Until now, the story of Michigan’s role in the election has centered on Arab Americans’ profound discontent with the Democratic Party over Israel’s relentless devastation of Gaza. The war has left deep emotional wounds.

Israel’s recent military incursion into Lebanon feels like another twist of the knife, intensifying the sense of betrayal and alienation of one of the most critical voting constituencies in the country.

Kamala Harris’s chances of winning the presidency will plummet if she loses Michigan, and current polling shows she and Donald Trump are neck and neck there.

Come November 5, I think we may look back on the weeks after Israel invaded Lebanon as the moment Harris lost significant ground in the race.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    If I was a genocidal Netanyahu, I would make sure all my little computer jockeys pushed the “don’t vote for the person most likely to stop me because she isn’t doing enough to stop me” angle.

    In addition to a few others.

    Then I’d have them make new accounts and try to somehow pretend they thought it made sense and agreed.

  • fukhueson@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/uncommitted-voting-kamala-harris

    In what follows, I will further explain why many “Uncommitted” voters should consider voting for Harris-Walz, by distinguishing between different kinds of “Uncommitted” voters and the different sorts of moral and political commitments that might lead them to be electorally “uncommitted,” and that also might lead them to commit the singular act of casting a vote for Kamala Harris.

    My hope is that this will persuade at least some readers that the defeat of Trumpism is an urgent moral and political imperative that should be important even to many who are understandably outraged by the Biden administration’s deafness to the demands of “Uncommitted” citizens.

    In a way, what I am saying is very similar to what leaders of the “Uncommitted” initiative have themselves said, by publicly refusing to “endorse Harris” but declaring that their movement “opposes a Donald Trump presidency, and urging supporters “to vote against him and avoid third-party candidates that can inadvertently boost his changes.” Indeed, Ilhan Omar, one of the strongest pro-Palestinian advocates in the U.S. government, has even endorsed Harris, even as she continues to support “Uncommitted” demands. Those leaders obviously have more credibility than I do, and what they are saying strikes me as wise. In what follows I simply elaborate on some of the reasons why others might consider it wise.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      I had a fun person yesterday basically say that all the Palestinians who say to vote for Harris are supporters of Palestinian genocide. They didn’t come right out and say it, but that was the gist of what they were saying.

      It was some real white savior stuff though.

      • fukhueson@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Quite the privileged perspective, shaming Palestinians for trying to get what is arguably the best outcome for Gaza out of all the likely options. “Voting with your conscience” always seemed like a worse move than “voting with your brain.”

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          It was very much a “the only Palestinians that matter are my Palestinians” perspective and it was quite disturbing.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    Someone is going to win the election whether you vote or not. Whether or not you want to influence who wins is up to you.

  • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    Trump also supports funding Israel. This election isn’t going to decide the outcome of that. Anyone not voting out of protest because of it is a fool. Look at the whole picture…

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      25 days ago

      The whole picture is that supporting killing innocent people is wrong. The fact that this is political orthodoxy does not make me want to vote, it makes me want to stop being human.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    Something the Intercept has been salivating over since she took over. Before that, they were salivating over the idea that Biden wasn’t going to win.

    Because they will not be happy until America is an oligarchic theocracy conducting internal genocides.

        • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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          25 days ago

          I just dont know what your original point was. It is already happening and will continue under both admins. Vote for Harris yeah but it ain’t gonna change this issue.

          • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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            25 days ago

            Voting for anyone other than Harris guarantees that Netanyahu will go on unchecked.

            • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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              25 days ago

              He already is unchecked. He will remain unchecked. This is the unfortunate, and rather obvious truth. Both parties fund and arm the genocide, and pave international groundwork for it to persist. This has been US foreign policy for decades.

              • Doug Holland@lemmy.world
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                25 days ago

                Exactly. So the issue of genocide in Gaza is effectively moot in the 2024 election. Both sides are pro-genocide, so decide your vote on other issues. Trump, of course, is better on exactly none of the issues.

                • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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                  25 days ago

                  Yep. We should be factual about the differences as there are many and stop focusing with blatant fabrication.

        • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          25 days ago

          It already is being finished. Killing innocent people is political orthodoxy. Anyone who supports that is someone with whom I cannot agree.

          • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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            25 days ago

            So vote for someone who has no chance of winning allowing a fascist to destroy US democracy and ensure the annihilation of Palestinian people. Awesome principals.

            • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              25 days ago

              If Trump is bad because he would kill Palestinians, then the ‘principle’ is that no one is good, because no one is stopping it.
              You are trying to have your cake and eat it, too.

              I reject your nihilism, it is disgusting. And I maintain that innocent people being killed is not acceptable.

              • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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                24 days ago

                In Rwanda is 1994 the Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days.

                If Isreal were unrestrained they would have mounted bulldozer blades on their tanks, IFVs, APCs, and lined them up with their engineering vehicles and armored bulldozers, plowed the infrastructure and people of Gaza into the ocean, and built settlments on the land.

                But by all means, you keep using those big words and telling yourself whatever you need to to maintain that sense of moral superiority. I hope to god that Harris wins for the sake of the Palenstinian people.

                • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  24 days ago

                  I hope to god that Harris wins for the sake of the Palenstinian people.

                  And what if she wins, killing innocent people continues, and you rationalise that as acceptable? After all, your preferred candidate won.

              • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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                24 days ago

                In Rwanda is 1994 the Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days.

                If Isreal were unrestrained they would have mounted bulldozer blades on their tanks, IFVs, APCs, and lined them up with their engineering vehicles and armored bulldozers, plowed the infrastructure and people of Gaza into the ocean, and built settlments on the land.

                But by all means, you keep using those big words and telling yourself whatever you need to to maintain that sense of moral superiority. I hope to god that Harris wins for the sake of the Palenstinian people.

          • MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca
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            25 days ago

            No, I think it’s grotesque. I’m just realistic about the people who are dumb enough to think that they are punishing Harris by electing a fascist who will allow Netanyahu to do whatever he wants. It’s fucking stupid.

            • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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              25 days ago

              Netanyahu is already doing whatever he wants. You claim to think it’s grotesque yet call people “dumb” and “fucking stupid” for taking a principled stance against the people actively enabling it.