The Democratic votes on the pair of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were not enough to overcome universal opposition from Republicans.
Still, the votes represented a watershed moment in the party’s relationship with Israel and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel had continued to enjoy strong support from Democratic leaders, despite outrage from the base over the war on Gaza. Sanders said the votes signaled that party leaders are finally taking note.
“This is where the American people are. The polls are very clear: The overwhelming majority of American people do not want to continue to give weapons to Netanyahu and his horrific wars in the Mideast,” he said. “I think the Democrats have caught on to that. It took a little while, but they caught on to that. But Republicans, I think, are standing in opposition to millions of their own supporters.”
Now send iron dome to Gaza and sanctions against Israel
75%?
Meaningless posturing because they knew it wouldn’t win. Wake me up when they have a majority and actually do something with it.
It’s not meaningless. It’s saying “if you vote for us, we will make this happen”.
If you don’t fail to pass laws/resolutions because you’re the minority, you won’t win votes over.
That would be sound reasoning if they ever fucking did anything like this when they had a majority
Are Democrats feeling the Bern at last?
It was safe to vote in order to appease the voters without actually doing anything because they knew the Republicans would shut it down.
If the vote were closer and couldn’t survive Democratic unanimity, just enough of the rotating selection would oppose it to keep it from passing while the rest saved face.
They may think of it like appeasement
But this is only the beginning of the anti-zionist snowball
I desperately hope you’re right, but I suspect this is naïvely optimistic.
Israel will only get more unpopular
More and more people see day after day the billions we spend sending weapons to Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns, billions that aren’t being used to help everyday americans
This type of resentment and anger is only growing, and will only grow faster as material conditions continue to worsen, which the vast majority of Americans are experiencing
So on top of the, rightfully, moral outrage at what Israel is, it’s also fuelled by that economic outrage, and both are only increasing
With berniecrat types, like Zohran and others, we see massive grassroots motion precisely because they can authentically tackle both those aspects. Calling out the truth of Apartheid and Genocide, demanding Divestment, on top of taxing the rich, moving all those funds to instead help cost of living at home
More and more berniecrats are winning races across the country because people are demanding a disruption to the status quo. The scare mongering of the socialist label doesn’t work anymore. People don’t care, they just hear that those policies can improve things. And as those policies do improve things, it only gets more and more popular
A Candidate whose unapologetically anti-zionist shows authenticity, so people are more charitable to that candidates socialist policies and more willing to give them a chance. The Republican policies aren’t working, the Liberal Democrat policies aren’t working, so fuck it, we ball
The Democratic Party has shown time and time again that they are willing to vote in line with the people if and only if their vote doesn’t change the outcome.
I’ll believe their votes on Israel mean anything when their votes – well – mean anything for the result.
It’s a bad play I think if that’s their plan. It shows that criticizing Israel is fair game, which has pretty much been against everything said in the past. It’s an admission that they think that what Israel is doing is wrong. You can’t put that back. AIPAC would not be in favor of this. If this is just appeasement, it’s at least appeasement that can be pointed at to show what’s wrong.
Imagine if you will - a world where we would have had Bernie instead of Sweet Potato Hitler V1.
Never forget kids: The rich are the true and only enemy.
Hell, I’m still imagining a world where we had Gore instead of Junior.
I’m old. I’m STILL imagining a world where we got Dukakis instead of Reaganomics 2.0
Republicans: not even once.
I wasn’t born, but a world in which Carter won re-election instead of Reagan or Humphrey defeated Nixon would have been… So much better.
Even Eisenhower, best of a bad lot, did nothing to stop the red scare and instead used it as an opportunity to remove homosexuals and leftists from the civil service.
Not even once.
I’m ancient. George McGovern instead of Dick Nixon.
I’m prehistoric. George III instead of Washington
Two easy ones:
No 9-11. There would have eventually been an attempt somehow, hell, maybe it would have been worse, like a dirty bomb. But the ball wouldn’t have been dropped on staying alert. Climate activism. Still think it was far too late even by 2000 to prevent the worst that’s coming (which tells you were I think we are now), but at least Gore knew the science and would have tried to change something.
Still would have had our problems, but it’s such a different path, it’s hard to say what would have still happened.
I have a hard time believing that Gore would have made a difference on preventing 9-11, but I’m sure the response would have been different. Maybe no Patriot Act, maybe no Afghanistan War, almost certainly no Iraq War. That’s a big enough difference for me.
Bush was an idiot that blew off reports about Osama bin laden mobilizing. I don’t think Gore would have, personally.
Cool! Now let’s do that 2 years ago
If you know popular legislation will fail then it’s easier to support it.
Too little too late. Anyone that supported Israel and defended their “right to defend themselves” needs to be hung. They’re just trying to weasel their way into the left’s good graces.
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
Send them to the Hague to face trial.
We’ve tried the trial and these morons put a conservative in charge of it because too many of them believe in working with the other side. They are complicit and deserve the same punishments as conservatives.
Schumer (D-Tel Aviv) voted against.
