More than 100 Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and progressive Democrats and community leaders have signed a letter making the case for those reluctant to support Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
“We know that many in our communities are resistant to vote for Kamala Harris because of the Biden administration’s complicity in the genocide,” the letter, published Thursday night, reads.
“Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon. We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones,” the letter continued. “As we consider the full situation carefully, however, we conclude that voting for Kamala Harris is the best option for the Palestinian cause and all of our communities.”
Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon.
Watch the “a vote for Kamala is a vote for genocide” crowd claim these Palestinian and Lebanese Americans support genocide in Palestine and Lebanon.
Welcome to your first exposure to the NGO and political class constellation. You might notice that the letter itself is not just Palestinians, either, but includes, per their own statement, Arabs, “Progressive Democrats”, and “Community Leqders”. Notice how many are top-level leadership of various Dem-connected NGOs and how few seem to be average folks.
Dems have done the same thing when it comes to supporting cops against demands for racial justice re: policing. They gather a set of black " community leaders", I.e. business owners and heads of NGOs and party-associated orgs, and then say, “but actually we want more cops!” It is tokenizing.
But you have correctly identified its purpose: to get you to participate in the tokenization and have a green light for complicity in genocide. After all, Real Palestinians ™ gave you permission, right?
Called it.
“I care more about Palestine than those worthless Palestinians do.”
Please do your best to not tokeize marginalized communities. I have mobilized more Palestinians for actions than there are Palestinians on this list. They do not speak for Palestinians. These are party insiders and the heads of NGOs. And, oer the letter itself, which you obviously did not read, it is signed not just by Palestinians, but by “Arabs, Progressive Democrats, and Community Leaders”.
Democrats do this tokenizing bullshit all the time. Their favorite target is black people where they use the same subclass of people and claim thev speak for " the black community" itself a racist statement, as black people are not a monolith, just like Palestinians are not a monolith.
Imagine if you saw a headline and letter that read, “Latinos sign letter urging lower wages for Latinos” and it was just signed by a bunch of CEOs. Would you go around telling people that if they want higher wages for Latinos, they know better than Latinos? Would you pretend this is a representative group? Would you go around demanding lower pay?
It’s not false that Trump would be even worse though, having encouraged Netanyahu to be even more brutal than he is. So if you have the choice between a vote to keep Trump out, or not voting and making it easier for him to take over, the less worse (but still bad) option for Palestine is to vote for whoever will most effectively keep Trump out.
I know this kind of electoral pragmatism feels a bit disgusting, but the cure for that is to get politically active outside of the electoral system, in addition to keeping the worst candidate out at election time.
It’s not false that Trump would be even worse though, having encouraged Netanyahu to be even more brutal than he is.
Netanyahu already has unconditional material support for the genocide from the Biden-Harris administration and they help run interference quite competently both internationally and domestically. They would still have you believe they are working for a “ceasefire” while celebrating the assassination of negotiators and sending unlimited JDAMs to bomb children in refugee camps.
There is no worse. They are far more competent at this.
Though again, you should be against genocide and not support genociders. It is not strategic to nirnalize genocide. It is not smart tactics to be a guaranteed lever pull even up to genocide.
I know this kind of electoral pragmatism feels a bit disgusting, but the cure for that is to get politically active outside of the electoral system, in addition to keeping the worst candidate out at election time.
It is not pragmatic at all. It is just the lesser evil argument that Dems always use to sheepdog people with a conscience into helping them out. It is a one-way street, as they never actually have to do anything at all that you demand, they are, correctly, treating you as a guaranteed cote. They will just send their PR teams at you.
We are in this position right now because of this “pragmatism” that prevents any notion of accountability or principal or the idea that you should be able to make a demand and have it reflected in policy. The genocide in Gaza is very unpopular at least in polls. The reason the political class does not follow this popular will is that you are not perceived as any kind of threat. You gladly give away all leverage and announce you will always do so, even up to voting for genocide!
And this is just disempowerment at the level of an individual. We are of course much more powerful when we organize together and build towards leverage. But that must be done through organizations and cannot happen through me, an individual, telling you that you have a moral responsibility to work against and never for genociders.
I love you but let’s let the bad faith people speak for themselves.
Those shitty trolls pretending to be tankies don’t need your help.
Welcome to the Dick chopping block shop. We can take off half an inch or the whole thing
Edit
I hope you people downloading me realize that not pulling the lever in the trolley problem is a choice just as much as pulling the lever
Just don’t bring up CCP genocide, they are totally cool with that genocide.
