Anti-Choice Trumpers and Anti-Labor Executives are Welcome in the Democratic Party, But Palestinians May Not Be

By Jacob Weindling  |  August 22, 2024 | 11:15am
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Image
Elections Democratic National Convention
Anti-Choice Trumpers and Anti-Labor Executives are Welcome in the Democratic Party, But Palestinians May Not Be

Last night, while news broke that the Democratic Party would not allow Palestinian American Rep. Ruwa Romman from Georgia, who has endorsed Kamala Harris, to give a vetted speech at the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party enthusiastically invited anti-choice and anti-labor speakers from the Trump administration and Uber up on to the stage.

The Democrats have stressed this entire week that the Democratic National Convention is an expression of the party’s values, and after last night we have no choice but to take them at their word. This is what Democratic Party values looks like.

The Uncommitted Movement has been crystal clear about its priorities from the moment it organized in the Michigan Democratic primary. They want to vote for the Democratic nominee, but they cannot ask their Palestinian American constituents to vote for a party wholeheartedly backing a genocide of their families. Their ask for a halt to weapons shipments is not an unreasonable one, as multiple presidents spanning from Ronald Reagan to Dwight Eisenhower have used this imperial lever to rein in our chief client state. Reagan even reportedly described Israel’s relentless bombing of Lebanon as a “Holocaust.” It’s an undeniable fact that Ronald Reagan publicly demonstrated far more compassion for Israel’s victims than the Biden-Harris administration ever has. There is no indication in the Biden-Harris administration’s actions suggesting they truly want a ceasefire on anyone’s terms but Israel’s, and they have been more active trying to redefine that term away from how the rest of the world uses it than pushing an actual one on Benjamin Netanyahu who continues to play them for the fools they have proven themselves to be.

The Uncommitted Movement even shifted their primary focus to just simply asking for Palestinian representation on the Democratic stage this week. The party invited family members of Israeli hostages who called to bring them home and to end the suffering in Gaza, and the Dems would be putting their money where their mouth is by inviting a Palestinian American on stage to share the same sentiment in a unifying moment, but not doing so when they had the option to was a choice. The Democrats have talked a big game about how everyone in the supposed big tent should be represented, all while denying this right to Palestinians, proving that this notion of a big tent party is still mostly just empty words.

What other minority groups is the party willing to turn its back on in its bid to win power?

The only conclusion you can come to based off the actions this week by the Democratic Party is that Palestinians are not allowed to be an equal partner in the Democratic coalition. The Dems are more than happy to embrace craven careerists who had no problem jumping on the Trump train until he turned into a loser, or executives who wholeheartedly oppose the burgeoning populist economic agenda of the party, but someone asking for an end to a genocide being backed by the Democratic Party is apparently not welcome on a Democratic stage even if the Dems get a chance to edit her speech first. The partisans defending the administration by responding with the utterly braindead trope of “the genocide our president is backing will be worse under the other guy” are not making the convincing case they think they are, only revealing how willing they are to let partisanship overrule their supposed values.

A common retort by partisans whose brains are forever stuck in 1994 is that any expression of solidarity with Palestinians would be electorally calamitous. According to Gallup polling, this is only true in the Republican Party. The Democratic Party’s unwavering material support for Israel’s genocide of Gaza stands diametrically opposed to most Independents and Democrats’ views of this issue.

A question of "do you approve or disapprove of the military action Israel has taken in Gaza?" reveals 76% of Republicans say yes, while just 34% of Independents and 23% of Democrats agree with those Republicans

A YouGov IMEU Policy Project poll found that “A significant share of Democrats and independent voters in pivotal swing states Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona are more likely to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee (presumptively Kamala Harris) if said nominee pledges support for an arms embargo to Israel.”

Assuming that any Palestinian solidarity is electorally damaging is a classic example of the backwards-looking cowardice inherent to the Democratic Party. It is fitting that all this happened on a night that Bill Clinton spoke, as this rigid 1990s mindset is destroying the goodwill the Democrats have made with a vital and youthful group of voters who helped them turn Hillary Clinton’s 2016 losing coalition into Joe Biden’s 2020 winning coalition.

Literally just do what Ronald Reagan did and I guarantee the Democrats that they will gain votes on the left, while the YouGov/IMEU poll suggests that they will lose very few votes to the right and it will be a huge net gain. That is how far right Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s position on Israel has drifted, that we are begging for a return to policies enacted by the man perhaps most responsible for creating our dystopian present. Democrats leaving the convention last night covering their ears while having the names of dead Palestinian children read to them is as spot-on a metaphor as you will ever find for the values of the superficial wing of this party trying vibe their way through a genocide.

This is a pivotal moment for Kamala Harris. She still has time today to reverse this calamitous course as Abbas Alawieh of the Uncommitted Movement is sitting outside Chicago’s United Center as I write this waiting for a call from the party, which is why I hedged the title I wrote with the phrase “may not be.” Most of us enraged by last night’s developments would be more than happy to put this ugly moment behind us and celebrate Rep. Ruwa Romman bringing the party together tonight under its stated values as we pressure the Biden administration to do its fucking job and join the rest of the civilized world.

But if an elected official from a swing state who endorsed Kamala Harris is too extreme to be allowed to speak vetted words, then all Palestinian solidarity is too extreme to be represented in the Democratic Party. This is the unambiguous message being sent behind this decision, and Democrats should not be surprised if come November they find a large group of the pro-Palestine movement taking the party at its word that they are not welcome under the supposed big tent.

 
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