It's the Foreign Policy, Stupid
DNC's policies were as bad as their voter outreach strategy
Years ago, back when I worked retail, I had one customer come in and it was a pretty normal interaction. When middle aged Midwestern hoosiers hear my name the normal succession of questions come in. I don’t mind it because it’s a perfectly pleasant interaction in a state like Indiana. They learn my name, where I’m from, where I was born, if I speak the language, etc. Some people focus on the region as a whole which is also fine with one exception.
“You must go to the Holy Land,” this one man urges me.
“I can’t,” I frown and the mood is brought down significantly. And since I’m at work it’s not really appropriate to get into why.
“What? Of course you can,” he exclaims. He’s right that technically I can. As an American citizen and passport holder I can be admitted entry into Israel. The problem is that it’s literally policy to harangue, harass and almost endlessly interrogate anyone profiled based on ethnicity and religious affiliation. I could but I don’t think I would be able to take the indignity. But that’s way more of a mouthful and I would very much like to make a sale for the commission check at the end of the month. Thankfully, the man saw the expression on my face and dropped it. I know I must have made him uncomfortable and I hope that his trip to Jerusalem was as fulfilling as his excitement indicated. At the rate of this genocide I will likely never be able to see Palestine before the age of 50.
I don’t mean to ruin anyone’s day with this one little story but I would wager that the mood is still a little low after the results of last week’s election. I wanted to highlight how the politics of your average American is just as fragmented as the way they relate to people in their communities on an everyday basis. It’s worldly but it isn’t openminded. It’s optimistic but it cannot tolerate any degree of discomfort. And lastly it very self-absorbed from the isolation.
I didn’t like Kamala and I really don’t like Trump. But given how the two parties operate on an international scale it was really hard to see much of a difference given the material conditions of my reality and how low priority that is for the average American. I can’t complain too much though and neither can the average American. You still have breath in your lungs and much more food security than that the majority of people living on the planet. You still have easy access to the people governing you and can express discontent by demonstrating without retaliation by the state. You still have a far greater chance at social mobility than the majority of all people simply because you live here. Until you see how it is in other places you will never fully appreciate how much of gift your life actually is. I share that gift with you and I’m grateful for it.
That’s why we shouldn’t be ignorant of how we are able to have a high quality of living at a relatively low cost compared to the rest of the world. The inflation experienced in the USA is child’s play to the economic strife I saw happen to people when I went back to Egypt. Imagine the price of a kilogram of the red meat of your choice going from 150 EGP to 400 EGP with wages remaining unchanged. Now imagine if prices for everything else sticks to that trend and it affects an even higher percentage of a country’s population with an already even wider wealth gap. Now imagine that this is a place where tariffs are already instituted. Alone those can really be a hurdle to a small business but when the exchange rate is 50 EGP to 1 USD then the odds are stacked against you. There is little point in trying because the venture is almost guaranteed to fail. With hindsight being 20/20 what were the real causes of getting in that situation?
And then I come back here and honestly I just can’t feel that much more sympathy. You vote for the people who determine the economic conditions of everyone else in the world because the USA is the hegemonic power. If you’re not doing well then it means that everyone is faring far worse. Exit polling showed that just 4% of voters nationally cared about foreign policy at all like that doesn’t have a tangible effect on immigration, the economy and how the DNC in particular constantly chooses to pit reproductive rights against the right to survive to get voters to fall in line. That is a major problem and it signals, at least to me, that Americans are incredibly sheltered to how aggressively officials behave to other countries, especially if they have things Americans want. Like oil. Or the site of where a major religious figure lived. This American sponsored genocide isn’t driven by a modern day crusade at all. Pinky swear.
Throughout this entire election cycle it’s been pretty easy to ignore the regular MAGA drivel that comes my way because it’s so predictable and boring. I already know that no one would actually say those things to somebody’s face. There’s no point in trying to change minds there. What really bothered me was the condescending and menacing calls to vote for the Democratic Party because Trump will “turn Gaza into a parking lot,” and “Trump is going to deport you,” or, “Trump is going put you in camps,” in between the carnage done with glee and impunity to the Palestinians of Gaza, the actual honest to God pogroms done to the Palestinians of the West Bank, and the wanton destruction of 37 historic South Lebanese villages and towns. It changes your personality when the degrees of separation between any Arab you know and one of these people is as close as 1 or 2 two people. For us, someone we know or someone we’re related to is bearing the brunt of Americans’ political apathy and politicians’ complete abandonment of diplomacy. All they really do is throw some money for bombs at the problem.
The morning after the election the lines changed ever so slightly to “I hope Trump turns Gaza into a parking lot,” and, “I hope you get deported for voting third party,” followed by bragging about calling ICE on Latinos in one hell of a vicious tantrum. In the words of your favorite person, let me be clear; when it comes to Arabs there was plenty of warning of what the demands were for their votes. It was an arms embargo and a ceasefire. It’s pretty reasonable for an American citizen to not want a blank cheque given to any country because that’s horrible and stupid foreign policy. Despite the USA and Israel being separate entities with vastly differing interests, they act like a single entity and that doesn’t benefit the USA. The hostages still haven’t been released despite everyone wanting that and Israeli PM Netanyahu seems wholly uninterested in getting them back by rejecting ceasefire agreements over and again to keep the violence going so he doesn’t go to prison. Is it bad in there or something? So the DNC had Kamala Harris treat protestors like poorly behaved children and Bill Clinton stops by to call Arabs biblically inferior while intentionally misnaming the West Bank. To a crowd of people who are grieving loved ones and are sick with worry for them, there was no empathy. Of course we didn’t vote for your candidate, you smug donkey. You aren’t the smartest one in the room if you can’t even read it. You actually expected to keep the college towns after beating the ever loving crap out of students and misrepresenting their cause with your media propagandists? If Jake Tapper doesn’t have any haters it means I’m dead.
Democrats were supposed to be the ones that championed diversity and letting people live how they wanted. They purported themselves to be the ones who listened and had some compassion. What a beautiful lie that was. Instead they’re deranged, ineffectual weirdos who like to rule with fear and pop culture references. I don’t care which candidate is so skibidi brat. To them we have to give them to opportunity to save people or else they’ll just leave us all to struggle. They don’t quite dignify their constituents when begging for campaign donations.
Of course Palestine is just the one of many examples of policy of unmitigated bloodlust that I happen to know about. You can find the same amount of blunt forced approaches to any other state where people are currently suffering right now. The two that come to mind are Congo and Sudan which are a little less straight forward. The one staring us in the face from the past is Iraq. After reading this article I encourage you to get inspired and find more information for yourself. You don’t have to rely on me for the onslaught of hyperlinks.
The best thing you can do when entering into political engagement is to reject the concept that there is such a thing as an acceptable sacrifice for your rights and quality of life. It is my view that problems like high immigration both legal and illegal are self inflicted and the natural consequence of the government’s inability to let anyone else have a full democratic process for themselves. Anyone living outside of the USA, Western Europe or any other similar country also doesn’t want their rights stripped and their economies to fail. The difference is that political imprisonment is a far higher likelihood. Forgive me if I don’t think the right to an abortion is more important to someone else’s right to live even they were unfortunate enough to be born under a brutal occupation. Be grateful for your life, be grateful for the new opportunities you have every day to fight for your rights, which does include reproductive healthcare, and be grateful that your skies are clear and quiet.
Grow up and do not ever threaten me for a vote again.