Powerful words from @AyannaPressley: "We cannot remain silent when our government sends $3.8 billion of military aid to Israel that is used to demolish Palestinian homes, imprison Palestinian children, and displace Palestinian families. A budget is a reflection of our values."
"The President and many other figures stated that Israel has a right to self-defense...but do Palestinians have a right to survive? Do we believe that? And if so, we have a responsibility to that as well." -@AOC
“I was raised in one of the most beautiful, Blackest cities in Americas — where movements for civil rights and social justice were birthed: the city of Detroit. So I can’t stand silent when injustice exists." -@RashidaTlaib
"When we say Israel has the right to self-defense, how can we ignore the home demolitions, settlement violence, and forced annexation of Palestinian land that is happening?" -@IlhanMN
"We must acknowledge and condemn the disproportionate discrimination and treatment that Palestinians face versus others in this region...the dehumanization...by having roads that are separate for some people which all too often looks like a former South Africa." -@repmarkpocan
"The Biden administration, through @JakeSullivan46, has also conveyed its...concern about the evictions and has urged the administration to remain heavily involved to address the root causes of this violence, incl. ongoing evictions, displacement, and occupation." -@JanSchakowsky
With all due respect, @JanSchakowsky, this is really giving the Biden administration many benefits of the doubt they don't deserve on this issue. You don't need to do this.
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Wrote a response to the discussion between @AJentleson, @jonfavs, @ezraklein, @mattyglesias, @AOC, @mehdirhasan, and others this past week about “The Groups,” woke activists, the Democratic establishment and electoral majorities.
@AJentleson @jonfavs @ezraklein @mattyglesias @AOC @mehdirhasan Kamala Harris’s campaign didn’t fail because of leftist slogans. It failed largely because her corporate advisors told her to avoid populist messaging in earned media. Courting billionaires and celebrities won’t win over working families struggling with rising costs.
@AJentleson @jonfavs @ezraklein @mattyglesias @AOC @mehdirhasan After every Democratic loss, the left usually gets blamed. But it’s not Black and brown organizers—often first in their families to enter elite spaces—or downwardly mobile white millennials. The real culprit? A party unable to deliver populism for voters.
Harris struggled with inflation and rising costs, which Trump framed as a Democratic failure. The Biden-Harris administration lacked clear, impactful wins to communicate an improved material life. Voters wanted tangible, visible outcomes that directly benefited them.
Trump’s culture warrior, racist, populist and anti-system appeal resonated with non-college and working-class voters. He tapped into issues that made many feel alienated by Democratic elites, reaching those who felt left behind as society’s hierarchies have changed.
Trump’s media strategy and war on our attention gave him an edge. He mastered unconventional media and reached young, disillusioned voters on platforms Harris missed. This gap may have kept younger audiences out of reach for her campaign.
Over the past year, I've heard the same refrain from many Democratic officials, consultants, and staffers. First, it’s sympathy: “It’s horrific, what’s happening in Gaza, what we're doing.” But then comes the pivot: “Change takes time; the other side is so much more powerful.”
“The politics are complicated,” they say, referencing donors, constituents, and decades of pro-Israel public sentiment. It’s a quiet acceptance of how things are, and maybe even how they have to be. But there’s no real urgency to shift course.
They say we’re up against decades of the AIPAC network's organizing of politicians and public opinion, and that we must be patient. It’s maddening—a quiet admission that few, aside from the most hardened bigots, even attempt to defend the weapons we’re sending to Israel.
There is a profound sadness in watching Harris’s vision for multiracial democracy unravel at its most vital edge—Muslim and Arab Americans.
For nearly a decade, Democratic leaders have correctly warned that Trump’s hatred starts with us, yet Harris’s fear of the AIPAC network and unwillingness to even publicly sit with families impacted by US-supplied Israeli bombs marks a glaring exception in her political vision.
Harris’ inability to see us and engage with our pain isn’t just a failure of strategy; it’s a failure of the very soul of her claim to multiracial democracy.
It’s a promise of multiracial democracy that rings hollow where it should resonate most deeply.
Voting isn’t about a declaration of faith—it’s about finding the coalition that can carry your struggle forward. It’s about leveraging what you have to make the change you seek, even when the choices feel flawed.
The Democratic Party isn’t just Biden and Harris. It’s also the coalition of diverse, working class voters, the legacy civil rights groups, church grandmas, labor unions, climate and reproductive rights organizations, and progressives who help anchor the party.
Seven major labor unions and the NAACP have come out against supplying weapons to Israel, and now they’re mobilizing to defeat Trump. They have the power to make it count. We must build the power in Washington so that their words turn into real priorities for an accountable Harris administration, planting stakes that can’t be ignored.
The 60 delegates of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) at the 1964 Democratic Convention showed how inside/outside grassroots organizing can challenge entrenched systems, even without immediate wins.
Formed to fight segregation in Mississippi, the MFDP demanded recognition over the all-white, segregationist group. Fannie Lou Hamer’s testimony on Black voter suppression was a turning point, exposing deep racism in the Democratic Party.
When offered just two symbolic seats as a compromise, brokered by LBJ, Rustin, MLK, and the UAW, the MFDP refused. Hamer famously declared, “We didn’t come all this way for no two seats.”