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The time for making your case was during the primary season. That's when Democratic voters decide which issues are most important to them.
Time and again, Democratic voters indicated that women's rights and housing are among the most important issues. Gaza isn't.
If Gaza activists had succeeded in convincing voters that Gaza is more important than women's rights, then DNC speakers would be discussing Gaza instead of women's rights.
People did, and when "Uncommited" was an option, they did it. Then liberals on social media cried how it was supporting Trump to vote in democratic primaries.
And Harris wasn't an option as the front runner, it was Biden and no one else with above 1%. She was part of the VP ticket, but VPs don't generally decide policies, they're there to break ties in the Senate and as a backup plan if something happens to the President.
When running, we criticized and people said it would hand the election to Trump. Biden won the biggest tally of votes possible, mine was in there. When mid-terms came up, and we wanted to still help with COVID and the groups it harmed, it was said that handed it to Republicans.
It feels like its never a good time to ask for something that helps Americans. We vote in primaries, we ask nicely, we protest, we organize, we vote blue no matter who, because Trump is the default of "Fucking never in a million years." and we're still called traitors who want him to win, because we want money sent to Ukraine than Israel's genocide.
Primaries are lot more than just voting for the top of the ticket. There are hundreds of downballot candidates involved. More important, it's when voters decide what issues need to be addressed.
Nobody named "women's rights" ran for office this year. But women's rights activists succeeded in persuading Democrats that it is the most important issue this year.
This is what Democratic activism is really about, you are basically competing against other activists for the attention of your own party.
Finally, if you vote for Democrats in November then nobody should consider you a traitor.
No one is demanding it be the main discussion. Of course topics like women's rights and inflation are going to get the most time as they are high priority for most voters. But that's not the same as it getting no discussion. The DNC is giving time for families of Israeli hostages to speak, which is great, but are also denying anyone to speak on behalf of the Palestinian victims. Which is showing that the DNC does not consider the victims or their voices to be equal.
While low on the importance for most voters, as foreign policy usually is, the vast majority are still in support of a permanent ceasefire. However, for hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in critical swing states, it is a major issue. Also for over 200 delegates. Those votes and delegates are critical for securing the election.
The anti-genocide protests will only gain more momentum, it's a dangerous situation for the Democratic party to continue ignoring them
A Gaza ceasefire did get some discussion. Sanders and AOC, both high profile speakers, promoted a Gaza ceasefire in their speeches. But Americans aren't interested enough in Gaza to justify a speaker who will mainly or exclusively be discussing that topic.
And yes, Americans are more interested in rescuing hostages than helping war victims. Not just in the abstract, polling consistently shows that Americans overwhelmingly view Hamas as evil but are more evenly divided regarding Netanyahu. It might seem unfair, but don't blame the DNC. That's our national mood, which the DNC will respond to. If Gaza activists want that to change then they will have to do more work.
So easy when our government keeps using our taxpayer dollars to prop up Israel and it's swarm of bots to shut down any dissenting voices online. I guess the activists just need to get more money somehow to battle the endless propaganda from Israel that is literally funded by our taxpayer dollars.
Yeah, they've got their work cut out for them when they're basically going against US/Israeli imperialist propaganda with basically an endless supply of money to finance it.
Yup, they just need to try harder, that's the ticket. This is the most out of touch bullshit I've ever fucking had the displeasure to read.
Who said change is easy? Those who challenge entrenched interests will always have a difficult road ahead.
But it's not impossible. Civil rights activists achieved change, LGBTQ activists achieved change, even wack-job anti-abortion activists achieved change. So can Gaza activists.
The calculus has changed. Those things happened before concerted propaganda via the internet, which is largely unregulated, unlike television and newspapers. Previously, spreading propaganda was a lot more difficult. The reality is that propaganda is disseminated at high speeds and has tools like Persona Management Software, where half the people you are arguing with online, aren't even real people (just hundreds of sockpuppet accounts controlled by a single person). Was anyone ever able to "flood the zone" with bogus material like this in the past? No, because only the internet allows such endless publishing with no guardrails.
But sure, somehow those are all exactly the same. It's not like LGBTQ rights have been losing ground or anything recently? Give me a break.
We literally have an anti-trans billionaire who owns a fucking media organization, and because he's insulated by money, fuck-all happens to him when he breaks the law.
EDIT: Further, we're literally headlong into a "death of truth" era because of AI video. The idea that the speed at which propaganda can be made and disseminated doesn't change how hard it is to fight is abso-fucking-lutely bullshit. This is a way harder fight, and comparing to past fights is a fucking joke.
All activists will sometimes lose ground. The successful ones gain the ground back. The unsuccessful ones are discouraged by setbacks, complain about the latest tactics used by their opponents, and give up.
