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.”
Wow, this milkshake brings all the .ml to the yard.l
It is important to note that foreign nations like Iran, Russia and China are using this topic to convince voters to allow facism to win the election in the US. This doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. But history shows how foreign actors use these topics to manipulate us.
Important to note that fascism and genocide broadly persist under the current Harris co-led administration. Persecution and the marginalization of black Americans persists in the most democrat-controlled cities of America, not just in the Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Amusing that Americans fear countries that, even combined, are responsible for a fraction of the worldwide political coups and corruption America itself is responsible for.
America has singlehandedly propped up the Israel military, why pretend it is divorced from moral responsibility in the aftermath of a genocide?
doesn’t mean that Israel shouldn’t be held accountable
Why pretend Americans have any moral high ground in geopolitics, especially regarding Israel?
You’re being downvoted but you’re not wrong. While a Trump presidency has dark implications it happening due to foreign interference would be no different than the coups, assassinations, and implanted dictatorships America has done in other countries for decades. Trumps whole immigrant fear mongering doesn’t happen if the US government had helped the countries they fucked up in Central and South America.
I think it’s important to remember this
This new tack that Harris is bad for Black people is as transparent as it is far fetched.
As the California AG, she piloted programs that provided educational resources to both released prisoners, as well as at risk kids beginning in elementary schools.
Those programs reduced truancy and improved outcomes for at risk individuals and families, who were disproportionately black. They have since become national models of social harm reduction.
Harris supports legalization of marijuana and releasing non violent drug offenders, again disproportionately benefiting black Americans.
Edit: Although these statements are all trivial to verify, some people may lack the basic search skills to do so. the following links provide additional information:
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Launches Initiative to Reduce Recidivism in California 2013
Kamala Harris, District Attorney for San Francisco, launched Back on Track 2009
[The program has] Been adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model program.
Kamala Harris Will Legalize recreational marijuana 2024 official campaign announcement
Why spout obvious lies when Google exists? There are many examples of Harris fighting to keep now-overturned convincts imprisoned as well, need I go on?
“Defiance of the federal court order requiring the reduction of the California prisoner population is reminiscent of the Southern governors of the 1950s declaring their defiance of federal court desegregation orders,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School, told NPR at the time. “Both were misguided efforts to undermine enforcement of the Constitution.” Added Barry Krisberg, longtime president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, “The legal arguments that the state is putting forward make no sense.”
https://prospect.org/justice/how-kamala-harris-fought-to-keep-nonviolent-prisoners-locked-up/
Yeah, it sucks but everyone just needs to hold their nose and do what will have the best outcome. Sadly, if Trump is elected, this will probably not be an issue in the future. Yeah, Harris needs to do more and the democrats need to be pressured into doing what’s right, but the only way that matters is if they’re in power. If Republicans have control, nothing you say regarding Palestine will matter.
If Republicans have control, nothing you say regarding Palestine will matter.
I sadly suspect that political orthodoxy will continue, and that orthodoxy is “it’s okay for the IDF to kill innocent people”.
For sure, in the near future. Hopefully we can improve on that, but we have to have Palestinians alive to improve on it.
You should not normalize genocide by voting for any genocider candidate, nor publicly rationalizing doing so.
We should protest and take action, but vote for those who will make things less bad. Our system is fucked, but making yourself effectively invisible doesn’t help. If your vote doesn’t got for one of the two parties you are worth as much as someone who doesn’t exist.
It is extremely effective to not vote! The republicans have been pushing this shit for years and I trust them.
I’m so fucking sick of this ridiculous argument. You’ve identified the problem, what’s your genius solution?
I think it is important to note that a surprisingly large number of voters say they like fascism without any need to rationalise that as foreign meddling. Being told that you are good because you are ingroup and they are bad because they are outgroup is an enduringly popular message with a large minority of people.
From what I’ve seen over the last year, Iran and China are working against Trump. Russia is working for him and so are some Israeli actors. This is unsurprising as Trump would be worse for Iran and China and better for Russia and Israel. This is not to say there isn’t interference, but that the sides aren’t all pro-fascism. Assuming fascism is ascribed only to Trump.
Iran is more along the lines of “fuck the US. But, fuck, US, fuck it up the right way ok? Butt fuck, the US.”
More like Iran really wants to progress as a nation technologically without progressing as a nation socially. China and Russia were able to do that, and Iran is being unable to because of the US, but was doing better for a while with the last Iran deal that Trump fucked up.
Iran is sort of the weirdest place in the world. highly educated folk, restricted access to literature and products, all sorts of restrictions on women. It’s always been very educated, and until the US overthrew the democratically elected government, it was doing quite well in the academic realm.
The Iranian religious conservatives have such brutal tactics that they effortlessly stifle any social progress. As seen the last dozen times women have attempted it.
They are also in the weird realm of not being able to accept Kamala as president for ‘moral’ reasons and Trump directly harmed Iran. Which all benefitted China and Russia because guess who supplies that stuff now?
