Wednesday open thread: This is too important of an election to be "uncommitted"
As I'm writing this, President Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the Michigan primary.
Only 22% of votes have been counted. Pres. Biden is flirting with the 80% mark. Meanwhile, "uncommitted", which in early returns had as high as 16% of the votes, is now under 15% and dropping as mail-in votes and the votes of normie Democrats are counted.
In 2012, when President Barack Obama ran for re-election, "uncommitted" garnered 11% of the total votes. If the trends I see tonight continue, Representative Rashida Tlaib's (Hamas - Dearborn Heights) campaign to get Michigan Democrats to vote against Pres. Biden will fall just as flat.
Yesterday, Israel held local elections. Analysts were appalled at the low turnout: 49.5%. Meanwhile, we in the United States struggle to beat that percentage in presidential elections. In many measures, America is a failed state. The apathy of its citizens is encouraged by stunts like that of Tlaib. We of the liberal left have to fight not only the rabid right, but those like Tlaib who see themselves as the ones who should be in charge of an ideologically pure party, one which abandons Israel and our other alliances in the name of "decolonization" and "anti-imperialism". It is not an easy struggle.
And yet the ankle-biters are the small minority. We saw that again last night. People like us are the majority. People like this Michigan voter:
With all due respect, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans are not the base of the Democratic Party. They are as likely to vote for Republicans as they are for Democrats. (Talk about "Chickens for Colonel Sanders".) This daughter of Detroit is the base. I am the base. You reading this are the base. The base is not concerned about a war in the Holy Land. The base is concerned about keeping this country free from a civil war. The base is concerned of keeping this country free and democratic.I have had most of tonight’s @msnbc #MichiganPrimary on mute especially during the interview with Dearborn’s Mayor. But this Detroiter has a message and gets tonight’s last word. “I understand “uncommitted” but this is too important of an election to be uncommitted”. pic.twitter.com/bMVQY5Fiap
— Mayra SGdTđŸ‡¨đŸ‡ºđŸ‡ºđŸ‡¸ (@SamSofiMama) February 28, 2024
I view Howard Zinn in much the same way I view Noam Chomsky, which is not highly at all. But the title to his autobiographical film is illustrative: You can't be neutral on a moving train. The idea that you can be neutral, or uncommitted in the face of incipient fascism is intolerable. The choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is not one of "a lesser of two evils". Anyone who uses that phrase shows themselves to be ignorant of politics and, really, life writ large. The choice is rarely that muddy. There's civilization, and there's barbarism. And right now you and I and all Democratic voters are what's standing between civilization and barbarism. There is no Plan B where you get to be morally pure and stave off the dark. Engaging in that type of purity politics will only usher in the shadow. And yes, you will be held to account.
Therefore, we soldier on. As I've written before, this is the fight for which we were born. I would have preferred that things had gone a different way after the end of the Cold War. But history didn't end. If anything, without the bipolar world of American-Soviet competition, history accelerated. It's up to us to direct it towards a path which will bring peace, prosperity, and freedom to the most people.
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