As a Palestinian American, I can’t vote for Joe Biden any more. And I am not alone
As a Palestinian American, I can’t vote for Joe Biden any more. And I am not alone
The president’s moral failure in Gaza has taken on historic proportions, like Lyndon Johnson’s in Vietnam before him
I am a Palestinian American in Pennsylvania, a contested state. I plan to write in “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary on 23 April and in November, I will vote for a third-party candidate.
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For many, myself included, a vote for Biden is simply impermissible – the extent of the moral calamity is so great as to render a vote for Biden a vote for complicity.
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As the president of the Center City mosque in Philadelphia, Mohammed Shariff, said to me: “My vote is the purest form of expression and speech.” President Biden ignores our voices at his own peril, and ours.
Anything Biden can do, Trump can do worse.
*will
As a Canadian I don't have to deal with it directly, but I don't think I could cast a vote for Biden. Downvotes on these posts are strange to me. From outside the US it's obvious that while Israel bears primary responsibility for the ongoing ethnic cleansing, it likely wouldn't have developed so completely without the material, economic, and political support of the Biden administration. Simply telling a group that, sure this guy is cool with the elimination of your people and is willing to help, but the other guy is a threat to our system... well it's pretty rich to expect that group to suck it up.
Simply telling a group that, sure this guy is cool with the elimination of your people and is willing to help, but the other guy is a threat to our system… well it’s pretty rich to expect that group to suck it up.
The other guy would probably be offering to put our troops on the ground to help Israel genocide faster. It's not just that he's a threat to our system, and he is, but that he's a horrible, horrible, terrible, un-redeemable, festering piece of excrement who you can be assured is going to do the absolute worst possible thing in every situation he finds himself in, and revel in it.
Trump would gladly support turning Gaza into a parking lot, and quite likely would have US troops engaged in a war with Iran right now. So, the actual choice is Biden, who's attempting but largely failing to restrain Israeli military actions, and Trump, who would actively support them and undoubtedly support subsequent Jewish settlement of Gaza once the Palestinian "problem" has been solved.
It's an unfortunate choice, sure, but it's not a hard one.
The downvotes are because “both sides are the same” is an extremely common talking point by right wing trolls/astroturfers.
Conservatives recognized a long time ago that republicans will vote. They aren’t worried about disenfranchising conservative voters. Because conservatives will be willing to jump through hoops to keep voting. Voter ID laws, for instance, largely don’t affect conservative votes. If there’s one thing conservatives are really really good at, it’s presenting a unified front for their voters.
So when barriers to voting are put in place, they’re almost universally intended to disenfranchise liberal voters. This is true for both hard barriers - Codified legislation like voter ID laws - and also for soft barriers like a lack of time or motivation to vote. There is often a lot of liberal pushback against hard barriers, (because liberal lawmakers and activists recognize that it will unfairly disenfranchise liberal voters) so lots of time and effort has shifted towards making those soft barriers larger. This includes everything from “your vote doesn’t matter, so why bother” messaging, to “both sides are the same, so why bother” messaging.
Basically, the conservatives are going to vote conservative regardless. But the liberals might not vote liberal, or might not vote at all. So the “both sides” messaging has been leveraged by conservatives to dissuade liberal voters. The downvotes are a sort of over correction from liberals who have recognized this trend. Because sure, it could be someone who is genuinely disgusted by Biden’s actions and doesn’t feel right voting for him. But it could also very easily be a right wing troll. So many liberals have simply begun downvoting any kind of “both sides” messaging, because the default assumption is that the argument isn’t being made in good faith.
“I’m going to shoot myself in the foot on principle.“
Not what was said or meant, but undeniably the ultimate result of this approach will be leadership that actively and happily opposes ANY progress for Palestine. Period.
Biden has done poorly on an issue that the alternative would utterly disregard.
I know, the “lesser evil” argument is weak - but Biden is pushing back on Netanyahu where others would encourage and enable him.
It’s your vote - think pragmatically.
Claiming he's pushing back while he's pushing for more funding and weapons sales is a weak argument. What he says never aligns with what he does
Fair enough, but consider what he's saying is all but unprecedented. He's tying strings to our policy and directly pushing aid to Gaza too. Yes, the air drops have not been anywhere near enough - but that they happen at all is telling.
Again, the point is that the alternative would be exponentially worse. Yes, worse even than the nightmare it already is.
What I want to know is why nobody is pushing against Hamas too. They're not the good guys, there are none in power over there. They need to get rid of both leaders and let the young people deal with this.
But this sudden turn from "Hamas needs to stop firing rockets at malls and schools" suddenly became "omg the poor Palestinian government, we must save it!"
Why isn't it Biden's job to think pragmatically?
Here's some pragmatism for you.
- Leaving Israel to hang out to dry will open up America to accusations that it gives in too easily to 'antisemitic' rhetoric and doesn't really care for Jews. Don't think that can happen? It already has.
- Putin and Netanyahu, despite not being as close today, have historically been close, and Israel is a pretty friendly nation to Russia, with the third most common language spoken in Israel being Russian, and the third ranked non-Soviet state in terms of Russian speakers being Israel.
- Jews represent roughly 5.8 million Americans, compared to roughly 3.5 million. And Jews, as a whole, lean heavily towards Democrats, with roughly half of those polled in 2018 identifying with Team Blue. And while almost 60%, we're still talking 2.9 million Jews versus 2.1 million Muslims. Doing what you say you want him to do will lose him many of those 2.9 million votes, and if he listens to the most vocal of the people saying they won't vote for him, he has to wonder how much of the 2.1 million other votes he'll get back.