So, yeah. Iran is complicated
I have to say, “The evil foreigners are to blame for us becoming fascist” is an onion-level take.
I mean, it’s no secret that a bunch of countries are running massive disinformation campaigns in order to divide the populations of western countries. Attempting to destabilise another country by propping up certain political factions is a tactic that has been employed across the world for at least the past century (see: Lenin, and how he got in power).
Of course, we are responsible for ensuring that we do not become fascist states, but acting like theres no outside influence propping up the fascists is naive at best.
Yes, but the point stands: Lenin wasn’t grown in a vat in Berlin, he was only ever in Vienna because being in St. Petersburg would get him arrested. There are American political factions favored by certain foreign nations, but they are, at the end of the day, American political factions. And I frankly find it deeply depressing hilarious that the current state of the discourse seems to agree that foreigners are destroying the country, but can’t agree over which foreigners exactly. Talk about Overton loopholes.
Article is syndicated from The New Republic fwiw.
How is her getting this endorsement over Trump stunning? It’s a no-fucking-shit development
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.
Agreed. I am not stunned by this. “We have to pick the less shitty option” is not new, and it does not interest me. I’d be interested in, say, the world actually getting better, rather than just getting worse at either a slower or faster speed.
Yeah but that’s not the choice offered to you. And you can only make the choices you are offered.
Not true. That is the self - disempowerment that these kinds of messages are meant to promote. But you can do more than and something other than vote for genociders and tell other people to vote for genociders.
You can deligitimize support for genocide, for example. That is a small thing to do, but it I’d also what this self-disempowerment is intended to prevent. Beyond that, you can join pro-Palestinian orgs that identify the US and Israel as the agents of genocide and who work to build power based on coalition-building, mass engagement, and education rather than NGO-style funding and bureaucracy and self-promotion for its leadership.
You can vote for the least worst candidate, and also work to build momentum for the radical change we actually need. Just withholding a vote doesn’t achieve anything. The political class isn’t going to look at low turnout and say “damn, elections are getting unpopular, we’d better revolutionize the political system.” Vote, and also work on building popular support for real change.
and also work to build momentum for the radical change we actually need
Humans tend to prefer money to compassion. And that money comes from business practices that make the world less suitable for humans to live in. I think humans will kill themselves before they love each other.
we’ve been picking the less shitty options for generations and it’s painted us into this corner of a choice between a democrat genocide enabler and a republican who wishes he could.
what indication is there that doing the same thing we’ve always done will make things better?
Because for people who lost loved ones in Gaza thanks to American aid and weapons, with her agreement and approval, it’s a painful thing for them to give.
And a clear indication of how terrifying the prospect is, for them, of what Trump might do to their loved ones, if he gets in.
Unfortunately it is not that. Notice the description of the letter signatories and their associations.
First, it is not just Palestinians. It is likely they would have 10% of the signatories if they had that requirement. It is Palestinians, Arabs, “Progressive Democrats”, and “Community Leaders”.
Second, it is the usual constellation of party groups and the heads of NGOs, I.E. people heavily personally invested in the party apparatus and toeing the line.
While I am sure some feel all kinds of negative emotions, at the end of the day these are largely self-intrtested climbers. You will recognize the type if you do work in this space. They always pop up when you try to organize substantial changes, they cooedinate with the party for PR purposes.
The names are listed. Most are Palestinian.
I’m glad you feel empowered to judge who are the real Palestinian voices, who gets to speak, and who’s a “largely self-interested climber” who feels that talking about the genocide in Gaza and playing up their Palestinian heritage is a really good way to get ahead in American politics. Without you to give me guidance, I might have fallen into taking this thing at face value.
Can you tell me more about some of these individual self-interested climbers? Some that you know, who and why specifically you already know that they’re not worth listening to? I’m sure you wouldn’t accuse someone of selling out their own country in the middle of a genocide just because of some vague notions (“you will recognize the type” and so on.) You clearly have some specific reason you can identify these specific people as being dishonest, when they sign this letter. Right?
Because somehow there are Muslims and Arab-Americans who have convinced themselves that voting for the guy who instituted the “Muslim Ban” and called their countries “shitholes” is better than voting for Harris.
There is a reason why Netanyahu and his war cabinet haven’t listened to people (including in Biden’s administration) pushing a cease fire. It’s because he knows that if Trump wins, Netanyahu will have permission to “finish what he started” in Gaza. Then Trump and Kushner will build golf courses there with Saudi money.
Not that I’m not glad, but this kind of endorsement needs time to permeate, and could’ve shut up a large chunk of disingenuous contrarians a MONTH ago.
Tokenizing a smattering of NGO and party-connected Palestinians would not shut up anyone against the genocide of Gaza.
Nor should they. Nobody should shut up about the genocide of Gaza. They SHOULD shut up about the stupid idea that not voting for Harris is any kind of way to help that situation.
If you support a genocider candidate, you undermine opposition to the genocide.