Disgusting. Make a case against the fucking genocide then to get more votes.
This is terrible. We need better candidates.
The only thing disgusting here is that you assume you’ve got a moral high ground and superiority over these Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian community leaders. I trust their opinion.
I’m tired of champagne socialists pretending to be all for progressive causes and then they act like they know better than us brown people and are our wiser saviors. As a brown person, that makes you no better than a Republican in my eyes. Stop using us as a cudgel and patronizing us instead of listening to us. Strip away your imperialist mindset and listen to AAPI people to try and win for once.
Who are you to believe you speak for all brown people
How ignorant are you of people with Stockholm syndrome who have collaborated with their tormentors?
Jewish collaboration with Nazi Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_collaboration_with_Nazi_Germany
Try explaining this to .ml
We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones
Try explaining this to .ee, .world
Thanks for making it disgustingly obvious how easy it is to cherry-pick statements, excluding the full context, to push forward an agenda.
We all know the situation. But we also have more folds in our grey matter to understand the consequences of the alternatives.
Extracting that statement is perfectly fine because it’s the one point that Harris supporters can’t get through their thick skulls. It is actually possible to make the case to vote for Harris without directing preachy paternalistic bullshit at people who have lost the lives of friends and family to this administration.
I realize fully the threat Trump is, and I’m reluctantly voting Harris myself. I want Harris to win, and I see you preachy morons driving other potential Harris voters away and it’s maddening. You self-righteous assholes need to get a fucking clue. Please go do something useful like read a book on the art of persuasion until this election is over because you’re not helping.
BUT AMERICA IS THE TRUE EVIL, RUSSIA REALLY IS THE ONLY GOOD GUY IN THE GAME - probable .ml response.
Spot on. I’ve essentially read that on that instance last year and it yucked me tf out. Leaving .ml was the best decision.
Man, I hope this changes some minds, but it might be too little too late. She’s had a lot of opportunities to turn things around with the Arab community, and she’s flat out ignored all of them. I’m really worried this will be her version of Hillary’s, “I don’t need to campaign in the Rust Belt,” decision.
She’s had a lot of opportunities to turn things around with the Arab community, and
You DO realize that she can’t campaign on that, right?
I know it’s a little subtle for an American political scene that no longer uses such terms as waffler and carpet-bagger, but these used to be campaign-wrecking slurs.
She’d be labeled a waffler in seconds. And not only would we like her to change her position, but so would the gqp for the political damage. She can’t change until she’s achieved a 4-year contract.
No one is saying she has to do a 180 on Gaza, but she could have let a Palestinian speak at the DNC, or met with the Uncommitted leadership last month. It would take very little effort to make herself look more appealing to Arab Americans than Biden and Trump, but she just didn’t do it.
It’s the lawyer effect, they overanalyze everything and make “safe” bets. Trump is going out there and waving his bare ass around while the Dems sit above wringing their hands about what each micro group might think. They’re too worried about stroking “group leaders” egos than actually addressing real people’s needs.
Fact is that no matter what position Kamala takes on this, she’ll lose votes somewhere and win votes somewhere. Most Jewish people vote for Democrats. Trump just straight up does not care about Palestine. That’s a much more simplistic take.
Well, first of all, I would be very careful equating Jewish people with support for Israel and their attacks on Gaza. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists support Netanyahu. I don’t know the numbers for sure, but I would bet that Evangelicals and military hawks make up a larger base of pro-Israel voters than the Jewish population.
The thing is, Biden’s policy, from a material position, is essentially, “There is almost nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support,” while Trump’s position is, “There is absolutely nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support.” If you’re the kind of voter that would be put off by any criticism of Israel, you’re probably voting for Trump no matter what.
Like, sure, I’d Harris started chanting, “From the river to the sea!” and demanding the immediate decolonization of the Israel, yeah, she’d lose a lot of voters. But if she had taken a position like, “Israel has a right to defend itself, but the bloodshed in Gaza has gone on long enough, and we must acknowledge that the Netanyahu administration has been a major obstacle in ceasefire negotiations,” she would have been massively more appealing to Palestinian supporters, and she would have only risked hard-liners who, again, almost certainly have gone for Trump anyway. Instead, she told Netanyahu that she would, “not be silent,” on Palestinian suffering, and since then, has been mostly silent on Palestinian suffering. It’s like she was trying to appeal to no one on this issue.
if she had taken a position like, “Israel has a right to defend itself, but the bloodshed in Gaza has gone on long enough, and we must acknowledge that the Netanyahu administration has been a major obstacle in ceasefire negotiations,” she would have been massively more appealing to Palestinian supporters
Thing is that she doesn’t really have to. She’s already massively more attractive to Palestinian supporters than Trump or not voting. That’s the problem with a two-party system with only two real choices.
