Notably absent from Walz’s speech was any real substance on foreign policy — including discussion of the genocide happening against Palestinians in Gaza, which uncommitted delegates and their allies have been trying to discuss for days at DNC. Indeed, most of the night, if not the week, has ignored the issue, and where it has been mentioned, Israel’s role in the genocide has been glossed over.
Uncommitted delegates in support of Palestinian liberation and an end to the genocide have requested that the DNC allow a Palestinian speaker take the podium in the United Center, to discuss a permanent ceasefire and an embargo for weapons from the U.S. to Israel, which the U.S. is legally obligated to do.
“We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” read a statement from the Uncommitted National Movement account on X. “Excluding a Palestinian speaker betrays the party’s commitment in our platform to valuing Israelis and Palestinian lives equally. Vice President Harris must unite this party with a vision that fights for everyone, including Palestinians.”
A group of uncommitted delegates, joined by interfaith leaders and their allies, staged a sit-in just outside the convention hall on Wednesday night, saying they wouldn’t remove themselves from that spot until their demands for a Palestinian speaker were met.
The time for making your case was during the primary season. That’s when Democratic voters decide which issues are most important to them.
Time and again, Democratic voters indicated that women’s rights and housing are among the most important issues. Gaza isn’t.
If Gaza activists had succeeded in convincing voters that Gaza is more important than women’s rights, then DNC speakers would be discussing Gaza instead of women’s rights.
No one is demanding it be the main discussion. Of course topics like women’s rights and inflation are going to get the most time as they are high priority for most voters. But that’s not the same as it getting no discussion. The DNC is giving time for families of Israeli hostages to speak, which is great, but are also denying anyone to speak on behalf of the Palestinian victims. Which is showing that the DNC does not consider the victims or their voices to be equal.
While low on the importance for most voters, as foreign policy usually is, the vast majority are still in support of a permanent ceasefire. However, for hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in critical swing states, it is a major issue. Also for over 200 delegates. Those votes and delegates are critical for securing the election.
The anti-genocide protests will only gain more momentum, it’s a dangerous situation for the Democratic party to continue ignoring them
A Gaza ceasefire did get some discussion. Sanders and AOC, both high profile speakers, promoted a Gaza ceasefire in their speeches. But Americans aren’t interested enough in Gaza to justify a speaker who will mainly or exclusively be discussing that topic.
And yes, Americans are more interested in rescuing hostages than helping war victims. It might seem unfair, but don’t blame the DNC. That’s our national psyche, which the DNC will respond to. If Gaza activists want that to change then they will have to do more work.
So easy when our government keeps using our taxpayer dollars to prop up Israel and it’s swarm of bots to shut down any dissenting voices online. I guess the activists just need to get more money somehow to battle the endless propaganda from Israel that is literally funded by our taxpayer dollars.
Yeah, they’ve got their work cut out for them when they’re basically going against US/Israeli imperialist propaganda with basically an endless supply of money to finance it.
Yup, they just need to try harder, that’s the ticket. This is the most out of touch bullshit I’ve ever fucking had the displeasure to read.
Who said change is easy? Those who challenge entrenched interests will always have a difficult road ahead.
But it’s not impossible. Civil rights activists achieved change, LGBTQ activists achieved change, even wack-job anti-abortion activists achieved change. So can Gaza activists.
The calculus has changed. Those things happened before concerted propaganda via the internet, which is largely unregulated, unlike television and newspapers. Previously, spreading propaganda was a lot more difficult. The reality is that propaganda is disseminated at high speeds and has tools like Persona Management Software, where half the people you are arguing with online, aren’t even real people (just hundreds of sockpuppet accounts controlled by a single person). Was anyone ever able to “flood the zone” with bogus material like this in the past? No, because only the internet allows such endless publishing with no guardrails.
But sure, somehow those are all exactly the same. It’s not like LGBTQ rights have been losing ground or anything recently? Give me a break.
We literally have an anti-trans billionaire who owns a fucking media organization, and because he’s insulated by money, fuck-all happens to him when he breaks the law.
EDIT: Further, we’re literally headlong into a “death of truth” era because of AI video. The idea that the speed at which propaganda can be made and disseminated doesn’t change how hard it is to fight is abso-fucking-lutely bullshit. This is a way harder fight, and comparing to past fights is a fucking joke.
All activists will sometimes lose ground. The successful ones gain the ground back. The unsuccessful ones are discouraged by setbacks, complain about the latest tactics used by their opponents, and give up.
Women’s rights activists suffered a huge setback in 2022. They did more than complain about the internet and billionaires. They redoubled their efforts and are determined to gain all that ground back in the coming years. And then some.
Oh no! Someone complained! That must mean they’re not a real activist who gets anything done and thus should be chided and dismissed!
If that’s really your implication here, get fucked, cunt. People can and do both.
You can, and should, do whatever activism you can.
Who cares about how hard it is with Persona Management blah blah blah. Activism isn’t supposed to be easy. Get it done, or don’t.
Every other Democratic activist in America faces the exact same problems, but they aren’t whining. Women’s rights activists got ballot initiatives in ten states this year. They rose to the challenge, and that’s why they are successful.
A genocide can’t really wait years for action
Well, in America change generally takes years. Activism takes patience. Set your goals accordingly.
Schrodinger’s anti-genociders are simultaneously unimportant enough to not register as a voter issue, yet powerful enough to throw the election to Trump.
Only the first part is true. And only partly true, they are important enough to merit mention in some speeches, but not important enough for a dedicated speech.
And yet so much effort is spent demonizing us.
Never felt more important to be unimportant.
I don’t criticize the Genocide-Joe lot for throwing the election to Trump.