And yet the Dems are leaving him as leader?
Bare minimum but a start I guess
Does this mean the tankies are actually going to vote in the midterms?
Or are they just going to have a harder time coming up with excuses why Democrats are so bad that it’s better just to let Republicans hold onto power?
Leftists will vote for leftists
How will leftists vote for leftists if leftists won’t run?
Cornel west was a leftist
If anything, that’s only an argument against running as an independent in a presidential election. Also, it helps the republicans win.
Besides, naming one or two leftists who have run for office isn’t much of an argument against the fact that most state, local, and congressional elections don’t have any leftists or progressives running in the primaries.
If you want the democratic party to fix itself, show it that progressive/leftist policy is a winning campaign strategy. That’s how the system works, and like it or not, if you don’t participate in it then you don’t get to complain when it doesn’t go your way.
Doesn’t every state have a green party? And most have communist parties?
I don’t want the Democrats to go left. They’ve always been Conservative, and moving them to the center would be an enormous, unlikely, and a huge waste of resources
Why do you care what tankies think? Do you need their help to win elections?
87 million eligible voters didn’t vote in 2024.
Anyone out there encouraging leftists not to vote is only helping republicans.
Which is more likely: a Tankie being convinced to vote Democrat or the Democratic leadership rejecting genocide? Like yes voter apathy is helping Republicans, but the cure isn’t “voter discipline”, it’s having a party that listens to its constituents.
Schumer and Jeffries are unapologetic zionists and should be replaced, but I don’t follow the logic that says we need to desert the entire democratic party, when they’re the only viable opposition to republicans who aren’t merely permissive of israel’s genocide but actively encourage and participate in it.
Does this mean the tankies are actually going to vote in the midterms?
No. Since we hold all the cards and the democrats can’t win without us. We’re waiting on every conservative democrat to apologize to us for their support of a genocide before we let the democrats hold office again.
If you really support the democrats you should be groveling for forgiveness in your response. If you refuse, I’ll be bringing that up at the next tankie meeting.
I’ve got nothing to grovel for your forgiveness for. Not sure if you’re serious about the tankie meeting thing, but that’s a lame-ass thing to say, and I really don’t give a shit if you all decide to waste your time complaining about some random lemming who has the gall to remind you that letting republicans win to spite the democrats is fucking idiotic.
We’re waiting on every conservative democrat to apologize to us for their support of a genocide before we let the democrats hold office again.
Maybe if you would vote in the fucking primaries then you could replace more conservative democrats with progressives. Maybe if you would vote at all then democrats would court the left-wing voting bloc more instead of considering it a lost cause and courting the center/right. But abstaining from the political process and then complaining when you don’t get your way and blaming everyone else is asinine.
Yeah that presidential primary last election rocked, can’t wait for the next one.
Man I remember when Bernie was in the primaries. It was totally normal and he didn’t win for totally normal reasons in spite of the very cool democratic party supporting him.
There wasn’t one last election. Sure, that sucks and it was wrong, but that’s no reason not to vote in this one. That’s terrible logic.
And sure, the DNC fucked Bernie and that sucked and was wrong too. But again, that’s no reason not to vote in this year’s primaries, especially for congressional, state, and local positions (which can help turn the tide at the DNC).
I never said the democratic party is cool or moral or anything like that. I said the republican party is worth opposing, even if we have to hold our noses to do so.
Arguments like yours helped maga get back into power, and are helping them stay in power.
“maybe if you vote in primaries blah blah blah progressives get elected” - paraphrasing
Never claimed to be a tankie.
Made it clear that argument is fucking stupid (historically)
Arguments like yours helped maga get back into power, and are helping them stay in power.
I was with you until that line. The democrats are responsible for being unpopular, not tankies.
Both things can be true. The DNC could court progressives instead of centrists and “moderate republicans.” They don’t, and that’s on them. (But again, that’s no reason why leftists shouldn’t participate and try to steer the DNC towards the left).
At the same time, the US has a two-party, FPTP system. It’s fundamentally broken and we can’t expect it to give us perfect candidates. The electoral system itself needs to be drastically reformed before it can truly serve the people’s interests rather than the elites, and encourage quality candidates rather than bombastic mudslingers.
In the meantime, leftists shouldn’t abandon pragmatism. Sometimes you have to hold your nose and take a harm-reduction approach. Sometimes you can bargain for incremental progress, and absolutely should whenever the opportunity presents itself, but that’s not always the case.
But this idea that “I won’t settle for anything less than perfect” is really defeatist in addition to being idealistic, and not the mentality we should embrace. It leads to burnout and nihilism, not progress.
But this idea that “I won’t settle for anything less than perfect” is really defeatist
We have all interacted with tankies that act like that, but they were never going to vote anyways. For everyone else, not supporting a genocide is not asking for perfection. Characterizing it as such is only going to push those voters towards the tankies.
We’re waiting on every conservative democrat to apologize to us for their support of a genocide before we let the democrats hold office again.
Republicans get a pass though?
