r/JewsOfConscience • u/richards1052 Jewish Anti-Zionist • Nov 08 '24

Opinion Harris's refusal to condemn Gaza genocide enraged young voters, who sat on their hands and cost her the election

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/opinion/democrats-israel-gaza-war.html
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u/Arestothenes Non-Jewish Ally Nov 08 '24

Eh, if Harris had gotten all the Jill Stein and PAL voters, she still would have lost. Those two groups didn’t even crack a million.

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u/BeardedDragon1917 Nov 08 '24 edited Nov 08 '24

Presumably, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t consider voting for a third-party, but might just stay home if they have nothing to vote for. A lot of them only voted in 2020 because they had their ballot mailed directly to their house.

A huge percentage of people in our country are living paycheck to paycheck, and I think that it’s very hard to motivate a lot of those people to vote when their personal situation doesn’t look to be getting better anytime soon. The Democrats being marginally better on civil rights issues is only going to motivate people who care deeply about civil rights issues, and even then, it will only motivate them for as long as they still believe that their support will be paid back with actual policy changes. It has been three, arguably four election cycles since Democrats started trying to win on a platform of giving their wealthy donors whatever they want, but not being as awful as Republicans, and hoping that the two party system forces everyone who isn’t a Republican to vote for them.. They are learning the lesson that in a two party system, there are in fact, three options, and one of them is staying home. American culture has not yet reckoned with the idea that there are people who are informed, not stupid or apathetic, but make the decision that voting isn’t worth their time because they don’t see any options that would improve their lives as even being on the table.

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u/Garak_The_Tailor_ Nov 08 '24

I agree, also telling people who are having a hard time surviving that they're wrong and the economy is booming, is a loser strategy.

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u/BeardedDragon1917 Nov 08 '24

For real. Even if it booming according to the numbers you choose to look at, why not take the hint and tell the people what they want to hear? It's not like have to deny the stock market is up to do that!

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u/Garak_The_Tailor_ Nov 08 '24

I don't think using the stock market is a good indicator anyway. people living pay check to pay check don't invest.

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u/Logic411 Nov 08 '24

Do all of a sudden equal opportunity isn’t enough. Now the dems are supposed to engineer equal RESULTS as well? Cool what are the republicans doing in that area though?

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u/BeardedDragon1917 Nov 08 '24

The Republicans offer their voters a compelling narrative for why their lives are hard, who is responsible, and what they’re going to do about it. It’s a stupid narrative, a shitty, racist, one, but it is a narrative. It even has a hero. The Democrats offer, on the other hand, absolutely nothing. They refused to address any of the issues that their base wants addressed, constantly court imaginary Republican moderates and alienate their base doing so, And when people on the fence make their issues heard, the response is to beat them down and accuse them of being Trump supporters. Pro-Palestine activists at the Democratic national convention were assaulted multiple times, and nothing was done about it. Are they supposed to go out and vote Democrat too?

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u/bz0hdp Nov 08 '24

What is the purpose of having a government if it isn't to increase the quality of life of all people?