Because the mud slowly settles on this election, and Kamala Harris faces the stays of a marketing campaign that did not win a single swing state, the Democratic Occasion and its liberal supporters are anxiously looking for somebody, anybody, aside from themselves guilty. his catastrophic defeat. And, it appears, they’ve already discovered handy scapegoats: Arab People, Muslims, and anybody who refused to vote for the administration that enthusiastically enabled the genocide of my individuals, the Palestinians.
All through the night time of November 5, as electoral votes from key states like North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio poured in for Trump, social platforms have been overrun with offended Democrats blaming Arab and American People for the result. Muslims who didn’t vote for Harris and needed extra deaths. and destruction upon our brothers within the Center East as punishment for this supposed “betrayal.”
“I hope all of the rattling Muslims [sic] Those that voted for Trump can watch Bibi flip Gaza right into a glass car parking zone,” one wrote. “[Green Party leader Jill] “Stein voters are going to see what Trump does to Gaza,” one other prompt.
Their argument appears to be that by rejecting Harris, we’re gifting the presidency to Trump and “sacrificing” the way forward for American democracy on the altar of international coverage.
They appear to consider not solely that we’re highly effective sufficient to determine the destiny of democracy on this nation, but additionally that, merely due to our minority standing, we “owe” our vote to the Democratic Occasion.
Certain, it is true that in modern American elections, minorities constantly confirmed help for Democratic candidates at a lot greater charges than white voters.
In 2016, Trump’s victory in opposition to then-Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton was secured primarily by white voters: 57 % of white males and 47 % of white ladies voted for him. Eighty-eight % of black voters and 65 % of Asian voters supported Democrats in that election. Equally, three-quarters of Muslim voters and about 60 % of Arab People mentioned they voted for Clinton that 12 months. The sample endured in 2020, with minorities, together with Muslims and Arabs, turning out in giant numbers to help the Biden-Harris ticket.
However this historic help, which undoubtedly fueled Democratic victories up to now and helped Clinton keep the favored vote in 2016, doesn’t imply that we “owe” the get together something, or that we may be held accountable for its “magnificent” efficiency. defeat in opposition to Trump on this election.
Politicians, no matter get together affiliation, usually are not entitled to the votes of any given demographic group. It’s their obligation, even their prerogative, to earn our votes. Nonetheless, on this election cycle, the Democratic institution labored tirelessly to make sure that we might not vote for them. So this defeat falls on them, and solely them.
Simply take a look at how Democrats campaigned within the state I dwell in, Michigan. Michigan, an important swing state the place elections could hinge on only a few thousand votes, is dwelling to about 200,000 Muslim People. Over the previous 12 months, these voters made it clear, in each means doable, that their vote was conditional on the get together committing to ending its monetary, political and army help for the massacres of Palestinians, Lebanese and Yemenis. The “uncommitted” marketing campaign – which seeks to finish the Democratic Occasion’s help for Israel’s genocide – garnered greater than 100,000 votes within the state’s Democratic main.
The Democratic Occasion didn’t hear. Not solely did Harris refuse to desert Biden’s staunchly pro-Israel insurance policies on Palestine, she additionally personally supported the continued bloodshed in Gaza by publicly insulting anti-genocide activists within the state. When pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a Harris rally in Detroit by merely stating that they “won’t vote for genocide,” she silenced them together with her slogan: “I am talking.” He then despatched former President Invoice Clinton to the state to ship a speech during which he tried to justify the mass killing of Palestinians. Liz Cheney, the Republican daughter of Iraq Struggle architect and battle prison Dick Cheney, additionally appeared within the state to marketing campaign for Harris. Congressman Ritchie Torres, who spent the final 12 months accusing anybody who known as for an finish to the bloodshed in Gaza as an anti-Semitic terrorist, was one other surrogate Harris despatched to Michigan.
Because of this, it’s comprehensible that Muslims in Michigan didn’t vote for Harris. They did not vote for Harris as a result of they did not owe her their vote and she or he did not do something to earn it.
