1y ago

Biden is dramatically out of touch with voters on Gaza. He may lose because of it | Moira Donegan

www.theguardian.com

Many voters believe, with good reason, that none of this would have happened without Biden’s assent. Biden has continued to speak of Israel’s attack on Palestinian civilians using the absurd language of “self-defense”. He has insulted Jewish Americans and the memory of the Holocaust by invoking them to justify the slaughter. And though his White House repeatedly leaks that he is “privately” dismayed by Israel’s conduct of the war, he has done little to stop the flow of US money and guns that support it.

Even after the US state department issued a vexed and mealy-mouthed report on Israel’s conduct, which nevertheless concluded that it was reasonable to assess that Israel was in violation of international humanitarian law, the Biden administration has continued to fund these violations. That state department report was published on 10 May. The Biden administration told Congress that it intends to move forward with a $1bn arms sale to Israel. “OK, [Israel] likely broke the law, but not enough to change policy,” is how one reporter summarized the administration’s judgment. “So, what is the point of the report? I mean, in the simplest terms, what’s the point?”

Meanwhile, Biden has expressed public disdain for the Americans – many of whom he needs to vote for him – who have taken to protest on behalf of Palestinian lives. Speaking with evident approval of the violent police crackdowns against anti-genocide student demonstrations, he said coolly: “Dissent must never lead to disorder.”

63 comments

- Obediently voting for the least worst option means you eventually run out of good options. <- we are here
  The conundrum is working out how you force those options to get better without accelerationists getting to test out their theories for real (again).
  I would respectifully suggest that "shut the fuck up and vote" does not cut it.
  
  I don’t think anyone is saying that. Don’t shut up, but do vote!
  
  Can you please suggest one candidate other than Biden who has a realistic chance of winning against Trump?
  Name one single candidate running right now
- I wonder if this isn't overblown propaganda. Personally, and I know this is just my experience, but I've never met a person who isn't a Trump supporter who isn't voting for Biden. I'm sure they exist, and I want to keep seeing stories like this to encourage Biden to do better, and scare moderates to make sure they show up in November.
  
  Republicans vote for their candidate and against their opponents. Democrats historically only show up in support. Just look at the 2016 election.
- Neoliberalism is fascism and there is no lesser evil, only evil. He should not be rewarded with reelection if he won't listen to the demands of the public. That's how we got to the point where the only option is which senile pedo rapist to choose from.
  
  The pedo rapist in the end already shows the difference between the candidates. Vote for the guy that has not been accused of rape.
Meanwhile, if you don't vote for Biden:
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1785491814226510333
“We have to let Israel complete their war on terror. It’s a horrible thing, but they have to do it.” Trump added that Israel must “clean out the cancer.”
- Learn to read, comprehend what you read, think about what you read, and then avoid saying stuff that gets you the exact opposite of what you want. FFS
  
  The winner of the Presidential election in 2024 will either be Biden or Trump. Full stop.
  Trump feels Israel isn't being aggressive ENOUGH.
  So you vote for Biden, who is maintaining the same Israeli policy as every other President for the last 76 years, or you throw away your vote and help elect Trump who thinks Gaza is a cancer that needs to be cleared out fast.
- The lesser evil campaign strategy isn't going to work anymore. It's ran its course. Biden needs to offer something meaningful otherwise Trump will win.
  At this point it's almost certainly too late.
  
  Oh, he definitely needs to offer up something meaningful, but not on Gaza.
  The #1 issue for people is the economy, and Biden is being fucking tone deaf telling people who are hurting "What? The economy is doing great!"
  3.5% inflation on top of 3% on top of 9%? No, people are not doing great!
- Yeah, way too many so-called "progressives" don't seem to really understand the actual choice here. They can stamp their feet and wish for someone better than Biden, but the choices are: 1) Biden 2) Ronald McDonald - and everything that entails. That's it.
  The time for them to work for something better as a candidate was the primaries.
  
