the same issues that caused it to lose to Trump 8 years ago. Will it ever learn?……