Women's rights activists suffered a huge setback in 2022. They did more than complain about the internet and billionaires. They redoubled their efforts and are determined to gain all that ground back in the coming years. And then some.
A genocide can't really wait years for action
Well, in America change generally takes years. Activism takes patience. Set your goals accordingly.
The goal is a ceasefire. When we are arming one side, Israel, that uses our weapons to eradicate the other side, Palestinians; a ceasefire means to stop providing the weapons used for genocide. Conditional military aid, conditional on Israel abiding by international laws and not committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
That is the moral position. That is also popular, and a great way for Harris to gain support and momentum. In general but also critically in key states.
If you see Palestinians as equals, I don't get why you're arguing against the people advocating for their voice instead of being an advocate
If the goal is a ceasefire, commonly defined as a bilateral end of hostilities, then you should encourage and reward the administration's attempts to secure a ceasefire.
If the goal is to stop arming Israel, then Americans overall do not sufficiently support this goal right now. That means this goal will take years to achieve.
If you want to help Palestinians, then you should be realistic about what you can achieve and how long it will take.
40-100 thousand people have died while they fail to pressure Israel to agree to the ceasefire. Americans overall do, you don't.
MLK had patience, which that quote exemplifies. It took the civil rights movement years to see any results.
MLK hated people like you who told him to be patient, that he was too radical and that he was trying to change America too quickly or that his protests were hurting LBJ’s re-election campaign. He wrote long diatribes against this idea and people who told him he was moving too fast, go read his anger in Letters from a Birmingham Jail.
Don’t misquote him like that.
Edit: Why We Can’t Wait was the actual title of his 1964 book. King’s “Letter” issues a call for urgency. He wrote it as a response to eight local white clergymen who had criticized his activities in Birmingham and appealed for a more patient and restrained approach to lobbying for civil rights. The “Letter” expresses King’s deep disappointment with “the white moderate,” who “paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom.” https://sojo.net/articles/when-patience-becomes-complacency-why-we-cant-wait
Whether he liked it or not, it took years for the civil rights movement to see any results. The same is true of every other successful activist movement.
We’ve already been waiting years. Stop being so condescending. If you’re actually on our side like you claim, you could show empathy rather than telling us grieving people that we’re not being patient enough. Again, MLK hated people who said that to his coalition. Have you read his stuff yet?
Empathy for American activists doesn't help Palestinians. If anything, American activists are often counterproductive. Telling the DNC to fuck off doesn't bring your goals any closer to reality.
And you don't speak for MLK.
Nice strawman. I think we’re done here if you can’t even be honest.
Edit: April 16, 1963, King wrote his most famous “Letters from a Birmingham jail” in response to eight local white clergymen who had criticized his activities in Birmingham and appealed for a more patient and restrained approach to lobbying for civil rights. The “Letter” expresses King’s deep disappointment with “the white moderate,” who “paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom.”
The strawman is that activists should be more "restrained". I never said that.
You can be as fervent as you want. It will still take years to get results. So buckle up.
And if you don't want to make friends with politicians then it will take even longer. MLK at least didn't burn his bridges in Congress.
MLK publicly fought with LBJ over his watering down of the Civil Rights Act. LBJ supporters accused him of Potentially derailing his election the same way Democrats today accused Palestine protesters of derailing Biden. History isn’t as rosy as you pretend it is, learn your history since MLK publicly castigated those “allies” in his famous Letter, historically burning those bridges that you claim we need to build.
I’m not going to keep repeating myself since you refuse to even look at what’s historical record and have you keep abusing MLK’s name to fit your ahistorical claims just like Republicans do. This goes far beyond MLK, as far back as the Abolitionist movement which also didn’t try making friends and compromises in the face of moral depravity.
This is how a successful activist operates. Not "fuck the racist White House that has failed to pass the civil rights act".
Oh look you finally started to read what MLK said, how many times did I ask? But you conveniently ignored the one source I kept pointing to and cited something unrelated. Darn these facts getting in the way of your opinion, amirite?
This may blow your mind but MLK said both things at different times. Both to pressure LBJ and try to drive public opinion. One didn’t invalidate the other. You’re intentionally missing my point. I’m done.
He said the right thing at the right time. And when he wanted LBJs support, he said he supported LBJ.
You seem to think MLK never spoke again after writing the letter you cite over and over.
Do you even know who MLK openly supported in the 1964 election?
I just wanna say i like your style. You're saying a lot of the things that I've been trying to say, but you're way more eloquent than I.
Oh no! Someone complained! That must mean they're not a real activist who gets anything done and thus should be chided and dismissed!