No. Abraham Lincoln was the last republican us tankies voted for. We don’t normally vote republican.
But that doesn’t sound like groveling to me. So I guess you do want republicans to win. Which is a shame, becuase I really wanted democrats to win and was going to vote for them. But since you’re not groveling I can’t.
But it makes sense, Trump is attacking our ‘greatest adversary’ ensuring we have ‘the most lethal fighting force in the world’ and continuing the genocide. So you’re getting what you voted for either way.
But the all powerful tankies have made our decision and there was nothing the poor, powerless, helpless president of the United States, Joe Biden or his VP could have done. They couldn’t have stopped the funding for the genocide, Kamala couldn’t have run on popular polices like Medicare for all or against militarism. The democrats were just poor little guys, helpless to stop the all-powerful tankies. Muahahaha
I’ll never understand why anyone would vote for someone who supports republican/Trump policies… SAD :(
Bruh, I’m not even the other guy you responded to, so maybe cool your jets a bit. I’m also not a Democrat. I’m not even US. I was poking fun at “We won’t let Democrats hold office until they apologise for genocide” by wondering whether you’d let Republicans hold office then, or whether they’d need to apologise too.
But that doesn’t sound like groveling to me. So I guess you do want republicans to win.
Me not begging you for forgiveness for a party’s policies means I want the other party to win? That’s one hell of a false equivalence.
It also implies that you’d rather let Republicans win if the Democrats don’t come crawling, in which case I don’t see the meaningful difference between actively or passively supporting the Republicans.
I’m not even US. I was poking fun at “We won’t let Democrats hold office until they apologise for genocide” by wondering whether you’d let Republicans hold office then, or whether they’d need to apologise too.
Oh I understand your confusion now. Let me clarify. We tankies only have the magical powers to control if democrats win office that conservative democrats think we have. We can’t control who actually wins. If a Green, PSL or, Republican candidate got enough votes there’s nothing us tankies could do. Sorry.
And don’t feel bad about your confusion, it’s a common misconception. Especially for someone not from the US, you must be unfamiliar with US politics and culture. Everyone in America knows about this, it’s just like the three shells.
Me not begging you for forgiveness for a party’s policies means I want the other party to win? That’s one hell of a false equivalence.
You not groveling will probably be fine… probably. You’re not from the US as we’ve already established. But if you were a conservative American democrat that wanted democrats to win, the tankies have already decided that if they don’t see groveling they won’t use their democrats winning power. I’m sorry that’s all I can divulge from the tankie meeting at this time. But just know we have greater considerations for our choices.
I personally was an advocate for the democrats winning in the last meeting but I’m just one tankie.
Okay, I jist now realise that I probably ate the onion hard on this. Good job!
If Republicans start apologizing for their mistakes then we can talk. Never will happen though, best we get is “I was wrong this time but I learned nothing”
failed just as planned. i can’t take them
seriouslynever mind i do take them seriously after they rejected the call to stop taking AIPAC money. of course they are not going to stop. they just need to choose the defectors. and shumer is too cowardly to answer for his own demandsIt’s nice, but we need meaningful campaign finance reform. We need to get Israeli money, and all foreign money, as far away from our political campaigns as possible.
Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I suspect a lot of Dems knew it wouldn’t pass and are virtue signaling. Let’s see if there’s a blue wave in November and if so, whether they still have the backbone to cut off Israel.
This wouldn’t be an issue if we just had campaign finance reform.
Virtue signaling is a good start.
Don’t underestimate the value of moving the Overton Window
The Democratic base’s shift on Israel was recent and seismic, and the leadership is lagging a bit. They will come around to the new party consensus soon, and the Democratic party will be the anti-Zionist party. They will have to in order to win elections; it is already an 80/20 issue among Democratic voters, and that 80 is only going to grow.
The GOP base is likely to remain more split on the issue for a while. Most of their youngest voters are essentially groypers at this point (whether they self-identify with that label or not). They hate Israel and Jews in general. But the larger portion of Republicans are evangelical Christian Zionists who see Israel as instrumental in their end times prophecy. Trump and GOP leadership is still catering solely to this group, and party leadership could remain locked in this mode for while.
Republicans may become even more Zionist as AIPAC funding and Zionist former Democrats flee the Democratic party to join the other side. Another political realignment in a decade of political realignments.
Lol wut. The democrats have always been conservative. Always will be.
See support for police, military, nuclear weapons, and carbon. These are existential threats that need abolition, and they oppose it.
Netanyahu did this. Allowing support for Israel to become a partisan issue in the US will go down as one of the classic blunders.
It’s not a partisan issue unfortunately. Sure Democrats are only focusing on slobbering over BB’s tip. Republicans are trying to gobble the shaft and balls. But either is inappropriate.
Netanyahu is successfully able to avoid prison by creating continued emergency situations.
He knows what he’s doing.
I would say mostly, not overwhelmingly.
The dems are whores for corporate money and this war actually threaten said money
Would have been nice if their line in the sand was genocide but I guess this is still better than the alternative
