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There is a difference from between a Muslim voter who is mad at Biden, and can't bring themselves to vote for Joe Biden, and someone that is trying to organize a multi-state political movement in hopes of guaranteeing a Biden lost.
Conflating the two is an act of bad faith
Tons of other left-wing people are mad at Joe Biden for tons of reasons, but don't turn to actively trying to sink his campaign like this.
I don't see why I should be okay with this type of political buffoonery when I am not okay with it from any other person on the left.
Second, this is bait and switch. You have a policy preference and you are using a political strategy argument to bolster it. The Muslim voter is deemed so important because of the high population in swing states. If you swap the geographical locations of American Jews, and Arab Muslims in America, I doubt you would support Jewish Americans saying do want we want or else we will work to make sure Biden loses.
Helping Trump win will not be a negative positive or neutral for Muslims. It would not be a for millions of Americans.
I don't see why "we'll survive" should give anyone any comfort, especially with so many people who could be hurt by Trump. Should I tell my mother, who has tons of health issues" who will probably lose health coverage if Trump gets a trifecta that "she will survive"? Or should I tell her to blame Biden when her next medical issue comes?
So what happens if the 2028 nominee is progressive and wants to take a hard line on Israel? But some other member of the Democratic coalition wants to guarantee their defeat. Are you gonna be okay to defend them?
If this is your argument, then you and everyone who agrees and defends this should have zero issues with No Labels playing a game of electoral chicken with the Democrats to make the party more conservative and should apologize to people like osh kosh bosh when they objected to him saying that the Dems should organize around winning conservative white voters on the margin. Because their voters hold more political power.
Again, people can be mad at Biden. People can make a personal choice not to vote. But the real-life consequences of what is being discussed in the article are tons of people being hurt by Trump.
Biden is old and rich. Besides losing the Presidency, in material terms, he will face minimal blowback from a Trump presidency.
Some people want millions of others to pay the price for them to get revenge on Biden, through electoral politics, for some poor policy choices.
And I'm supposed to not see how dumb, dangerous, and counterproductive that is?
**** that.
- Maybe the people running this operation are bought, it's totally possible since it does indeed go beyond consciously objecting to voting. Or they are authentic voice of alienation. At the same time, the alienation among Muslim Americans is real, especially among Palestinian Americans. If Biden had been able to do things as minimal as not doubting the Gaza Death Tolls and playing into the "Pallywood" trope pushed by conservatives Israelis, that a lone would have reduced the level of alienation right now. Unfortunately, for many blocs within the Democratic Coalition that is or seems to be their only option.
-I agree that when there's a diverse coalition, that wins by thin margins, against an opposition as bad as Donald Trump, that public threats of defections are not the best way to conduct that coalition's business. But that is happening right now and I'm annoyed by the way that Biden is seen as a totally passive actor, a mere witness to US foreign policy. Again, I ask, does the President have an responsibility for this, is there something you believe he can do to fix this?
-If two million Jews were cornered by a powerful military, which our own government funds and gives unconditional diplomatic cover for, I'd be sympathetic towards Americans Jews who cannot bring themselves to vote for the guy who goes to bat for that powerful military.
It could be possible that Israel could do this on their own without US military or diplomatic help. Maybe, there are a quasi Autarky that defies international laws with impunity. But if that is the case, how could Israel be out "greatest ally"? They are committing war crimes AND helping to get the extremely destructive domestic opposition in the US elected. Shouldn't the US at the very least sanction them? Or bomb them the way it did to Serbia because of its ethnic cleansing campaign in the late 1990's? Wouldn't Israel be akin to Apartheid South Africa, Iran, and North Korea and should be treated as such.
-Since getting Trump elected is indeed dumb, dangerous, and counter productive, it seems like we all should have the same level of invective for democrats who burn up political capital to help cover for a rogue state. It's hard to ask people to sacrifice their policy goals, especially if they are broadly popular to beat Republicans and than not say much seriousness or urgency on the part of the person who can most impact the outcome of their electoral contest, the candidate themselves.