If that's really your implication here, get fucked, cunt. People can and do both. You're allowed to speak at how fucked the situation is while also trying to do something about it, and people telling us "just try harder" like they're doing anything better can eat dogshit.
You can, and should, do whatever activism you can.
Who cares about how hard it is with Persona Management blah blah blah. Activism isn't supposed to be easy. Get it done, or don't.
Every other Democratic activist in America faces the exact same problems, but they aren't whining. Women's rights activists got ballot initiatives in ten states this year. They rose to the challenge, and that's why they are successful.
Schrodinger's anti-genociders are simultaneously unimportant enough to not register as a voter issue, yet powerful enough to throw the election to Trump.
Only the first part is true. And only partly true, they are important enough to merit mention in some speeches, but not important enough for a dedicated speech.
And yet so much effort is spent demonizing us.
Never felt more important to be unimportant.
I don't criticize the Genocide-Joe lot for throwing the election to Trump.
I criticize them for their performative self-indulgence that does nothing to actually help Palestinians.
You think pushing the issue in political discussions and not let it die out to obscurity doesn’t help Palestinians?
Because I can tell you nothing on this Earth other than the actions of dedicated individuals is doing anything to help. The media and governments are silent or complicit, who else will speak for them if not us?
What’s far less helpful and even entering harmful to Palestinians is complaining about people speaking about it.
Pushing the issue is fine.
The problem is the performative attacks on the only party that will ever help them.
If they say "We just want Democrats to call for a ceasefire", then when Democrats call for a ceasefire it does not help Palestinians to respond "Actually that's meaningless, fuck the DNC unless they embargo Israel".
Do you really think Palestinians who wanted America to call for a ceasefire suddenly changed their minds? No, it's a self-indulgent response by cynical Americans. And all it does is make Democrats question why they should put any more effort into helping Palestinians.
Look at every successful activist group. None of them ever said "You did what we wanted? Fuck you."
They all say things like "We applaud Lily Ledbetter/background checks/gays openly in military/automobile emissions standards. They are a good first step towards women's equality/gun control/LGBTQ rights/preventing climate change. We will support you, and let's work together towards the next step".
As another person put it, you can be a partner with Democrats or a problem for Democrats. Gaza activists generally want to be a problem for Democrats. But the Democratic Party pays a lot more attention to its partners.
It was always implied that a ceasefire would have to come with some sort of leverage, otherwise why would Israel do it? That's obvious to anyone with any sort of political or negotiation instincts, that's why the talks keep failing, because they have no reason to listen to the US and UN.
The US politicians are the ones who cynically seem to be trying to do a ceasefire without any leverage, which is why now an arms embargo has to be clearly put in demands so that the politicians know how to do their jobs. The idea is threatening a ceasefire for an arms embargo, that part has never changed, the politicians have just been cynically trying to avoid it while also avoiding the blame of it failing. They also keep trying to change the definition to these super short pauses, like 6 weeks, or letting the soldiers still stay in Gaza. That's a victory, not a ceasefire lol.
"Welp we tried to get a ceasefire, of course we're still selling weapons and using our veto to defend them and not applying any sort of material pressure, and they refused. Oh well, we tried."
"... Did you?"
"Nah, we just want you to stop complaining."
Also the movement has been interested in working with the party. Did you see the speech that representative from Georgia was going to give if they gave her speaking time? It's basically exactly that. The most milquetoast bringing up of the issue and no real criticism of the party at all, lifting up Kamala, bringing down Trump, saying it will help the hostages, no mention of arms embargo, our party's diversity is great, etc, the same as every other speaker basically.
These bad faith complaints and changing of arguments, cynically not really working towards the goals they say they are, and not even letting that speaker speak but allowing Israelis, too, proves it's the party that's not really interested in being partners with the movement, not the other way around. Biden more so, as he and Blinken have straight up lied about who has tanked the ceasefire talks multiple times and didn't even let their underlings say the word ceasefire for months. It's sad that Kamala didn't mention the Palestinians at all, except for ceasefire which again means nothing without withholding arms or money, but I still have a little hope, as foolish as it probably is, just because she's not Biden or Trump and she still picked Walz over IDF fan boy Shapiro.
Activists were calling for UN resolutions at the same they wanted Biden to call for a ceasefire. If Israel has "no reason to listen", then activists were wasting everyone's time and Biden should ignore them.
And calling for a ceasefire is not the same as threatening an embargo. If activists now want Biden to threaten an embargo then he should ignore that too. Embargos have never stopped a war. They have been used in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Iraq without solving the underlying problem.
