Activists from around the country told The Intercept that they will advocate for an anti-war agenda at the convention in August and withhold their vote in November unless an adequate candidate steps up, listing policy priorities such as support for a permanent ceasefire and standing up to the pro-Israel lobby as it intervenes in Democratic primaries. Even as the Biden campaign insists that he will not step aside, many Democrats appear to be lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate, with some Democratic governors being floated as well.
“My number one criteria for any candidate is opposing the genocide in Gaza,” said Saad Farooq, an uncommitted voter in Massachusetts. Farooq said it was unlikely that the Democratic National Committee would select any candidate who took a stance against Israel’s ongoing war, and that he would support Green Party candidate Jill Stein if she were to appear on the ballot in Massachusetts.
Will Dawson, an uncommitted voter in Washington, D.C., named several factors that could get him to switch his vote from the Green Party’s Stein to another politician. First on his list is a promise to call for an immediate ceasefire and fighting the influence of the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Congress.
“This candidate would also ideally work toward pulling further away from the Israeli colonial project over time, with the goal being repealing our absurd financial support, ending the foreign interest agency of AIPAC, and pushing for a nation-wide boycott a la [South Africa] during their apartheid,” Dawson wrote.
The candidate would also have to push to reform the Supreme Court, he added. “The candidate would have to promise to both push for justice impeachment, and expand the courts,” Dawson said.“If a replacement candidate met both of these requirements, I would absolutely consider switching my vote from Jill Stein. Hell, I might even knock doors/canvass for them!”
Nothing is improved by Trump being elected; for Gazans , for Israelis, for Americans, or anyone else.
or if Biden is elected
maybe a few miniscule scraps will make to the people but nothing progressive or meaningful
our lives are worse than four, eight, twelve, sixteen, or however many four years you want to go back our lives get worse every election no matter who wins
some of have waited our whole lives for a change with parents and grandparents who have done the same
Tell that to my friends who’s parents weren’t allowed to get married until our lifetimes or who’s great grandparents were classified as 3/5ths of a person
I recall Democrats not getting on board with gay marriage equality until after polling showed it to be more popular than banning gay marriage.
Which is why we need to run a candidate with a shot of beating trump…
It’s too important of an election to let Joe have one more go out of nostalgia.
It would be easiest for everyone if he stepped aside, but he’s not willing to.
It blows my mind that people can argue that Trump is the worst possible outcome for our country and the world, and then follow that up with “we need a candidate that can beat Trump”. If everyone knows what is at stake (democracy), how is Biden not capable of beating Trump? Do people think that not voting, or voting 3rd party is going to somehow keep Trump out of the white house? Anything but a vote for Biden (or whoever ends up on the ticket opposite Trump) is who everyone needs to vote for, or they have chosen Trump and doomed us all.
Do you think it’s easier to convince 10s of millions of voter’s minds?
Or get Joe Biden to understand that polls show people don’t want him and that the best thing he can do to prevent trump is step aside.
Seriously.
Oh look. Same person who shows up at any anti-Biden post trying to convince people not to vote for Biden, but stops just short of saying they want Trump to win.
Let’s see all your “genocide Joe” type of comments directed to all the GOP members in Congress who happily support Israel’s efforts.
What the fuck is wrong with people. Number one criteria for president is dealing with a small scale civil/proxy war.
Meanwhile in Sudan, Ukraine, China, Myanmar, etc. there are millions more people being killed/impacted by genocidal governments and these don’t even make the list of anyone giving a shit when it comes to presidential choice.
Meanwhile the entire world economy is falling apart for the average person.
Meanwhile there’s a drug epidemic (somewhat related to the last one) killing around 100,000 Americans a year.
If your number one criteria is the Palestinian war you are either Palestinian(totally okay) or you have no idea how to prioritize your life in a rational manner and should not be allowed to vote.
Do you think Palestine is in Europe?
And why are you calling a genocide a war? Because the victims have been resisting?
Sorry, I haven’t heard anything about civilian deaths so far. I’m pretty sure everyone that’s died in Gaza so far has been Hamas.
Innocent aid workers are Hamas?
Kids?
