The problem isn’t focusing on one issue. The problem is that periodically, performative centrists will seek to prove their centrism by performatively sacrificing a minority group on the pyre.
Democrats are a coalition party. They can’t afford to sacrifice a chunk of their base in a vain attempt to appeal to suburban white Republicans. Democrats need to keep their coalition together, which is far more diverse than the Republican coalition that mostly caters to straight white Christians.
Democrats from time to time are tempted to pick one or two of the minority groups in their coalition to throw into a woodchipper. The thought process is that if they just sacrifice the one group the right is screaming the loudest about, that somehow they can get Republicans to vote Democrat. It never works, but it plays to the biases of the Democratic leadership, who themselves are largely straight white Christians.
2024 wasn’t about Palestinian activists demanding the entire campaign be made about them. What happened in 2024 was that Democrats decided that it was the Palestinian-Americans turn to be thrown onto the pyre, a ritual sacrifice to attempt to win straight white Christian votes. The leadership made the calculus that by sacrificing Palestinian Americans, they would gain more votes than they would lose. Muslim Americans would inevitably refuse to support Democrats for abandoning them, but Democrats would gain more Republican and Zionist voters in return. The DNC didn’t want Palestinians and their allies to vote for them; they wanted Republicans to vote for them.
That calculus didn’t work. The Palestinians had a lot more friends than the DNC gambled when they decided to sacrifice them. And it cost the Democrats the election.
Ultimately, what side would be best for Palestine is completely irrelevant. This was an active conscious choice on the part of DNC leadership. They actively chose to abandon Palestinians and their allies. They did so knowing full well it would cost them a ton of votes. They just gambled that they would win more bigot votes in return. That gamble failed, and then they turned around and blamed the loss on the people they fully expected to not vote for them, entirely due to their own conscious choices and actions.
Not even the DNC are stupid enough to expect the votes of people they deliberately choose to sacrifice. But, apparently that bar isn’t one you’re able to clear.
The problem isn’t focusing on one issue. The problem is that periodically, performative centrists will seek to prove their centrism by performatively sacrificing a minority group on the pyre.
Democrats are a coalition party. They can’t afford to sacrifice a chunk of their base in a vain attempt to appeal to suburban white Republicans. Democrats need to keep their coalition together, which is far more diverse than the Republican coalition that mostly caters to straight white Christians.
Democrats from time to time are tempted to pick one or two of the minority groups in their coalition to throw into a woodchipper. The thought process is that if they just sacrifice the one group the right is screaming the loudest about, that somehow they can get Republicans to vote Democrat. It never works, but it plays to the biases of the Democratic leadership, who themselves are largely straight white Christians.
2024 wasn’t about Palestinian activists demanding the entire campaign be made about them. What happened in 2024 was that Democrats decided that it was the Palestinian-Americans turn to be thrown onto the pyre, a ritual sacrifice to attempt to win straight white Christian votes. The leadership made the calculus that by sacrificing Palestinian Americans, they would gain more votes than they would lose. Muslim Americans would inevitably refuse to support Democrats for abandoning them, but Democrats would gain more Republican and Zionist voters in return. The DNC didn’t want Palestinians and their allies to vote for them; they wanted Republicans to vote for them.
That calculus didn’t work. The Palestinians had a lot more friends than the DNC gambled when they decided to sacrifice them. And it cost the Democrats the election.
Ultimately, what side would be best for Palestine is completely irrelevant. This was an active conscious choice on the part of DNC leadership. They actively chose to abandon Palestinians and their allies. They did so knowing full well it would cost them a ton of votes. They just gambled that they would win more bigot votes in return. That gamble failed, and then they turned around and blamed the loss on the people they fully expected to not vote for them, entirely due to their own conscious choices and actions.
Not even the DNC are stupid enough to expect the votes of people they deliberately choose to sacrifice. But, apparently that bar isn’t one you’re able to clear.
And that about sums everything up and why “just focus on one issue” would never work.