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No, Kamala Harris Staffers Did Not Run a “Flawless” Campaign
(www.thenation.com)
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All she had to say was:
"Israel had a right to defend itself, however after their indescriminate attacks on civillians in Gaza, not just the men, but also, the women and children, an act that clearly and undeniably violate internation laws, Israel no longer have the right to defend itself. I will immediately call on President Biden to suspend any and all military aid to Israel. Futhermore, sanctions will be imposed on Israel until they cease their indiscriminate killings."
Then actually make Biden do it. Kneecap him if he doesn't.
And for domestic policy:
"As president, I ensure every American has access to healthcare by calling on Congress to pass legislation that would make Medicare For All a reality in America."
There, campaign saved. Just keep up the public appearances, talk to people, and win the election.
But unfortunately, that's a different timeline. This timeline is fucked.
I think far too many people see the price of groceries, fall for the GOP line that it's Biden's fault (and that deporting all illegal immigrants will help) and think Trump will save the day.
Like, yeah, post-covid recovery has been hard. Mostly stagnant wages don't help. People feel that. Unfortunately it's harder to feel the fact that other countries are feeling the exact same things, often worse than we are, so they vote for some weird nostalgia for the days when things were better under Trump.
Sanders said it perfectly in his open letter after the election.
Democrats just didn't do enough to make people believe that their lives would change for the better from them. Continuing the status quo is not something they wanted to hear.
I can agree with that. People are so sick of things they want a disruptor. It's hard to present yourself as that when you're currently in office.
Going to the comment I replied to, most people don't really know or care enough about what's going on in Palestine right now. Not that that shouldn't, just that they don't (but admittedly those who do could be critical in Michigan). Medicare for all is certainly a disruptive idea, but it's only a piece of what makes a person a disruptor. One that I'd bet not everyone fully understands.
I think Palestine was a demotivating factor for a lot of people, Michigan was still a pretty incredible outlier, but Trump picked up Muslim and Arab American voters across the board. A deciding factor? No, but a factor.
Now immigration... I've talked to people who've voted democratic by rote for their entire lives who voted for Trump over immigration. It was an extremely effective talking point that was ignored by Dems early on, then ceded to Republicans.
LIke Jews voting for Hitler.
Because they liked Donald Trainwreck's Mass Green Card Policy? How idiotic can people get?
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/donald-trump-immigration-expansionist/
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fans-rebel-over-immigration-proposal-green-card-college/
I don't even think anyone thought that hard about it. Immigration scary, waves of immigrants coming into the country type rhetoric was enough. It's not even about taking jobs, these people don't engage with the fact that exploitation of mostly illegal immigrants is why they have available fruits and vegetables at all. Our entire food system is built on making immigrants do difficult, dangerous, and degrading work.
These people are worried about their taxes having to pay for illegals when they themselves are struggling. It's wild shit!
Only a vocal, very noisy minority care about Palestine. The rest pretend to care to avoid being "cancelled". And the narrow voting marging showed that.
People are hurting, economically, and a lot of those people chose the person who is NOT in office, ie they voted against the incumbent who is telling them everything is fine and to stop whining.
That is actually a flaw in democracy. Many people don't get that the person who is not in office can easily make things worse. So we usually get 8 years of 1 party, then 8 years of the other party. Way too many people forget after 4 or 8 years how terrible the incompetent the GOP is.
Biden never once told anybody that. If anything Biden allowed his huge accomplishments (record low unemployerment, soft landing, lowest inflation of any developed country) to be underplayed.
My gods... you're talking about a "soft landing" and "his accomplishments"...
You understand stonks going up doesn't matter if you are a week from being homeless, and an empty cupboard, right?
Levels of homelessness and food stress higher than any period except the Great Depression be damned right?
It's as simple as Harris said things would continue the same way, and Trump promised change. With grocery prices as they are, people voted based on that.
I think you overestimate how much Americans care about Palestine or foreign affairs in the wake of post covid inflation.
About 8 million [Arab] Americans cared enough to stay home, from voting.
See: Detroit, Dearborn, and several other Midwest cities with large [Arab] American citizens who stayed home, and depressed the vote there.
I don't think its that "Americans Care", but its the fact that it fuels propaganda that strengthens the "Both Sides Same" narrative which causes democrats to stay home.
I disagree. Kamala could have cried 'from the river to the sea' or even 'free Palestine now!' I really don't think it would have made those reluctant democrats get off their couches. The apathy goes beyond foreign affairs and you're overestimating the general populace. Online discussions of geopolitics don't mirror the real conversations Americans are having. So whire IP is big here, I hardly believe my Mom who is a dem is thinking about it much. Its really the grocery bill.
It would have convinced a sizeable [Arab] American citizens to vote, rather than stay home to avoid voting for Genocider A or Genocider B.
If they weren't going to vote for the party focused on brokering a peace deal and instead chose to enable the one that wants to effectively glass all of Palestine, then it wasn't ever going to be an issue regardless of what K said.
Neither party is interested in brokering a y deal that doesn't include Israel genociding Palestinians.
Biden could have ended it by ceasing arms transfers, which he is legally required to do, since it was found the arms were to be used to aid a genocide. That's US law.
We're all familiar with the Leahy law talking point. I get it. Thank God Biden wasn't running for president, and Kamala was on the ticket. I see we are still stuck on equating Kamala with Trump in terms of IP policy. This understanding is juvenile and betrays any chance for moving forward into a meaningful conversation. Have a good one.
Harris said she would let Israel keep doing it's thing, and just talk about it.
That's essentially "funding the genocide", no matter how you split it.
And yes, people decided to NOT choose between two pro-genocide candidates. You are, of course, free to ignore that, and act still confused about why she lost support in cities with large Arab populations.
Your paraphrasing and retelling is doing a lot of lifting. While it's true that her messaging sucks, policy wise it was never a 1:1 with Trump. I'm too tired to argue about it though if you've made up your mind about which reality is true already.
Very few votes would be lost by shutting off Israel. Most Americans do not care. But there were votes to be won by supporting Palestine.
The 2nd thing may or may not have helped. The 1st thing would be an absolutely stupid thing to say that would have been a major win for Treason Trump.
This would have been a good idea.