Confessions of a Former Democratic Party Member
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And just like that, I am no longer a registered Democrat.
I thought long and hard about this decision. As someone who has worked professionally on two Democratic campaigns and volunteered for countless others, my allegiance lies with the party. Barack Obama is the person who first convinced me that hope can be a much more powerful emotion than fear. I faced death threats in 2016 because I had the audacity to be a White man working for Hillary Clinton in Donald Trump's backyard of Palm Beach County. In 2022, I helped Massachusetts elect its first woman governor, breaking a smaller version of the glass ceiling that I had desperately tried to break at a national level six years earlier. I was an active campaign volunteer in 2020 and 2024, texting across multiple platforms to reach swing-state voters. I've even helped fundraise with the good people of this blog, as we collectively raised over $3,000 during the last presidential election to help the DCCC and DSCC in their efforts to retake the House and Senate. I've voted straight blue since 2008, and I will never, ever vote for a Republican for an office, local or national, as long as I shall live.
But that doesn't mean I'm happy with the party.
Far from it. Because over the past 32 months, I've seen the party I know and love devolve into a cesspool of antisemitism, the likes of which this country has never seen before. This hatred of the Jewish people came about as a response to the October 7th, 2023, terrorist attack that brutally murdered over 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens. At a time when the world should have rallied around the nation of Israel, our enemies saw an opportunity to play off America's ignorance of the Middle East and make Israel the antagonist rather than the victim. Fueled by disinformation, American college students camped out in their $500 REI tents and occupied administrative buildings, all while requesting that their revolution be catered so as not to miss out on a single evening meal. While we all knew this generation would once again prove to be unreliable at the polls in 2024, what we did not foresee was how American Muslims in places like Dearborn would also fall victim to this disinformation campaign and would vote for Trump as a way to "send a message" to Kamala Harris. Whatever that message was, we'll never know because Gaza is exponentially worse off with Donald Trump as president, which we all knew would happen.
Since the election, rather than seeing the Dearborn Muslims admit their mistake, we've seen them double and triple down on their stance. Not only that, we've seen the far left give into its worst instincts and absolutely openly embrace antisemitism as a campaign tactic. They've successfully conflated Judaism with Zionism in the minds of their supporters so that now every Jewish or Jewish-supporting Democrat is all of a sudden responsible for any and all violence committed by the Israeli Defense Force in Gaza. Not only that, but they've made AIPAC, a longstanding organization dedicated to supporting the existence of Israel, into a political boogeyman that somehow funds terrorism across the Middle East. The far left has always been looking to undermine the Democratic Party base, which consists of Black and Jewish voters. Going after Jewish Democrats is simply the latest strategy in their continuing infiltration efforts. They can't say the n-word (at least not out loud), so targeting Jewish "Zionists" is the next best thing they can do to try to convince the voters that support for Israel is support for the genocide of the Gazan people.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, we've now gotten to the point where these far-left candidates aren't even hiding their antisemitism anymore. Graham Platner in Maine. Maureen Gallindo in Texas. Darializa Chevalier in New York. If you're sporting a Nazi tattoo, if you're advocating for imprisoning American Zionists, if you publicly declare that Israel doesn't exist, then you don't share my support for our Jewish sisters and brothers. Hell, you probably don't even understand history. Are you really convinced that a singular Jewish democratic nation of 10 million people is more of a threat to global peace and prosperity than the 2 billion people of 52 Muslim nations, none of whom can even be seen as anything close to a representative democracy? Should Israel not receive funding from the United States to protect itself against the region's terrorists? Do you honestly believe that all 7 million Jews in the United States want to wage war against innocent civilians in Gaza? Or are you simply jumping on the antisemitism train because you're looking to punch down and you see Jewish people as easy scapegoats, just as they've been throughout their 4,000-year history?
We know the answer to these questions. But the overwhelming silence from Ken Martin and DNC leadership speaks volumes. And when gay California Jewish State Senator Scott Weiner is harassed, bullied, and forced out of a pro-transgender march by Gaza Groupies, this shit has gone too far. Because now these assholes are empowered and emboldened. They think they can intimidate Jewish lawmakers at all levels of government. And, to be honest, they're right. Because Ken Martin hasn't done shit over the last 30 months to protect his Jewish members from the hostile takeover of the far left that has created an environment where leftist Hamassholes are encouraged to harass their local Jewish leaders. Again, these "protestors" aren't out there at GOP rallies. They're not in front of the White House or Mar-a-Lago. This is the continued remnants of a foreign opp designed to sow discord among the Democratic Party. The fact that we can see all this unfold in real time, and Ken Martin cannot, sends the message that the party's Jewish members aren't worthy of protection.
That is unacceptable. And it frustrates me to no end. We "normie Democrats" don't want these far leftists in our party. We don't want to placate a bunch of REI revolutionaries who only heard of Gaza two years ago and still, to this day, can't tell you what a Zionist is or why you shouldn't be one. Fuck those guys. All of them. Fuck these extremist candidates. As I shared yesterday, DSA has no real power outside of New York City. But that doesn't mean that other, equally abhorrent candidates won't arise beyond the Big Apple. Until Ken Martin puts his foot down and says, unequivocally, that the party won't support antisemitic candidates, then I have no choice but to withdraw my name (and my fundraising dollars) from the party for the foreseeable future. I will always vote Democrat, but until the party exterminates this putrid strain of antisemitism, I will be seen in the eyes of my state as an independent voter.
Something I never thought I'd be in the age of Donald Trump.