So, I've been talking about this lately, and my position is kind of explained and hinted at in other articles this week, but this week, I notice Im shifting HARD on the cease fire now stuff and almost starting to sound like a blue no matter whoer. Given my distaste for being a blue no matter whoer, and my history of protest voting in 2016 and 2020, I feel like I owe a more detailed explanation for what is pissing me off in particular about this cause.
There's a lot of reasons I don't like these people. I don't like the obsession with the Israel-Gaza situation and see it as strategically unimportant at achieving my own goals. I think that the cease fire now people are loud, militant, unreasonable, and offputting. And to be fair, that sums up a lot of my disdain for them.
But, at the end of the day, I do believe that democracy belongs to the voters and it is up to the politicians to respond to vote demands. My biggest issue with the cease fire now people as of now is the fact that after Michigan, Biden clearly saw, and heard these people. He's been accosted at rallies himself. He's tried to extend a sympathetic ear to some degree. He's been trying to work to ease tensions behind the scenes, and in the past week, we're seeing things like him clearly trying to broker a cease fire and get aid into Gaza, and the left is STILL screaming at him over this, screaming he's aiding a genocide, and acting like nothing Biden ever does is good enough. Because to them it isn't, because they're radical extremists who are actually sympathetic to palestine and who will keep shifting the goalposts whenever good news is brought up. They'll literally blame him for not holding these positions 5 months ago, and for continuing to fund arms to Israel, even though not doing so could damage our relationship with them, and possibly harm his electability in other ways. It really does seem like Biden is screwed if he does, and screwed if he doesn't.
And that's where I'm getting frustrated. Because let's be honest. I never liked these guys in the first place. I think their obsession with the issue is irrational and even a bit demented. They scream, they're uncivil, they do absolutely batcrap insane things like glue themselves to roads or set themselves on fire (darwin award right there), they crash political rallies and discussions not even related to the issue and scream over everyone, they're not making many friends. But let's face it, they kinda do have a point, and even I would like to see netanyahu rein it in at this point. And Biden is clearly working on doing that, but when he does, he's not rewarded for it, the same people screaming at him to do these things suddenly shift the goalposts of "oh i didnt mean a ceasefire, i meant a permanent cease fire" (which isnt a cease fire at that point, it's a peace agreement). And then they want it to be on favorable terms with hamas, and they want TONS of aid in overnight (one person literally said like 200 trucks a day), and yeah, holy goalpost shifting, batman!
Here's the thing. I can respect the hustle of pressuring Biden to do things. But when he does the thing, you should support him. We are going into an election where the alternative to Biden is a literal fascist who incited an insurrection because he thought the election was RIGGED, and Biden is down several points in large part because his 2020 base is just refusing to unite around him for various reasons, and honestly, Biden is trying to appease these people screaming. And it's not working, he's STILL down in the polls, they ARENT listening, and they're just continuing to pile on him.
This is BAD. This reminds me of the 1960s with the anti vietnam people. And guess what, NO ONE LIKED THOSE GUYS, and they kinda contributed to a conservative backlash that took 40+ years to start to dig ourselves out of. And even worse, it might stop Biden from listening to the left ever again. If the left is gonna play these games of screaming for something and then punishing him when he does WHAT WAS ASKED FOR, he's NEVER gonna listen to us again. The party is gonna shift right, and whenever the discussion becomes "well what of those left wing voters who want things like UBI and universal healthcare" they'll be like "why bother? they arent gonna vote for us anyway". Because we're not sending them the right signals.
So yeah, I feel the need to put my foot down here. I hate blaming voters, but when voters are being flat out STUPID and UNREASONABLE here, yeah I'm gonna blame them. I'm gonna blame them for not voting for the candidate they're withholding their vote from, who did what they said they wanted him to do. I'm gonna blame them for pulling this crap and literally throwing Biden's administration, and American democracy at large into jeopardy when they're protest voting over a strategically unimportant issue, being unreasonable about it, and threatening to sink our entire coalition over this when THERE'S LITERALLY A FASCIST RUNNING IN THE OTHER PARTY. And he just semi officially clinched the party's nomination. It's over. It's literally over. He's the candidate on the republican side. And it seems clear Biden will be the candidate on the democratic side. And while I get not liking Biden, and wanting to pressure him to do stuff, AGAIN, they're refusing to back him even as he shifts to appease their demands.
At this point, I'm out of sympathy for these guys. I mean, I never had a TON of sympathy for these guys, I always felt like they were kinda unhealthily obsessed and deranged with this issue, but I'm becoming more openly hostile toward them because they're not even cooperating or meeting Biden half way, and we literally could lose 2024 over THIS NONSENSE.
So yeah, F these people, and maybe I will start to voter shame them. I wouldn't normally do that. But the circumstances are increasingly calling for it. At the bare minimum, I'll say this. If you ask for something, and you get a positive answer, you REWARD them for it with a vote. Otherwise you're throwing your leverage away. You need a carrot AND a stick. This is a carrot year. 2016 and 2020 were stick years. Reward Biden for getting exactly what you asked for. Stop playing these stupid political chicken games over this crap. It's not helping and yes, it literally is just getting donald trump reelected. *drops mic*
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