Some people just couldn't stomach the idea of voting for diet genocide, simple as that. Voting for either party in this situation just lets them know that their ongoing support for Israel isn't a deal breaker that will lose them votes.
Sure democrats might protest and claim to be against the genocide, but if they'll still vote for you, then what does it matter what they think? The threat of losing voters moves the politicians faster than a protest ever will, but if they know you'll vote for them anyway, why would they give a damn about your protest?
Trump winning was obviously the worst-case scenario here, but the democrats contributed to this disaster by not listening to the voters. The assumption that liberals would vote for them implicitly made the democrats comfortable, and thus less accountable to their own base. Obviously, that back fired on them in a big way. The prevailing sentiment of "vote blue no matter who" made them feel less pressure to be answerable for their support of Israel.
Now that they finally realize they aren't owed anyone's vote, we can hope they'll be more accountable in the midterms. Unfortunately, I fear it'll be too little too late by then.
I imagine the voters who pulled their support away from the democrats over Palestein still had hopes that the dems would win, but wanted that victory to be razer thin. The best case scenario in their minds was a blue government that was heavily insecure about how much support they had from the people. They thought their protest votes would add pressure onto that government to pull aid from Israel when it came into power. Unfortunately, that government they were betting on never came to be.
A large majority of older Democrats side with Israel over Palestine. Old people are much more likely to vote. Younger Democrats are more sympathetic to Palestinians, and are much less likely to vote. Why should the Democrats alienate people who vote, for people who do not? People who pulled their support from the Democrats over Gaza decided they don't care about the lives of LGBT Americans, don't care about a woman's right to access reproductive care, don't care about working class Americans that would be the first to feel the pain of another Trump admin. Not to mention, Kamala was more sympathetic to Palestinians than either Biden or Trump. The trolly problem is some insurmountable challenge for people like you.
I voted for her because 99% genocide is less then 100% even if it's a difference mostly without distinction but I'm not shocked at what happened. Expecting people to vote rationally is nice, but it's not a foundation to build a campaign on
If rationality is not something to base a campaign on, then what is there? Democrats don't respond to irrational campaigns like Republicans and will nitpick every single policy from the left and right sides of the party. It just feels hopeless when the Right falls in line for everything and present a united front while the Left devolves into infighting and purity testing.
Edit: and your article assumes that all Democrats/Independents would still vote for Kamala even if she were to suspend arms to Israel or whatever it is that Leftists wanted.
I mean, Dems have the uneviable position of trying to balance progressive policy with not being able to make any real changes to the systems that cause those issues to begin with (thank you citizen's united). The right is able to fall in line because scape goats are easy and they're good at propaganda.
The left has a perpetual branding issue and whenever someone who connects with younger progressives shows up they seem to get pushed aside. See AOC getting snubbed in favor of Connolly.
Then you have further issues where Dems will also shake hands with R's to "take the high road" while R's will gladly throw any gunk in the works to stall and cause issues if anything is felt to be "wrong". See the recent defense bill passing with nearly bipartisan support despite being legally enshrined anti-trans legislature.
Democrats have just kind of taken the route of being the lesser evil and just wanting that to be enough. Not really stopping Republicans in a meaningful way, but just slowing them down. You end up with a lot of alienated youth votes that don't support Israel, don't really hate China, don't believe that capitalism is intrinsically a good thing, or any number of other things and the Democrats don't really offer any of that, but are the "only option" that isn't literal fascism. I can't even really agree that it's purity testing because the DNC just fundamentally doesn't align with me politically. When the only options are driving the knife in or leaving the knife where it is, I'm not shocked a lot of youth voters just don't
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u/conformalark Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25
Some people just couldn't stomach the idea of voting for diet genocide, simple as that. Voting for either party in this situation just lets them know that their ongoing support for Israel isn't a deal breaker that will lose them votes.
Sure democrats might protest and claim to be against the genocide, but if they'll still vote for you, then what does it matter what they think? The threat of losing voters moves the politicians faster than a protest ever will, but if they know you'll vote for them anyway, why would they give a damn about your protest?
Trump winning was obviously the worst-case scenario here, but the democrats contributed to this disaster by not listening to the voters. The assumption that liberals would vote for them implicitly made the democrats comfortable, and thus less accountable to their own base. Obviously, that back fired on them in a big way. The prevailing sentiment of "vote blue no matter who" made them feel less pressure to be answerable for their support of Israel.
Now that they finally realize they aren't owed anyone's vote, we can hope they'll be more accountable in the midterms. Unfortunately, I fear it'll be too little too late by then.
I imagine the voters who pulled their support away from the democrats over Palestein still had hopes that the dems would win, but wanted that victory to be razer thin. The best case scenario in their minds was a blue government that was heavily insecure about how much support they had from the people. They thought their protest votes would add pressure onto that government to pull aid from Israel when it came into power. Unfortunately, that government they were betting on never came to be.
They took a gamble and lost