  This is funny because "it's sad but they have to do it" is basically what Biden has been saying
  Biden has chosen to tank his own presidency by supporting Israel. It makes it worse that he's choosing to do it while he's telling us that the alternative is fascism
  He's choosing fascism over giving up support for genocide
I'm sure Trump will be much better for those people who refuse to vote Biden solely because of his involvement with the Gaza situation. /s
- ....
  The reason Republicans become president is low turnout
  So Dems running a candidate that voters don't want to vote for, is a bad thing.
  What works better, is running a candidate like Bill Clinton or Obama. Someone who is ~~under 40~~ in their 40s says progressive things, and is charismatic.
  Regardless of how they govern, that's how you prevent Republican president.
  With the current state of Dem primaries, it's hard to blame voters for who makes it to the general.
  And if you're looking for someone to blame when that unpopular Dem can't even beat someone like trump, blame the people who get paid millions to decide how to spend billions to convince voters that the Republican is even worse than the Dem so we have to vote for someone not as bad, but still not what we want.
  We could just run popular candidates and easily beat trump, but that's just not an option apparently
- Hey now, that's not important. What's important is making sure Biden doesn't get reelected. We don't need to mention the consequences of the bullshit propaganda people are pushing.
  /s
- Yeah, if you're going to comment you would, ideally:
  read the article
  comprehend what it is saying
  respond to it
  Knee-jerk hand-waving is not useful. It's worse than just a waste of your time and ours, you are actively alienating everyone you desperately need to hold their nose and vote for Biden.
  What are you trying to achieve here?
Let me rewrite this headline:
"Democrats would rather elect a literal Nazi than Joe Biden"
Which is bull, but essentially what the article is saying.
If you won't vote for Biden because of Gaza, you are an ignorant, narrow-minded idiot and you are handing Trump the presidency.
- Sounds like you got your daily dopamine hit. You should probably take a break from social media until you've calmed down.
- I sure am.
  I'm tired of this game. Bring on the collapse, I don't give a shit anymore
  
  I'd start planning a move to the west coast so that your 'side' isn't outnumbered when things pop off. Assuming you haven't already made it out to Cascadia.
- I'd rather let Trump win so that the Western states can finally have the motivation they need to secede and I can become a citizen of Cascadia and stop having to worry about all the nonsense in DC. And if the secession goes bad, the red states attack, and the fighting turns against us... I plan to sail up north to B.C. and request asylum.
  Climate change already prevented me from ever considering having a family, so luckily I fit perfectly into the "disaffected military aged male" category that can risk it all in the hope of a better future. I pity the rest of you who would choose complacency and the path of least resistance over doing what's right.
  Sometimes the best thing that can happen is for things to get worse, because that can prompt you to end your complacency and make the changes you should have made long ago. When people of good conscience are forced to support a literal genocide because of how broken our system is.... I think we've reached that point.
  
  When people of good conscience are forced to support a literal genocide because of how broken our system is…
  When people are incapable of understanding nuance...
  I pity the rest of you who would choose complacency and the path of least resistance over doing what’s right.
  This is some extremist cool-aid stuff right here. I hope you find the care you need.
  
  Cascadia is not happening in either of our lifetimes. If ever.
He’s not out of touch, he doesn’t want to upset his benefactors.
Young people are always dissapointing for politics , from simply not turning out, to being confused and manipulated, to voting against their own interests.
Every young voter seems to do the same nonsense regardless of generation, they have been blinded by Propaganda again.
It is good for him (#Biden) to leave for whatever reason.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Biden campaign has long been shrugging at the president’s fading polls, turning down opportunities to put him in front of voters, and generally doing their best to portray an air of confident nonchalance.
A new dataset released by the New York Times on 13 May found that Biden was trailing in five key swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania – and suffering from disillusionment among young voters as well as Black and Latino ones.
“Drawing broad conclusions about the race based on results from one poll is a mistake,” Geoff Garin, a pollster for the Biden campaign, told the New York Times.
If that figure cannot shake you into moral recognition, consider that many of those children have endured their amputations without anesthesia, since medicine – like food – has largely been prohibited from being delivered to Gaza by Israeli authorities.
And though his White House repeatedly leaks that he is “privately” dismayed by Israel’s conduct of the war, he has done little to stop the flow of US money and guns that support it.
But these lesser-of-two-evils argument do not lessen the tax on the conscience that many anti-war Americans will feel when they consider whether to vote for Biden in spite of his support for the genocide in Gaza.
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63 comments