It’s a major complication / fault with running a candidate who is in office already. They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
I’m not saying I have secret info and Harris would 180 on Israel if she won, just saying she can’t even build breathing room from Biden while being the sitting vp.
This is not an excuse for the administration’s stance, just a reflection on the challenges of running while in office.
They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
Just have her hug an Arab child or something.
Why are they so bad at this?
Imo the Arab/Palestinian community would see that for the pandering that it is
They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
Why not? She’s not the Secretary of State, and she’s not running the administration like Cheney. She can differ from Biden. After all, she moved to his right when she said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
Yeah, when she first started running, I figured she was trying not to undermine Biden’s ceasefire negotiations, but I assumed she would find some way to reach out to the Arab communities she needs for Michigan and Wisconsin. Now It’s the 11th hour, and she hasn’t done anything. I just don’t understand why they’re completely ignoring this demographic.
Do Muslim’s really think voting for Muslim ban guy who would give Israel even more weapons a better choice?
Oh good, this must be a safe community. Asklemmy@lemmy.ml banned me for having the audacity to suggest the russian trolls might be fewer in number than the number of their accounts would suggest.
I just got banned from !asklemmy@lemmy.ml for 2 months because I said I wasn’t comfortable installing an Android app with a Russian developer. The audacity!
No, but virtue signaling white folks will be happy to tell you that, rather than “voting for genocide”, it’s better to vote 3rd party or not at all… thereby electing Trump.
It’s a principled nut punch to every Muslim, themselves, and all the rest of us. So brave.
Look, another group democrats hate. I’m sure if you hate them enough it’ll go full circle.
Maybe its not so much third party voters as it is the vast majority of americans are intolerant selfish people.
Or maybe people who don’t live under the American 2 party system DONT UNDERSTAND HALF A FUCK of what’s going on in our elections and should shut the FUCK up and eat a whole potato instead.
Respectfully.
Edit: But it couldn’t be that, otherwise why in the everloving butthole would you still be talking out of your poop shooter?
A poll released Monday conducted by Arab News/YouGov found that Trump led Harris 45 percent to 43 percent among Arab Americans. Those voters said that they viewed Trump as more supportive of Israel’s current government, but that he was more likely to end the conflict.
In 2020, FL Hispanics were bombarded with ads saying that Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism or deport them all to Cuba. Trump won FL by a large margin, mostly because Miami area was not as blue as in the past. 60% of FL voters still voted for $15 minimum wage.
In 2020, also, heavily hispanic southern counties of TX went pro Trump on ads that there would be a lot of work in the counties from building walls.
AIPAC lobby has spent record amounts on primaries for democrats this year where the incumbent supported a ceasefire. The only ones AIPAC won were ones where they did not mention Israel at all. Other Republican PACs are blanketing Arab zip codes with how pro Israel Harris is, and Jewish zip codes with how she is a muslim plant.
While Trump very proudly has RFK boast of his desire to end the most stupid war the US has ever conducted, Trump is favoured by Netanyahu, including reported daily strategy calls on how to sabotage Biden’s fake constraints policies. He is more likely to believe any benefits Netanyahu tells him of a full war on Iran/Lebanon/Syria over any prudence.
Trump’s main claim for 2020 election “rigging” is that a Hunter Biden laptop existed, without anything implicating President on it. But republican rigging of misinformation, and vote suppression, just wasn’t enough even though that nothing story was still all over the news.
There are serious problems with US electoral system, and it is orders of magnitude worse every cycle.
In 2020, FL Hispanics were bombarded with ads saying that Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism or deport them all to Cuba. Trump won FL by a large margin, mostly because Miami area was not as blue as in the past. 60% of FL voters still voted for $15 minimum wage.
JFC people are fucking stupid
Biden would give away Florida to Castro as part of his love for communism
I love how utterly deranged republican shit is in the US, and seemingly there are people so braindamaged they take it serious. 😂 Really goes to show how much worse things could be in many countries. At leasy they’re not the US, basically.