I criticize them for their performative self-indulgence that does nothing to actually help Palestinians.
You think pushing the issue in political discussions and not let it die out to obscurity doesn’t help Palestinians?
Because I can tell you nothing on this Earth other than the actions of dedicated individuals is doing anything to help. The media and governments are silent or complicit, who else will speak for them if not us?
What’s far less helpful and even entering harmful to Palestinians is complaining about people speaking about it.
Pushing the issue is fine.
The problem is the performative attacks on the only party that will ever help them.
If they say “We just want Democrats to call for a ceasefire”, then when Democrats call for a ceasefire it does not help Palestinians to respond “Actually that’s meaningless, fuck the DNC unless they embargo Israel”.
Do you really think Palestinians who wanted America to call for a ceasefire suddenly changed their minds? No, it’s a self-indulgent response by cynical Americans. And all it does is make Democrats question why they should put any more effort into helping Palestinians.
Look at every successful activist group. None of them ever said “You did what we wanted? Fuck you.” They all said things like “That’s a good first step towards women’s rights/union rights/LGBTQ rights/preventing climate change. We will support you, and let’s work together towards the next step”.
You cannot call them the only party who will ever help them, when the party has never helped them.
No one wants them to push its bullshit excuse of a ceasefire that solely benefits Israel, they want America to cease funding and supplying weapons to Israel to use to commit genocide.
You don’t push to meet halfway on genocide and call it progress.
A big part of activism is defining concrete goals.
If you don’t actually want Democrats to call for a ceasefire, then don’t ask them to call for a ceasefire.
Because if you decide that’s your goal and later decide your goal is bullshit, then why should anyone pay attention to your next goal?
It was always implied that a ceasefire would have to come with some sort of leverage, otherwise why would Israel do it? That’s obvious to anyone with any sort of political or negotiation instincts, that’s why the talks keep failing, because they have no reason to listen to the US and UN.
The US politicians are the ones who cynically seem to be trying to do a ceasefire without any leverage, which is why now an arms embargo has to be clearly put in demands so that the politicians know how to do their jobs. The idea is threatening a ceasefire for an arms embargo, that part has never changed, the politicians have just been cynically trying to avoid it while also avoiding the blame of it failing. They also keep trying to change the definition to these super short pauses, like 6 weeks, or letting the soldiers still stay in Gaza. That’s a victory, not a ceasefire lol.
“Welp we tried to get a ceasefire, of course we’re still selling weapons and using our veto to defend them and not applying any sort of material pressure, and they refused. Oh well, we tried.”
“… Did you?”
“Nah, we just want you to stop complaining.”
Also the movement has been interested in working with the party. Did you see the speech that representative from Georgia was going to give if they gave her speaking time? It’s basically exactly that. The most milquetoast bringing up of the issue and no real criticism of the party at all, lifting up Kamala, bringing down Trump, saying it will help the hostages, no mention of arms embargo, our party’s diversity is great, etc, the same as every other speaker basically.
These bad faith complaints and changing of arguments, cynically not really working towards the goals they say they are, and not even letting that speaker speak but allowing Israelis, too, proves it’s the party that’s not really interested in being partners with the movement, not the other way around. Biden more so, as he and Blinken have straight up lied about who has tanked the ceasefire talks multiple times and didn’t even let their underlings say the word ceasefire for months. It’s sad that Kamala didn’t mention the Palestinians at all, except for ceasefire which again means nothing without withholding arms or money, but I still have a little hope, as foolish as it probably is, just because she’s not Biden or Trump and she still picked Walz over IDF fan boy Shapiro.
Activists were calling for UN resolutions at the same they wanted Biden to call for a ceasefire. If Israel has “no reason to listen”, then activists were wasting everyone’s time and Biden should ignore them.
And calling for a ceasefire is not the same as threatening an embargo. If activists now want Biden to threaten an embargo then he should ignore that too. Embargos have never stopped a war. They have been used in North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Iraq without solving the underlying problem.
Kamala didn’t mention Palestinians at all, except the part where she mentioned Palestinians. She also didn’t mention climate change at all, except the part where she mentioned climate change. I hate to break it to you, but their campaign is not going to focus on Gaza or climate change. It’s going to focus on women’s rights and housing, because right now those things interest voters far more than Gaza or climate change.
Finally, the published speech by the Georgia rep was fine. But the DNC was concerned she would go off script, which would not be fine.
Hear fucking HEAR!
People did, and when “Uncommited” was an option, they did it. Then liberals on social media cried how it was supporting Trump to vote in democratic primaries.
And Harris wasn’t an option as the front runner, it was Biden and no one else with above 1%. She was part of the VP ticket, but VPs don’t generally decide policies, they’re there to break ties in the Senate and as a backup plan if something happens to the President.
When running, we criticized and people said it would hand the election to Trump. Biden won the biggest tally of votes possible, mine was in there. When mid-terms came up, and we wanted to still help with COVID and the groups it harmed, it was said that handed it to Republicans.
It feels like its never a good time to ask for something that helps Americans. We vote in primaries, we ask nicely, we protest, we organize, we vote blue no matter who, because Trump is the default of “Fucking never in a million years.” and we’re still called traitors who want him to win, because we want money sent to Ukraine than Israel’s genocide.
Primaries are lot more than just voting for the top of the ticket. There are hundreds of downballot candidates involved. More important, it’s when voters decide what issues need to be addressed.
Nobody named “women’s rights” ran for office this year. But women’s rights activists succeeded in persuading Democrats that it is the most important issue this year.
This is what Democratic activism is really about, you are basically competing against other activists for the attention of your own party.
Finally, if you vote for Democrats in November then nobody should consider you a traitor.