• averyminya@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    This has been our discussion the whole time. You mentioned 2020, I said you really think it would be better under Trump. At no point did I imply that he was current president, my point the whole time has been that Trump’s rhetoric would be far worse for Palestinians on U.S. soil and abroad. There would be no discussion of ceasefire. There would be far more death in the world happening, and it would be lauded by Trump and his voters.

    Instead we have a huge swathe of citizens appalled by the actions of Biden with a huge amount of support for Palestine. Furthermore, unfortunately a President is more than one policy, so while I may vote for Kamala when the time comes, it will be for her environmental policies, not for her stance towards Israel. Believe me, I am dismayed. I’m from Oakland, I know what she has done. At the same time, she cares for the education system, the environment, and for all of the other things our country is massively failing in when it was thrown under the bus in 2016.

    To say that Biden’s Presidency has been the worst thing for Palestinians seems inaccurate solely because the citizens of the U.S. desperately want to help. We also desperately do not want Trump again, nor to have to deal with the people who vote for him. How can we reconcile that? It seems most have accepted that the ability to vote for people who can make change eventually is better than voting for someone who has actively removed LGBT and PoC politicians from holding office (or have removed themselves for fear of their own safety which is really the same thing).

    It makes no sense to watch our country fall to ruin in government while the same happens to Palestine in war. When it does, then we really can’t help at all, because the people in power will only be supplying weapons of mass destruction and the “lip service” of discussing ceasefires are a thing of the past. We have to have nuance in these situations, else we commit even more atrocities without ever having even a small chance of rectifying it. To me, this isn’t just about the President, as they are just one figurehead that is most public. It’s about the cabinet and our government as a whole and their ability to functionally serve.

    In addition to the statement you posted, I also recently read a report that some 70% of U.S. citizens are demanding a ceasefire, and some 90% of those in government are against it. Well guess what, that percentage won’t ever change if we don’t vote, and it will change even less if a conservative government like Trump’s comes back, given that he singlehandedly decimated our civil servants (with a strong quarter of those positions still gone today). To have a government that doesn’t serve it’s people is a failing of the United States. To have a government where the citizens cannot even vote in future elections is no longer a democratic republic.