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Donor allegedly offered $20M to recruit a Tlaib primary challenger

www.politico.com Donor allegedly offered $20M to recruit a Tlaib primary challenger

The lucrative proposal to Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Hill Harper arrived on Oct. 16, according to a source with direct knowledge — and got rejected.

Donor allegedly offered $20M to recruit a Tlaib primary challenger

The lucrative proposal to Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Hill Harper arrived on Oct. 16, according to a source with direct knowledge — and got rejected.

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  • When the pro-Israel challengers are soundly defeated, do you think the donor class will take it as a sign that they're out-of-touch with the Democratic base, and perhaps need to reevaluate their stances?

    Who am I kidding, they think they can buy their way into political office and set policy by throwing enough money at it (*cough* Bloomberg *cough*) or buy off politicians directly (*cough* Manchin *cough*).

    • Unfortunately some progressive members of the House only won their seats by a few percentage points, so the risk is real.

      The rage from the Israeli right-wing is such that they don't care if a progressive gets unseated even by a Republican, they just want the criticism of them murdering children to stop.

      Groups like AIPAC are the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party. And it's not a new effect. When you look back through various elections and primarys where progressives lost, you'll often find tons of Israeli money going to their opponents, money that also goes to the media networks that set the narrative about progressive candidates. Its an eco-system set up to defend the Israeli right-wing at any cost.

      Groups like AIPAC have been one of the major stumbling blocks that has rendered the Democratic party so ineffectual. We really should not allow foreign lobbying.

      • The Israeli lobby is inclusive of the Christian Dominionists who are antisemitic and zionists, I don't think that this is called out enough. The Democratic Majority for Israel and AIPAC are funded by some of the same donors who give/bundle for Republicans and are Conservative Christians. Shontel Brown was backed by Democratic Majority for Israel, most of her precincts she won were white majority precincts outside of Cleveland, all the while portrayed as if she was representing the black and Latino community, and Nina Turner was alluded to as being antisemitic and supported primarily by white Bernie Bros.

        Objective reality doesn't matter much to propagandists.

        • Exactly on point, especially about Shontel Brown. I'mglad to see someone out in the wild who remembers that Ohio race. I remember being shouted down for trying to explain to people why Brown was a prime example of how corporate dems are trying to co-opt the progressive movement within the party and basically neutralize its momentum with what are essentially fake progressives.

          It's why it's so incredibly critical that democratic voters understand the connection between corporate funding and the repeated failures of Democratic party to deliver. It doesn't matter what a candidate says to get elected, it's much more telling where they get their money. That's the predictor of behavior.

          For example, we can already tell that while Hakeem Jeffries should blacklist AIPAC for trying to play both Dems and the GOP against eachother as it suits them, we know he very likely won't given that the Israel lobby was his top donor 2021-2022.

          Our democracy is literally being sold down the river, and until people can recognize that it's not just the GOP taking corporate and foreign cash, but also a contingent within the Democratic party who is also culpable, we won't be able to stop it. Like, yes, the Dems are better marginally, but there are plenty of them who not only don't want change but also actively work with the GOP to sabotage progress and reform.

    • The donor class isn't out of touch with what they're doing, the population is out of touch with what the donor class is doing. They are making investments in politicians they expect to see a financial return on. That is the only thing they care about. If Israel stops paying off then they might take a loss and reinvest elsewhere, otherwise they're going to keep on the proven track they're on. We can't expect them to have concerns other than their own finances. The main effect we can have is finacially, which is why BDS is seen by the political and economic establishment as the single most dangerous idea in the US at the moment.