If you’re legitimately unaware of the war crimes being committed in Gaza, you might want to run some Google searches.
And you’re ignoring literally everything else I said, which is exactly my point.
And you’re ignoring literally everything else I said
I mean, when talking about geopolitics, the “geo” part is fundamentally important…
It would have been nice if you apologized, but fine we’ll move on to the next sentence:
Meanwhile in Sudan, Ukraine, China, Myanmar, etc. there are millions more people being killed/impacted by genocidal governments and these don’t even make the list of anyone giving a shit when it comes to presidential choice.
In which of those is the US providing munitions to the attackers against international and domestic laws for them to carry out a genocide?
Quick edit:
Were you going to answer this:
And why are you calling a genocide a war? Because the victims have been resisting?
There’s just so much wrong with your first comment, it’s hard to address it all.
But I’m willing to help explain it so you can understand. This is pretty important stuff. We cleared up that Israel isn’t in Europe pretty quickly. So I’m optimistic on the rest.
I think it should be pretty clear, right? It’s different because America is helping them commit genocide. It’s not like this is all happening separately from us and people are calling for some kind of foreign intervention, they’re asking that we stop helping the people doing a genocide.
That’s not to say it’s my only priority this election, but it’s definitely up there, because I, like many Americans, feel like I’m complicit to some degree.
Make no mistake, though, Trump would be far worse. I still know the score here, but I can understand why it ranks highly on people’s priorities.
But there is a huge difference between intervention and stopping support for an ally that is RIGHT NEXT TO RUSSIA. Like do they even think that it’s not a strategic decision? Is it the best take? No. Is it the best place to be in? No. But pissing off an ally we have had for 50 years is also a bad decision. Maybe weigh the options here.
Except Israel has been talking about starting another invasion against Hezbollah…
Who have a defensive treaty with Russia, Iran, and a couple others.
An ally that starts wars isn’t a good ally.
They’re not providing a strategic advantage, they’re dragging us into large scale multi-country war.
It would likely get tied up with Ukraine as well, and get us to a legit WW3.
Because Biden won’t cut weapons to Israel and has spent 50 years saying there’s no line that Israel could cross
Edit:
RIGHT NEXT TO RUSSIA.
I googled it…
Israel is 3,700 some miles away from Russia. That’s wider than America
But there is a huge difference between intervention and stopping support for an ally that is RIGHT NEXT TO RUSSIA.
I really should start keeping a list of the reprehensible justifications for continued support for Netanyahu’s genocide.
I don’t mind it being a priority, only it being the top criteria. Someone who says it’s their most important priority displays a significant lack of awareness for what’s happening in the country and in the world.
I take your point and agree, actually. Single issue voters are always a nuisance though, and these ones are nothing new.
Also worth noting that we similarly have blood on our hands for a lack of support for Ukraine. All that time that the US political system was bogged down and unable to send aid meant they had to pay the cost to hold the line in manpower instead, so I can understand the frustration.
If your number one criteria is the Palestinian war you are either Palestinian(totally okay) or you have no idea how to prioritize your life in a rational manner and should not be allowed to vote
No longer will I need to wonder how the Germans let the Holocaust happen.
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me
Last I checked the Jews weren’t trying to slaughter Germans when the holocaust happened. The Jews never told the germans “you have no right to exist” or “we want to rape and murder you because you’re German”
Meanwhile Islamic extremism groups have spent decades telling Israelis exactly that
In other words, people who are uncommitted at this stage are absolute morons.
inb4 thread gets overrun with “but Trump would be worse” and “we have to vote Biden” as if uncommitted voters didn’t demand their single requirement months ago which Biden could have easily endorsed and easily won this election.
Not to mention Israel still gets 6 months for more genocidal insanity regardless of who wins.
I mean Biden didn’t bring out the military to beat protesters and international news media up to walk across the street to hold up a Bible. Protesters haven’t been swept up in unmarked vans, or tell his detail to beat up a protester at a rally.
My point is that Trump isn’t going to let these people protest Israel in the U.S like that if he wins. So yes, people are going to say “but Trump will be worse”
“I’m going to show my anger by making things exponentially worse for myself! That’ll show them!”
