You were one of the organizers of the Uncommitted vote — to get people to write “uncommitted” on their ballots in the presidential primary to protest the U.S. government’s backing for Israel’s war. That produced roughly 700,000 primary votes. What did you discover about the task of translating protest to politics?

A lot of reporters in the winter were saying to me, “Don’t you think if Biden swings toward Muslims in Michigan, he will lose Jews in suburban Philadelphia?” And my hypothesis is that Muslim partisan loyalty to the Democratic Party is much thinner than it is with Jewish Americans, who are part of the Democratic Party for many reasons that have nothing to do with Israel — liberal and democratic values, social justice values. Over the years, polls have shown that Jewish voters generally do not list Israel among their top five issues. Many Muslims are part of the Democratic Party for its anti-racist values, so when the [party’s support for the] Gaza war is in contradiction with those values, it’s easy for them to leave.

Some people don’t know that Muslim and Arab voters voted for George W. Bush in 2000. They might defect to the Republican Party out of anger. That’s a real possibility. In the same way that you’ve seen a slow realignment of Latinos toward Republicans, I think this election will show a slow realignment of Arabs and Muslims toward Republicans.

  • normalexit@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I don’t know what can be done about it. Trump wouldn’t be better for Palestinians, so voting for president doesn’t help. Most of the Congress people who were vocally pro Palestine have been removed from their races by AIPAC money.

    Who exactly can I vote for that would help the situation? Serious question.

    • UltraGiGaGigantic
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      4 months ago

      Spend all that time on passing electoral reform in your state so people are free to vote 3rd party with zero chance of a spoiler effect.

      Shouldn’t be to hard to convince democrats, they support democracy right?

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Vote for the least bad options. Sometimes you don’t get everything you want but don’t let things get worse if you can (they can always get worse).

      • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 months ago

        “Evil is Evil. Lesser, greater, middling… Makes no difference. The degree is arbitary. The definition’s blurred. If I’m to choose between one evil and another… I’d rather not choose at all.” - Andrzej Sapkowski

      • normalexit@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s the plan. I do my research on all the candidates I’m presented with and vote in the primaries / local elections.

        I’m just sad that I’m losing hope for this issue.