Within the metropolis of Dearborn, the place about 55 % of residents are of Center Jap descent, Trump gained with 42.48 % of the vote over Vice President Kamala Harris, who acquired simply 36.26 %. Jill Stein of the Inexperienced Occasion, who campaigned arduous to finish Israel’s assault on Gaza, acquired 18.37 %. In 2020, a formidable 74.20 % of town’s voters voted for Biden.
What we’re seeing in Michigan is, in reality, an image of betrayal. However it was the Democratic Occasion that betrayed the voters who supported it election after election, not the opposite means round.
In any case, the numbers rising from Michigan and different battleground states present that Democratic losses are just too giant to attribute solely to Arab and Muslim voters.
The Senate, for instance, modified because of Democratic defeats in locations like Ohio and West Virginia, the place the outcomes can’t be linked to the alleged “betrayal” of Muslim and Arab voters. These elections, and at last these of the Senate and the White Home, have been misplaced as a result of the Democratic Nationwide Committee refused to hearken to the primary calls for and needs not solely of Muslims and Arabs, but additionally of the overwhelming majority of potential Democratic voters.
They supplied no solutions or options to the American individuals on key points equivalent to healthcare, local weather change, and, sure, ending the genocide.
In reality, opposite to what Harris and her supporters could counsel, most People need an finish to American help for Israel’s brutal battle on Gaza. A February ballot of 1,232 doubtless voters by Knowledge for Progress discovered that 67 % – together with 77 % of Democrats and 69 % of independents – would help america calling for a everlasting ceasefire in Gaza. and situation army assist to Israel.
This was about eight months in the past, earlier than Israel dedicated numerous extra massacres, invaded Lebanon, and started ethnic cleaning in northern Gaza utilizing starvation as a weapon of battle. Even a bigger share of People most likely need their nation to cease supporting Israel now.
Kamala Harris and the Democratic Occasion didn’t lose this election as a result of some specific demographic “betrayed them.” They misplaced the election as a result of they betrayed their core base, together with Arab and Muslim People.
Kamala Harris might have simply secured her votes, and people of many others, just by operating on a humane and humanitarian ticket, together with guarantees to respect worldwide regulation and finish American complicity in Israel’s genocide. As an alternative, the administration opted for stubbornness, apparently keen to gamble with each human lives and electoral success.
The Democratic institution can’t have it each methods. They can’t ignore, dismiss and antagonize communities and on the identical time anticipate their unconditional help. Palestinians, Arab and Muslim People, and others who’ve drifted away from the Democratic Occasion over its help for Israel usually are not asking for particular therapy: They’re asking for primary human dignity and ethical consistency in international coverage.
This isn’t nearly international coverage: it’s concerning the nature of democratic illustration itself. Those that remained silent throughout months of humanitarian disaster however at the moment are rising to debate electoral politics reveal that their earlier silence was really a selection. It was an election that mentioned so much about priorities and values. Now they profess: “Trump can be worse.” However for many who have seen their kids maimed and their lands destroyed, there may be nothing worse.
In fact, we all know that President Trump can be no much less supportive of the genocide of my individuals than Biden or Harris. His actions throughout his first time period made this very clear. It’s a rot that has emerged from a decades-long historical past of white supremacy, racism and bigotry. However this doesn’t imply that we might have stepped over the shattered stays of tens of hundreds of Palestinian males, ladies and kids killed by American bombs dropped by Israel to vote for the girl who personally defended and facilitated their homicide. We could not and we did not.
It’s time, because the nation and the world put together for a second Trump presidency, that Democrats cease passing the buck and take duty for the choices they made. We aren’t right here due to something Arab and Muslim People have achieved or did not do. We’re right here as a result of the Democratic Occasion, first beneath Joe Biden after which Kamala Harris, insisted on perpetrating genocide whereas ignoring the elemental rules of “democracy” and “freedom” that they supposedly maintain expensive.
So, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gaza is talking now. Was the killing of our kids value it?
The views expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially replicate the editorial place of Al Jazeera.