-My politics are ultimately driven by the Golden Rule, "would I want this to happen to me/what would I do in this situation"? That's best way that I can figure out what should be done when the interests of the broader left can find themselves in conflict. Since I'm not a Palestinian American with relatives in Gaza, I don't know for certain how I'd react but I suspect that I'd feel doubly alienated by a political party that is ostensibly about protecting all groups from oppression, seemingly to be fine with white supremacy and settler-colonialism after years that party's central message being that opposing those forces are the party's top priority. It must be galling to know that as far as your family in Gaza is concerned, their lives don't matter, apparently.
At this point
I really believe that there is a large faction of the left that hates the democratic party more than they care about any policy.
And they have been waiting and waiting for an issue that would give them plausible deniability to knee cap Biden and split the democratic coalition.
The way certain media figures talk about Israel-Palestine.
It feels indistinguishable from a person deliberately trying to destroy the democratic party.
Democrats should demand a ceasefire and align themselves with the vast majority of voters on this issue, they could thwart all the mean lefties who are just out to get them, for absolutely no material reason.
But seriously though, no one hates a political party for no reason. You can agree or disagree with the reasons, those reasons can be absurd, but there's always at least one reason why group A hates party B.
I do wonder what losing the battle means. Not only in general but also for some ppl personally what you might have to go through
Cause everytime I hear that I think of alot of ppl who are going to take the brunt of these "battles lost" and will end up alot worst than me and probably alot worse than others who type it out.
There's is an incredible sense of privilege to state something knowing some folks will be the ones sacrificing alot more than you when these losing battles start to arise but hey maybe I'm missing the long game here
The inverse is also true though. In many cases Palestinian Americans are being asked to be complicit in their own family members being displaced or worse. A lot of third party voting and performative non voting comes from a place of privilege, the privilege to not have any stake in the outcome and the outcome won't adversely affect them. But far more often, people check out or become nihilistic because they have real reason to imagine their lives (or the lives of those they care about) not improving regardless of the outcome. Having loved ones in a city besieged by fascist and apartheidist forces AND seeing the President whom you likely voted for being fairly dismissive of that, is going to inspire some nihilism by those most affected by it.
Generally, the more privileged someone is, the more likely they are to be ok with existing arrangements and hierarchies (or they want to return to a time when those hierarchies and arrangements were even more pronounced). And in this case, this very rare case, not living in Gaza renders everyone American more privileged than Gazans. every American voter is more privileged than Palestinians under Israeli rule. Every form of hierarchy and oppression is highly amplified due to Israeli blockage and sanctions. being poor, being disabled, being disabled, is all made vastly worse by virtue of having been trapped in Gaza. So IMO it's a bad look for Americans to tell Gazans and their family here in the US that their unease with voting for the President giving a genocidal state diplomatic cover is foolish, shortsighted, selfish, etc. Asking Muslims to swear fidelity to Joe Biden and that they'll be unaffected by what's happening to their community (eleven months from now,) feels icky (even though it is understandable given the stakes).
pertinent to the current convo
Group of swing state Muslims vows to ditch Biden in 2024 over his war stance
Muslim community leaders from several swing states are pledging to withdraw support for U.S. President Joe Biden, citing his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.apnews.com
...thus letting a guy who imposed a Muslim ban returning.
Here's the thing, Muslim Americans are the most acutely aware of it. IMO, it speaks to how betrayed they feel with Biden right that Trump's presence does automatically secure Biden their votes.
The most rational thing is oppose the worse candidate in what is essentially a two person race. I wish that there was more effort to try to understand how feelings of hurt, humiliation, betrayal, and abandonment can make people make the irrational choice, especially when the degree of difference between the two choice is very small (at least very small on one's most important political issue).
If we can make the effort to understand, why people commit violent crimes or why they become terrorists, seems like we can try to figure out why people with whom me have a lot in come vote in way that is not ideal.
I hope that Joe Biden romps, discrediting Trump and the whole GOP for all time. To the that end, we should try to find out an appeal that works instead of just turning up the volume on "Trump's Worse." I want to get everyone to vote against Trump and doing that would get easier on this issue if Biden started acting like a neutral arbiter.