Wake up, Mr. President: Your support for Israel over Gaza may well cost you the election
by Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, the largest grassroots progressive political action group in the country.
President Joe Biden’s decision to unilaterally veto yet another United Nations cease-fire resolution on Gaza, just a week before Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, shows just how out of touch the president’s reelection campaign is with the progressive voters who put him in power.
Nearly 30,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and yet the Biden administration continues to break with the majority of the Democratic base to align with – and fund – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. Is this worth risking Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the end of American democracy?
Biden now trails Trump in seven of the past eight polls in the pivotal swing state of Michigan – by as many as 10 points in the recent CNN poll. The Biden team desperately needs a wake-up call.
That’s why Our Revolution is mobilizing tens of thousands of progressives to vote “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to make sure Michigan is a megaphone for peace.
The initiative, kicked off by Listen to Michigan, is a strategic effort to send a clear message to the Biden campaign: Change course now on Gaza or risk alienating key voter blocs needed to defeat Trump in November.
Biden must restore Democratic coalition
This is Biden’s chance to begin stitching back together the coalition that won him the White House in 2020 by realigning his policies with the values of the base, especially young voters and voters of color.
Not only does Michigan have the largest Arab American population in the country, it’s also a historic battleground state, where the margin of victory swung from fewer than 11,000 votes for Trump in 2016 to just over 154,000 votes for Biden in 2020.
If Biden doesn’t recalibrate his foreign policy, 2024 could look less like 2020 and more like 2016, when Arab Americans and Muslim Americans rejected Hillary Clinton due in part to her record in the Middle East as secretary of State. Now, in 2024, many are feeling a sense of betrayal by Biden, who promised to end endless wars and lead with empathy.
Our Revolution is joining this critical effort to ensure the Democratic Party does not lose the support of its progressive voting base and, in turn, surrender Michigan to Republican control and send Trump back to the Oval Office. As the country’s largest grassroots progressive political action group, Our Revolution is urging our 87,000 supporters in Michigan to vote “uncommitted” in hopes of getting the Biden administration to alter its approach to the war.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and former Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., are both supporting this effort, indicating the collective push from within the party to correct course, save lives and not lose to Trump. There are voters who, having lost family members in Gaza, may never vote to reelect President Biden. But, as Levin wrote in an email to Our Revolution’s members, there are many, many others who would be willing to come back to Biden if we can get him to come around on Gaza.
Biden has moral obligation to stop support of Israel's attacks
To be clear: This is more than just a protest vote, more than mere political strategy. President Biden has a moral imperative to cease U.S. involvement in the bloodshed of innocents.
However, if the moral case and massive protests are not compelling enough, we must appeal to Biden's fundamental self-interest: reelection. Failure to change course on Gaza will stain the Democratic Party for generations, and four more years of Trump will forever alter the course of the nation. This moment calls for unity and action among progressive voters − the key to Democrats’ success in the 2024 election and beyond.
©MOHAMMED ABED, AFP via Getty Images
Displaced Palestinians check their belongings in a tiny coastal area of a territory named Al-Mawasi after Israeli tanks reportedly raided the sector, west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on February 21, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
The carnage in Gaza needs to end. The president must be a peacemaker. And, we must defeat Trump in November. It all starts with making progressive voices heard in the primaries in Michigan and beyond.
And to President Biden, we urge you to realign with the base that brought you to the White House in the first place.
Our future depends on it.