- And of course, the rest of the Middle East is just WAITING for us to stop protecting Israel. They've wanted Israel gone since 1949, and we are the only reason that hasn't happened. I'm sure that's entered Biden's pragmatic evaluation, too!
How's that for pragmatism for ya?
It is. He is standing by our ally while calling out their actions. I don’t agree with it either but recognize that turning our back on Israel would destabilize the mess in the region even more.
Netanyahu is the problem and it’s obvious that Biden wants him gone but for now it’s a shitty situation Iran just escalated.
What would have Biden do? Put troops in Gaza? I wish we’d cut off military aid personally but people far more qualified than me make those calls. It’s a shitshow for sure but opting for worse is not the solution.
"I plan to vote for the fascist who will deport me and my family out of the country. Won't you join me in destroying American democracy outright instead of shifting the Overton Window to the left by voting progressive people in and looking forward to 2028?"
"Vote for the guy genociding your people or you will be deported." Nice.
You do know that trump is %1000 worse than Biden. Dude is literally ok with deporting anyone they don't like.
Permanently Deleted
Exactly - so people like Ahmed Moor are either not voting for Biden or voting for Trump, when those two are equivalent. The same Trump who encouraged Israel to "finish the job". He'd be thrilled to glass Palestine.
I keep seeing this same messaging and can only conclude Russian influence to put out this message as wide and frequently as possible. If you are brown or you are muslim or an immigrant and not a White CIS man, Trump HATES you. He thinks you are scum. You might disagree with Biden, you might think he should cut off Israel, and you might think not enough is being done to earn your vote, but your only reasonable alternative, Trump, is demonstrably worse FOR THE SAME REASONS YOU ARE WITHOLDING YOUR VOTE FROM BIDEN.
Enjoy president Trump, a man who will guarantee the complete annihilation of Palestine, you moron.
If neither of the candidates are pro Palestine, then this issue is moot and not an election issue. Deal with it through your reps in Congress, which are the ones you should have been going after to begin with. This isn't a presidential decision stupid
Lol "this guy has 2 flaws so I'm going to throw my vote in the garbage" ok fascist
A pile of shit who will do even worse than Biden. They think it's bad now with Biden, wait until Trump lets russia butt fuck Europe and Israel fuck over Palestine and Iran.
The ignorance of the far left is astounding.
And I say this as someone who cannot stand Biden...but I know more of my family will be killed in Ukraine if that orange turd is allowed to win.
Good luck if Trump gets elected.
There is actually a right way to do this -- Ralph Nader talked about it in his article in Mother Jones. Basically, you decide on something you tactically can achieve, get a coalition together, communicate to the candidate that you're asking them to do X, Y and Z in order to earn your vote, and then follow through. That effectively puts pressure on the Democrats to start to pursue decent things instead of the grim neoliberal crap they tend to like to do when they're left to their own devices.
Just deciding you're going to make a private decision to protect the Palestinians by refusing to vote for Biden, when Trump is 100 times worse on the Palestinians as well as many many other people, doesn't make any goddamned sense. You're wrong two times over -- one for failing to be vocal enough about your priorities to make a difference, and then again by failing to support the obviously better choice (in cases like this where the worse choice is absolutely catastrophically bad, for the Palestinians as well as for many other people.)
The vote for aid to Israel is coming up this week, separated out from the Ukraine aid, and a lot of Democrats seem like they're waking up to the idea that supporting Israel is a monstrous crime. Infinitely more productive than voting third party would be to call your congresspeople and tell their staff how you feel about it, right now of all times.
they never said it would protect anyone
Just deciding you're going to make a private decision to protect the Palestinians by refusing to vote for Biden...
You're commenting on an article in The Guardian. People are protesting in the streets. The uncommitted movement is seeking out all the media coverage they can get. The ask, a permanent ceasefire, has been stated loud and clear from the beginning. They are literally doing everything you are suggesting they do.
I do think there's some fairness to this -- I was talking more to the person reading the article that the person who wrote it. Writing an editorial to put pressure on the candidate sounds fine to me.
At the same time, I don't think you can say the ask has been stated loud and clear, when the article says not "I won't vote for Joe Biden unless he does X" but "I am not going to vote for Joe Biden and will not change my mind; at this point I prefer to enable a much worse outcome for the Palestinians instead."
Voting for or allowing Trump to be elected by inaction, will result in injustices a thousand times worse.
Politics is about compromise. You always have to choose for the lesser evil one. If you don't vote Biden, you are practically supporting Trump. If you dislike how Biden treats palestine, don’t even try to imagine what Trump would do.
More headline bait and people responding only to that it seems. They say their voting uncommitted in the primary, that's it. Not the November election, the democratic primary. Biden will likely still win that regardless.
Even though it says they'll only vote uncommitted in the dems primary, they probably will vote elsewhere in the November election too. I kind of get it, these people are losing families and friends, losing their nation. If both candidates are going to let Palestine anyways, you may as well try and hurt the one who isn't doing it right now. What else have they got to lose in their minds? I can't feign to imagine the fear and helplessness these people are feeling right now, to live under the rule of people who would watch and fund the burning of your people.
Israel is a liability for the US. Contrary to popular thinking, an alliance can be a liability, especially such one that operates on politics, self-interest. People think China is weak because it has no allies. China does not have liabilities like the US does. It is not entangled in bilateral or organization defense pacts. Israel can do what it wants because the Israel lobby is powerful in the US. The US is a flawed democracy that has to follow and support an insignificant country by a lot of measures. Israel is protected. Ukraine is not protected. Nor do I think that is the point of US and NATO involvement in Ukraine. I think they wanted Russia to invade.