Whether It’s Biden or Someone Else, Gaza Remains Top Priority for “Uncommitted” Voters
Whether It’s Biden or Someone Else, Gaza Remains Top Priority for “Uncommitted” Voters
Activists who protested Biden’s handling of the war during Democratic primaries say they will maintain pressure no matter the nominee.
Activists from around the country told The Intercept that they will advocate for an anti-war agenda at the convention in August and withhold their vote in November unless an adequate candidate steps up, listing policy priorities such as support for a permanent ceasefire and standing up to the pro-Israel lobby as it intervenes in Democratic primaries. Even as the Biden campaign insists that he will not step aside, many Democrats appear to be lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate, with some Democratic governors being floated as well.
“My number one criteria for any candidate is opposing the genocide in Gaza,” said Saad Farooq, an uncommitted voter in Massachusetts. Farooq said it was unlikely that the Democratic National Committee would select any candidate who took a stance against Israel’s ongoing war, and that he would support Green Party candidate Jill Stein if she were to appear on the ballot in Massachusetts.
Will Dawson, an uncommitted voter in Washington, D.C., named several factors that could get him to switch his vote from the Green Party’s Stein to another politician. First on his list is a promise to call for an immediate ceasefire and fighting the influence of the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Congress.
“This candidate would also ideally work toward pulling further away from the Israeli colonial project over time, with the goal being repealing our absurd financial support, ending the foreign interest agency of AIPAC, and pushing for a nation-wide boycott a la [South Africa] during their apartheid,” Dawson wrote.
The candidate would also have to push to reform the Supreme Court, he added. “The candidate would have to promise to both push for justice impeachment, and expand the courts,” Dawson said.“If a replacement candidate met both of these requirements, I would absolutely consider switching my vote from Jill Stein. Hell, I might even knock doors/canvass for them!”
Nothing is improved by Trump being elected; for Gazans , for Israelis, for Americans, or anyone else.
If Trump gets elected, he'd show Israel what real genocide looks like.
Yeah anyone who is uncommitted because of Gaza, either was never gonna vote, or is lying to pollsters and is manipulating polls.
Which is why we need to run a candidate with a shot of beating trump...
It's too important of an election to let Joe have one more go out of nostalgia.
It would be easiest for everyone if he stepped aside, but he's not willing to.
It blows my mind that people can argue that Trump is the worst possible outcome for our country and the world, and then follow that up with "we need a candidate that can beat Trump". If everyone knows what is at stake (democracy), how is Biden not capable of beating Trump? Do people think that not voting, or voting 3rd party is going to somehow keep Trump out of the white house? Anything but a vote for Biden (or whoever ends up on the ticket opposite Trump) is who everyone needs to vote for, or they have chosen Trump and doomed us all.
Oh look. Same person who shows up at any anti-Biden post trying to convince people not to vote for Biden, but stops just short of saying they want Trump to win.
Let’s see all your “genocide Joe” type of comments directed to all the GOP members in Congress who happily support Israel’s efforts.
or if Biden is elected
maybe a few miniscule scraps will make to the people but nothing progressive or meaningful
our lives are worse than four, eight, twelve, sixteen, or however many four years you want to go back our lives get worse every election no matter who wins
some of have waited our whole lives for a change with parents and grandparents who have done the same
Gaza is not on the ballot. Democracy is. End of discussion.
Gonna be a whole lot of Pikachu face on progressive faces.
The supreme court reform is also not on the ballot. Then what is?
Republicans have their electorate getting the pages of project 2025 all sticky. What do democrats have? Another four years of kicking the can? Same promises as the last time but this time for real?
The Supreme Court is absolutely on the ballot. It always is.
Those progressive votes might come in handy. But if Democrats don't want to put it on the ballot they must be very confident in their victory.
Of course they are. Threads like these are full of die-hard blue party voters who refuse to hear any criticism.
In other words, people who are uncommitted at this stage are absolute morons.
And a danger to themselves and everybody else.
What the fuck is wrong with people. Number one criteria for president is dealing with a small scale civil/proxy war.