Kamala didn't mention Palestinians at all, except the part where she mentioned Palestinians. She also didn't mention climate change at all, except the part where she mentioned climate change. I hate to break it to you, but their campaign is not going to focus on Gaza or climate change. It's going to focus on women's rights and housing, because right now those things interest voters far more than Gaza or climate change.
Finally, the published speech by the Georgia rep was fine. But the DNC was concerned she would go off script, which would not be fine.
They're using our bombs and weapons, that's the big problem people have. The only reason Israel is that powerful is they are supported by Western empire, they are an extension of our imperialism. If we hold back our arm sales to them, then they can't use them. It's that simple. There's a big difference between using sanctions as a part of imperialism, which is most of the reason for the example countries you used, and to help stop it. It's also a big reason the South African apartheid regime fell. It probably won't cause regime change, which is the main goal the US had with those other countries, but it will stop Israel from using our weapons and money and it will act as a chip during negotiations. After all, it has made life worse in all those countries, so they still wouldn't want one. Even if they continue their genocide, then at least the US wouldn't be culpable and so hypocritical.
Israel only doesn't have a reason to listen because they're getting everything they want anyway thanks to unconditional US support. We just sent them another couple billion dollars a week or two ago and continue to veto UN resolutions against them. There's nothing they want from Palestine except for its land and the extermination of its people. I'm curious how you think their negotiations are going?
Mentioning Palestine is not enough. Trump mentions black people all the time in his speeches, and you think that means most black people should be happy to vote for him? Or Jewish people? Context matters.
She still mentioned the hostages a lot more, which means the matter is important to people, but only for one side of it, the pro-genocide side. This is mostly a matter of lobbyists power in our government, biased media, and Israel's importance to US empire in the Middle East.
I agree that Gaza isn't as popular as it should be probably, hence the calculus to not mention it and my cope is that she does care more than Biden but didn't make it a priority there because of all the old people at the DNC and Republicans they invited. But neither were black people during civil rights or LGBTQ people during the AIDS epidemic, or hell, the holocaust while it was happening was ignored by Americans too. Hopefully activists can continue to shine a light on the issue and push it more into the spotlight before the genocide has completely turned into another nakba. It's already a lot more popular than it was before, and the polls continue to show increasing opinions against Israel's occupation as people are educated about what's going on over there, so crossing my fingers.
Israel already has enough weapons to completely destroy Gaza, and it is perfectly capable of buying non-US weapons.
An arms embargo might make some Americans feel better about themselves but it won't do anything for Palestinians.
You cannot call them the only party who will ever help them, when the party has never helped them.
No one wants them to push its bullshit excuse of a ceasefire that solely benefits Israel, they want America to cease funding and supplying weapons to Israel to use to commit genocide.
You don’t push to meet halfway on genocide and call it progress.
A big part of activism is defining concrete goals.
If you don't actually want Democrats to call for a ceasefire, then don't ask them to call for a ceasefire.
Because if you decide that's your goal and later decide your goal is bullshit, then why should anyone pay attention to your next goal?
The goal is to stop supplying money and weapons to Israel, the very thing enabling them to continue the genocide.
Remove that and you will see a ceasefire actually happen.
OK. Defunding Israel is far less popular than a ceasefire. That doesn't mean it's impossible, after all there was a time when gay marriage was unpopular.
But if a goal is unpopular, then it will take a lot of time and effort to get it done. It took years for gay activists to bring the public around on gay marriage. It will probably take at least as long to achieve your goal of defunding Israel.
It will take even longer if you don't want to be friends with people in power. Gay activists didn't make that mistake.
More generally, this is why successful activists often stage their goals, and reward/partner with politicians who make incremental progress. Climate activists want to end all fossil fuel usage, but that's still unpopular so they started with popular things like more efficient cars and appliances. Gay activists want to end all forms of discrimination against them, but they started with minor things like letting gays serve in the military.
You may think those are "bullshit" goals, but a string of minor successes can often set the stage for major successes.
The movement for Palestinians predates Stonewall, so what’s that tell you? We’ve been “starting with minor things” for decades and the US still vetoes any UN resolutions that give Palestinians rights. Biden’s major positive while campaigning was that he is a deeply empathetic person because of the losses of his family members and how he can connect with grieving people, yet he never met a Palestinian family despite meeting and hugging Israeli families for the last 10 months and posting them all over his instagram and giving speeches about them. The empathetic president does. Not. Care. About. Palestinians. He only started talking about Palestinian suffering once his advisors showed him losing Michigan; prior to that Politico reported he removed any pro-Palestinian language from his speeches last October and he supported the attacks on Gaza hospitals. The only person who even bothered to talk to Palestinian-American victims was Harris and she did so quietly and even then the Biden campaign tried to downplay it.
Hear fucking HEAR!