I read the email with this headline from DK – written by Kos himself (who will likely shadow ban this post and my account) -- with trepidation: “This group that helped Harris lose is finding out the hard way.” I thought, no. NO. They can’t possibly STILL be hanging on to this narrative. No. Fucking. Way.
Then I opened the email and read the post.
Yep. It was exactly as I thought.
Arab American voters in Michigan who were desperately trying to shine a light on the devastation in Gaza by withholding their support for Harris are still being blamed for her loss to Trump.
And a disappointing plurality of DK readers are among those blaming them.
It’s disappointing because of the values we supposedly stand on.
Humanitarianism. Compassion. Self-determination. Anti-racism. Anti-authoritarianism.
Yes? So where exactly are those values when it comes to Palestinians?
So many of you don’t seem to be paying much attention to what has actually been happening in Gaza. Or if you have, you don’t seem to get the reality of the situation. And you seem unable to square the fact that the president that most of you love (or did until the publication of Jake Tapper’s book) also has an absolutely abhorrent record when it comes to selling weapons to Israel, weapons that have been enabling the murder of Palestinian men, women, children and babies. To be clear, I loved him too. Except for Gaza. And, well, what Tapper pealed back the curtain on.
Yes, I know about October 7. But I also know that there is a history that led up to that terrible day – a history of brutal repression that cannot be erased from the big picture.
We progressives have a lot of trouble with cognitive dissonance. We are uncomfortable with the idea that two extremely opposite realities can be true at once: that Biden was a good man and a great president (in the view of many, which is also the view I share). But he also allowed Israel to commit war crimes with the full support of the United States.
This is a very inconvenient truth.
It’s so inconvenient that the DNC refused to allow a Palestinian activist to speak at the DNC, although an Israeli couple whose son was being held by Hamas (and who died not long after the convention) was given a platform.
Let’s be clear: Gaza is a wasteland.
There are no hospitals.
There are no schools.
There are no services.
The infrastructure has been reduced to rubble.
Two million people are on the brink of starvation because Israel is preventing humanitarian aid from entering the territory. Children are dying of malnutrition.
Nearly 55,000 Gazans – including more than 13,000 children -- have been killed by the Israeli military using American bombs.
Trump has openly announced his plans to clear Gaza, relocate the residents to Libya and Sudan, and build a resort.
And you are talking about primarying Rashida Tlaib because she dared to draw attention to the horrors that have been unfolding in Palestine?
Listen to this podcast episode from Code Switch. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/16/1210938241/dearborn-michigan-arab-american-voters
In the episode, Arab American voters in Dearborn are interviewed about their perspectives on the upcoming 2024 matchup between Trump and Harris. Many of them are in so much anguish about events unfolding in Gaza that other issues simply don’t have any resonance for them. And, frankly, this shouldn’t be that difficult to understand. If dozens of members of your family were being slaughtered, and your culture and homeland decimated – and the party that should have had your back was instead turning its back – what would you do? Blindly support that party anyway?
It wasn’t that they necessarily hoped for a better outcome from Trump. Some of them did, for sure. But for others, the Uncommitted movement was a way to draw attention to the devastation and hope that the Democrats would actually give a shit.
It turned out that they were wrong.
And when Harris showed no sign of breaking with Biden on his Gaza policy, these voters really had no reason to stand with her.
Lest you doubt my own allegiance and my purpose for writing this piece, let me be very clear. I despise Trump as much as is humanly possible and I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for a moldy dishrag rather than see him enter the White House for a second go round.
But that doesn’t mean I can abandon my own humanity when I see where Biden and the Democrats went horribly, tragically wrong on Gaza.
Let’s not blame the people who suffered the most from this awful mistake. It was OUR mistake. Let’s own it.
As I said, I don’t expect this post to see the light of day. But I had to write it anyway.
