The Israel lobby has a stranglehold on politics in the US. Both major parties are beholden to them, and need to bend over backwards to try to keep these groups happy, otherwise their campaign is dead in the water

The assertion that the Israel lobby would destroy Biden for simply calling a ceasefire after unequivocally supporting Israel’s post-October 7 actions, is utterly unfounded. The kind of strong condemnation of the Zionist project that would make AIPAC walk is something Biden/Harris would never do.

On the pro-Palestine side, my view is that all the Harris campaign had to show was progress, either a ceasefire or a policy break with Biden, to get most of the protesters back on side. But I’m not 100% on whether she had the political skill to walk that tightrope.

I do think you make my point for me, though. The party did the calculus, and came out on the side that they see AIPAC support as more valuable than the pro-Palestine vote. With that in mind, the party should own that decision and not vilify the voters they scorned for not supporting them anyway. People would be a lot less angry if they just accept that they got the strategy wrong in Michigan and commit to doing things differently next time. But they won’t, because this is a party that never learns its lessons.

you guys continue to gaslight what it effectively was

You keep using that word but I’m not sure you know what means.

What it wasn’t was an opportunity to change the system by making a political statement

I’m not even advocating for people to vote third party or boycott the election. I’m just making the argument that if a political party wants a group of people’s votes, they should court those people. If they fail to do so, and those people choose not to vote for them, the political party only has itself to blame

What does any of that have to do with what I said? I’m talking about the strategic decision the Democrats made to not make concessions to the people inflamed by the genocide in Gaza. In no way did I deny that Trump is far worse than Kamala/Biden. Pointing out that Kamala/Biden made a conscious decision to not move left on this issue isn’t gaslighting, not that you’re even using the term correctly

Democrats then: “We’ll win without appealing to Arabs in Michigan or anyone who demands we stop funding Israel. Shut them out of the DNC and scold them at every turn. Who cares how they react or that they’re forming PACs like ‘Arabs for Trump.’ We don’t need their votes.”

Democrats now: “We lost because you STUPID Palestine-lovers wouldn’t vote for us. Your country needed your votes, Gaza needed your votes. It’s actually your fault that we didn’t bother appealing to you.”