Meanwhile in Sudan, Ukraine, China, Myanmar, etc. there are millions more people being killed/impacted by genocidal governments and these don't even make the list of anyone giving a shit when it comes to presidential choice.
Meanwhile the entire world economy is falling apart for the average person.
Meanwhile there's a drug epidemic (somewhat related to the last one) killing around 100,000 Americans a year.
If your number one criteria is the Palestinian war you are either Palestinian(totally okay) or you have no idea how to prioritize your life in a rational manner and should not be allowed to vote.
I think it should be pretty clear, right? It’s different because America is helping them commit genocide. It’s not like this is all happening separately from us and people are calling for some kind of foreign intervention, they’re asking that we stop helping the people doing a genocide.
That’s not to say it’s my only priority this election, but it’s definitely up there, because I, like many Americans, feel like I’m complicit to some degree.
Make no mistake, though, Trump would be far worse. I still know the score here, but I can understand why it ranks highly on people’s priorities.
But there is a huge difference between intervention and stopping support for an ally that is RIGHT NEXT TO RUSSIA. Like do they even think that it's not a strategic decision? Is it the best take? No. Is it the best place to be in? No. But pissing off an ally we have had for 50 years is also a bad decision. Maybe weigh the options here.
If your number one criteria is the Palestinian war you are either Palestinian(totally okay) or you have no idea how to prioritize your life in a rational manner and should not be allowed to vote
No longer will I need to wonder how the Germans let the Holocaust happen.
Do you think Palestine is in Europe?
And why are you calling a genocide a war? Because the victims have been resisting?
During the debate Trump said that Israel would finish the job with him elected. In my eyes that's more/less try to eradicate the Palestinians.
.. how can there still be people who think not voting for Biden is a better bet for Gaza? Like really: open your eyes.
You'd prefer to either not vote, vote third party (throw your vote away), or vote for someone who has more or less said they'd continue to support killing innocent people.
Biden isn't great but is more likely to aim for a ceasefire and some sort of peace than Trump.
It's the lesser of evils.
.. of course voting for Trump is likely pushing the US towards fascism as well, but I'll ignore that for this (and him being a felon, accused rapist, advocate for the wealthy at the expense of all others, liar, etc) specific comment.
“I’m going to show my anger by making things exponentially worse for myself! That’ll show them!”
The choice between a kindly old man that's trying to get two sides that want war to agree to a ceasefire and a criminal, authoritarian, mean, and petty old man that will just tell one side to bomb the other into oblivion... civilian casualties be damned.
If people are "uncommitted" it's because they don't know what's going on.
It's because they are liars and don't actually care about that issue at all. If they were truly concerned they would see the situation in front of them and make the only real logical choice.
"We need to move to the right to pick up undecided voters"
"Undecided voters want to stop supporting Netanyahu's genocide."
"Man, fuck undecided voters. No one needs them. They're all morons. Let's ignore them and move to the right."
It's not that simple, if gaining undecided votes comes at the cost of more votes than they gain then you're not going to win. That has been the struggle of the Dems for decades on every progressive issue.
those aren't the undecided votes we want
They aren't undecided at all. They know exactly what they are doing and it is absolutely not about Gaza at all. If they were truly concerned about Gaza they would not be undecided at all because there is only one viable choice.
Oh phew. I thought people were getting encumbered with all the rape, personal failings, inciting insurrection, misuse of campaign funds, misappropriation of state secrets, hypocrisy, bringing personal feelings and emoluments into state dealings, and being generally incompetent and other unlikeable things. Priorities, people! /s
inb4 thread gets overrun with "but Trump would be worse" and "we have to vote Biden" as if uncommitted voters didn't demand their single requirement months ago which Biden could have easily endorsed and easily won this election.
Not to mention Israel still gets 6 months for more genocidal insanity regardless of who wins.
I mean Biden didn't bring out the military to beat protesters and international news media up to walk across the street to hold up a Bible. Protesters haven't been swept up in unmarked vans, or tell his detail to beat up a protester at a rally.
My point is that Trump isn't going to let these people protest Israel in the U.S like that if he wins. So yes, people are going to say "but Trump will be worse"
If your priority is Gaza at this point, you're either Gazan or brain dead.