It’s not easy, actually, to kill or cleanse millions of people while maintaining some semblance of legitimacy in the international community.
Leaders don’t craft their ideologies on what they believe Americans will ‘get behind’. Leaders will attempt to steer Americans to the right position. Harris and this community are all proud of what a righteous leader she’s supposed to be. I’m just holding her to the standard set by her own rhetoric.
You underestimate Netanyahu’s pragmatism. He knows full well he can get rid of them all, and take the shame with him when he’s dead. He’s probably correct too. Do people blame Germany or Hitler for the Holocaust? Israel isn’t going anywhere, they have nukes. Even if the US abandons them, there are other global factions.
Good leaders don’t have set ideologies. They deal with realities, not ideals, and shift their opinions and perspectives based on what they learn. This is because they recognize they are humans leading other humans, and capable of making mistakes. No set ideology can keep up with all the varied circumstances that real life can throw at a country. Then in our country, we run them, not the other way around. They are always at our mercy. FDR knew this, and despite greatly wanting to help Britain in WW2, had to remain very careful about it until Pearl Harbor.
Also, I think you overestimate Harris’ righteousness, I do not see what you are describing. I think most dems realize she’s a pragmatist, she was a prosecutor after all. Throwing folks in prison is not a very idealistic job, that would be more public defender. Prosecutor is messy. What she absolutely is is several times better than her opponent, and something new, being a woman.
For the record, I strongly suspect that the kind of nihilism that you are describing does in fact mostly describe how the US operates. It’s a very succinct explanation of why we are as awful a nation as we are and why we slide further toward autocracy with each administration.
It’s not nihilism, that’s an ideology. If it’s any ideology, it’s liberalism, recognizing that the will of the population determines the course of the nation, regardless of the good or evil that the population desires.
I don’t see how a different ideology could prevent the forces that are currently pushing us towards despotism, either. People are too susceptible to believing bullshit, with entire false realities being spun up in people’s minds. It’s just wishful thinking to believe that some great leader could come by and suddenly everyone would “wake up” and “see”. They’d still be manipulated into fear and anger by the authoritarian opposition.
Fortunately we’re not lost yet. The Palestinians aren’t completely doomed either, Netanyahu remains unable to finish the job and maintain our support, and his right wingers are growing more impatient with him. With some election reform we might be able to turn the tide on the far right here at home, too, though that’s harder with the filibuster still in place and us having nowhere near 60 Senate seats.
