Summary
Donald Trump stated that Palestinians displaced by Israel’s military actions would not have a right to return to Gaza under his plan.
Instead, he proposed resettling them in Egypt and Jordan, despite both nations rejecting the idea.
Trump suggested creating permanent refugee communities funded by the U.S., calling Gaza a “real estate development for the future.”
His proposal has drawn condemnation from Arab nations and legal experts, with the UN warning it could constitute ethnic cleansing and violate international law.
Israel’s far-right settlers welcomed the plan.
I’d like to earnestly suggest you reevaluate your strategy. Clearly threatening/withholding general election votes hasn’t been successful, and there’s obviously a lot of risk of negative outcomes like Trump winning. I think the general election is just too late in the process for a protest vote to mean anything.
I’m all for showing up and saying something, and I think pressure and threats during primary voting have worked in the past. I think we could have applied a LOT more pressure earlier in the process and might have had a better outcome. Now instead we have the worst possible result for the people of Palestine.
They did apply a lot of pressure during the primary. The total uncommitted in the Primary was 706,591 (Which may have been undercounted) which is absolutely massive for a primary. On average, general turnout is twice that of primary turnout. The Democratic Party knew that at they were risking at least 1.4 million votes by ignoring the issue. Here Are 34 Polls That Show A Ceasefire & Weapons Embargo Help Kamala Win. They also knew throughout the whole campaign that a vast majority of their constituents wanted weapons embargo and permanent ceasefire (required by domestic and international law), plus a majority of independents and Republicans. There was no valid reason for the Democratic Party to ignore the demands of that many voters, especially if trying to win an election
It may have been an impossible task to course-correct. I just think that the primary was our best chance. It’s like we failed to hit the mark but instead of hanging up our weapon we just started shooting ourselves in the foot to prove a point.
While I do agree that voting for the lesser evil is the correct thing to do for harm reduction and advocated for people to do so during the campaign, ultimately this points to a much larger issue with our supposedly representative institutions.
Unfortunately, the reality is the vast majority of people do not vote on the basis of harm reduction or lesser evil. Most people are too busy working paycheck to paycheck and tuned out of politics. That said there any plenty of popular policies that would gain their interest, policies that would improve their material conditions. Both good policy and good communication is needed here. As well as good politics to follow through and deliver those policies.
Polls on policy
Democrats’ Working-Class Failures, Analysis Finds, Are ‘Why Trump Beat Harris’
2024 Post-Election Report: A retrospective and longitudinal data analysis on why Trump beat Harris
How Trump and Harris Voters See America’s Role in the World
Majority of Americans support progressive policies such as higher minimum wage, free college
Democrats should run on the popular progressive ideas, but not the unpopular ones
Here Are 7 ‘Left Wing’ Ideas (Almost) All Americans Can Get Behind
Finding common ground: 109 national policy proposals with bipartisan support
Progressive Policies Are Popular Policies
Tim Walz’s Progressive Policies Popular With Republicans in Swing States
The much larger issue is whether the Democratic Party, which is supposed to represent the working class (at least since the New Deal), is genuinely interested in listening to and fighting for their voter base (working class people) or are instead prioritizing the desires of the Donor Class who provide a significant amount of money to the Party (as well as the Republican Party) and who’s capital interests are opposed to the voter base. To me it seems clear that the Democratic Party prioritizes the donors at the expense of the voters.
And if that is the case, we have a serious issue. No one is genuinely representing the material interests of the vast majority of Americans. Both parties are completely captured by corporate interests and one only serves as a controlled opposition, creating a rachet effect towards Fascism.
In that case, I think the only way forward is grassroots. Community organizations and unions that do genuinely represent the material needs of the working class. Which is also a problem because unions have been systematically dismantled for decades, we are only recently seeing a resurgence. Non-profit organizations are under serious threat of being labeled terrorist organizations and cut out from all federal funding with no evidence needed. Despite that, I still think it’s the only real way forward. Especially with the Democratic Party refusing to recognize the reason for their loss (they instead decided to blame it on their advocation of trans rights, which is completely unacceptable and untrue)
voting is not harm reduction
On some domestic policy issues it is, it’s not on foreign policy or immigration. It is in the sense that it delays Fascism, it’s not on the sense that it doesn’t change that Fascism is the inevitable outcome of neoliberalism. Either way that doesn’t change my main point about the parties and grassroots opposition
100% agreed. Change won’t come from within the Democratic party. We will have to force it to change or go around it.
I wouldn’t hold my strategy at more fault that the DNC and it’s strategists. They’re the ones with a billion dollars at their disposal and it’s kind of their job to appeal to voters. People have needs and cutting off billions in “genocide-aid” seems like a no brainer. Countless opportunities to invoke the Leahy Act, win over more voters, and save some money.
…but I’m only a constituent, what do I know
You can’t control their strategy, but you can control yours.
I think we’ve seen enough of the DNC now to know what to expect. I don’t think we can count on their promises or their logic. I’m not trying to blame you for Trump’s win, just suggesting that we work together (if we get another chance) to apply pressure at points when it will HELP. I don’t think protest voting during the last general election was the right move. Let’s learn from it instead of insisting it was the right thing to do.