What was the Democrat Party, and what is it now?
Why are the changes occurring? Who/what is going out? Who/what is taking its place? And what is it turning the Democrat Party into?
Alex Thompson and Andrew Solender, of axios.com (a solidly Democrat/left website) have written a very worthwhile commentary which touches on these issues, titled “Scoop: Biden’s 2024 team roiled by Israel-Hamas war”
Here are key excerpts:
Part of President Biden‘s political team is in turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war, as some aides see the White House as abetting an immoral attack on Palestinians — while others believe Biden is showing “moral clarity” in protecting Israel from terrorists.
Why it matters: The strife within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) — which Biden is leaning on for his re-election campaign — reflects larger generational and political divisions among Democrats.
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- Those divisions are chiefly between older pro-Israel Democrats and younger progressives who are more sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians.
- Their differences have been exposed by the war in Gaza that began Oct. 7, after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel killed 1,400 people. Israel’s counter-attacks in Gaza have killed more than 9,000 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health claims.
Zoom in: Some staffers at the DNC feel despondent about the scale and death toll from Israel’s response, and one staffer said they are considering resigning, citing Biden’s resolute support for Israel.
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- A high-ranking DNC official who asked not to be identified told Axios: “The president centered his 2020 campaign on a ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation,’ but it seems as though the administration is currently in a battle for its own soul.”
- “I don’t know how you can see supporting the large-scale killing of Palestinian civilians as anything but immoral,” the official added.
Some DNC staffers say they’ve been rattled by emails and phone calls from Democratic grassroots donors angry about the administration’s policy, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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- The DNC declined to comment on any discontent among staffers, supporters and donors.
- The 2024 cycle “promises to be a long, grueling campaign, and the president is making it even harder,” the high-ranking DNC official said.
On Friday, 51 DNC staffers — about 17% of the DNC’s roughly 300 employees — signed a letter to DNC leaders saying that “we feel it is the DNC’s moral obligation to urge President Biden to publicly call for a ceasefire,” The Huffington Post first reported.
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- The staffers also wrote that they were “shocked and heartbroken by the unfathomable loss of life in the brutal attack on Israeli civilians” and were grieving “for the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives during the Israeli government’s military response.”
Zoom out: The internal conflicts at the DNC also are playing out among Democrats in Congress — and their staffs.
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- Former staffers for the presidential campaigns of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have penned letters urging the senators to call for a ceasefire.
- Warren called two of the organizers of the effort to hear them out, a person familiar with the matter told Axios.
- Sanders’ communications director did not respond.
Several House Democrats told Axios they expect more of their colleagues to begin speaking out about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
I wonder how many Jewish Democrats – I’m thinking of the 50+ year old Jewish Democrats who still think their party is being guided by the political ghosts of people like Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey – are suddenly waking up to the new reality. The reality that their party has been co-opted far more by people like rashida tlaib, ilhan omar, jamaal brown, cori bush and alexandria ocasio-cortez.
I wonder how many of them are so dyed-in-the-wool that they will continue to figure out ways, however ludicrous, of explaining away/rationalizing what is in front of their eyes.
And I wonder how many of them, however agonizingly, are forcing themselves to recognize what has happened to their party and to shift their political alignment accordingly. Probably not by becoming Republicans, but by rejecting the new reality of the Democrat Party; by not voting for Democrats who espouse views that would have given comfort to the 1930’s Germans who elected hitler to power.
Next year’s elections are coming. I guess we’ll find out for sure at that time.
Oh, one other thing: President Biden has called for a “humanitarian pause”. Not a cease-fire but a “humanitarian pause”.
Can someone explain the difference between a cease-fire and a pause, regardless of the supposed reasons, to me? I’m having trouble figuring that out.
