Progressives acknowledging the fact of genocide is a good first step, and it’s useful that Ocasio-Cortez and others have done so — “I think [unconditional aid to Israel] enabled a genocide in Gaza,” she said in Munich — but it is not in and of itself sufficient. Before anyone in the party can move on to selling a post-Biden vision of human-rights-first foreign policy, they must address what accountability for the war criminals in the Biden administration — those who aided, armed, and funded genocide — should look like.
How many and which communities should I be willing to sacrifice? Please list out the ones that I, as a white man, should be comfortable sacrificing so that a fake Democrat can win? I’ve now seen that I should be ok sacrificing Palestinians, but who else? I know that transphobia and xenophobia are still rampant in this country. Should I be ok with a Democratic candidate who wants to not allow equal protections for non-binary people? Should I be ok with a Democratic candidate who wants to deport economic asylum seekers? Should I vote for a Democratic candidate who wants to co tibie warrantless surveillance of Americans here at home? You insinuate that I’m asking for purity, but I see these issues as the bare minimum.
You wouldn’t have been sacrificing Palestinians by voting for Democrats, because the genocide was going to continue regardless of who won, as we have seen. What you did do was sacrifice all those other groups you mentioned. Just today, Kentucky passed a law, effective immediately, invalidating all trans people’s driver’s licenses.
So, to turn your rhetoric back on you, how many marginalized groups are you willing to sacrifice to make a symbolic point that serves only to boost your own self image and benefits none of the people you claim to be championing?
If genocide is real, then it can’t be treated as a secondary issue. Harm reduction has limits. There has to be a point where support for mass civilian killing disqualifies a candidate, no matter what else is on the platform. For me, that’s the line.
How about instead of being mad at people that they won’t for your war criminal over another war criminal, you just stop nominating war criminals as your candidates?