{"id":37445,"date":"2024-11-04T12:18:49","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T20:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37445"},"modified":"2024-11-04T12:18:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T20:18:51","slug":"every-choice-is-loss-voters-on-their-decision-amid-genocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/04\/every-choice-is-loss-voters-on-their-decision-amid-genocide-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEVERY CHOICE IS LOSS\u201d: VOTERS ON THEIR DECISION AMID GENOCIDE IN GAZA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Progressive Americans opposed to Israel\u2019s U.S.-funded war in Gaza face a difficult choice: whether or not to vote for Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonahvaldez\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/jonah2-180x180.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonahvaldez\/\">Jonah Valdez<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>November 1 2024, 4:01 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181197523-e1730490483388.jpg?fit=4497%2C2248\" alt=\"Protesters wave flags and banners while Kamala Harris speaks on The Ellipse, just south of the White House, in Washington, DC, on October 29, 2024.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Protesters wave flags and banners while Kamala Harris speaks on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29, 2024.&nbsp;Photo: Amid Farahi\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AFTER MONTHS OF<\/strong>&nbsp;protests on the streets and organizing within the Democratic party, Kamala Harris\u2019s campaign has not shown signs it will&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/19\/uncommitted-kamala-harris-gaza\/\">stray<\/a>&nbsp;from the Biden administration\u2019s&nbsp;steadfast<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/08\/22\/biden-harris-israel-ceasefire-gaza\/\">&nbsp;support<\/a>&nbsp;for Israel amid its genocidal war in Gaza and invasion into Lebanon. Donald Trump has shown no indication that he would change U.S. backing of the Israeli war machine, and is the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/03\/netanyahu-putin-israel-russia-trump-election\/\">personal favorite&nbsp;<\/a>of Israeli Prime Minister&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/01\/28\/trump-netanyahu-dictate-terms-palestinian-surrender-israel-call-peace\/\">Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>. One of these two candidates will become president.<br><br>The Intercept interviewed voters who are horrified by the ongoing U.S. support for Israel\u2019s war, and in many cases have dedicated the past year of their lives to organizing against it in key&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/28\/michigan-muslim-arab-harris-trump\/\">swing<\/a>&nbsp;states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The race remains extremely tight, with the majority of polls showing Harris and Trump at a virtual&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/harris-trump-poll-pennsylvania-29-10-2024\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tie<\/a>. In the swing states that will decide the election, the candidates are either tied or hold&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/us\/elections\/polls-president.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">narrow<\/a>&nbsp;leads. Four years ago, Joe Biden won some key states by as few as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/12\/02\/940689086\/narrow-wins-in-these-key-states-powered-biden-to-the-presidency\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10,000<\/a>&nbsp;ballots. Every vote, including those voting with Gaza and Israel\u2019s expanding&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/26\/kamala-harris-michigan-voters-lebanon-israel\/\">wars<\/a>&nbsp;top of mind, matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each voter interviewed for this article has demanded of Biden, and now Harris, an immediate, permanent ceasefire, and an<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/16\/gaza-israel-ceasefire-resolution-progressives-arms-embargo\/\">&nbsp;end to the U.S. policy<\/a>&nbsp;of unconditional military aid to Israel \u2014 both of which have been found to be popular among Democrats&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.underpin.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/POLL_-SWING-STATE-PRO-PALESTINE-VOTERS-PERSUADABLE-WITH-POLICY-CHANGE-FOR-END-TO-AND-CONDEMNATION-OF-GENOCIDE.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in swing states<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/10\/polls-arms-embargo-israel-weapons-gaza\/\">across the U.S.<\/a>&nbsp;The rejection of such demands have left voters uneasy about their choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These voters have their own reasons for deciding how, why, and whether to vote, but they fell into three distinct categories: the anguished undecided, the strategic anti-Trump Harris voters, and the protest voters either going third-party or opting out entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Responses have been condensed and edited for clarity<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-anguished-undecided\"><strong>The Anguished Undecided<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Halah Ahmad, Wisconsin, political strategist and organizer with Listen to Wisconsin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I actually have not decided. I tried filling out my early ballot today, and to be honest with you, I started crying and I couldn\u2019t finish filling it out, because I feel so upset about the options and also I\u2019m holding out for as long as I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cIt is so deeply dehumanizing to have to ignore a genocide and complicity in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a really heavy choice \u2014 every choice is loss. It is so deeply dehumanizing to have to ignore a genocide and complicity in it, and a promise to continue the same policy, which is what Vice President Harris has said. At the end of the day, we\u2019re being presented with a little bit of a false choice: If people can be protesting on this scale, and we don\u2019t have an option that can align with that, and you can suppress anti-genocide voters in that calculus, I don\u2019t know what kind of democracy you\u2019re protecting. And that\u2019s really heavy. My sister is trying to fill in her ballot, and she\u2019s like, \u201cI feel physically nauseous.\u201d That\u2019s real. If I see a shredded child on my timeline again, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m expected to do, like, vote for that?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m Palestinian and my husband is Lebanese, and our family is not from Gaza, but I have very close friends who\u2019ve lost their family and their childhood homes and their neighborhoods. And my husband\u2019s neighborhood in Lebanon has also been virtually, completely leveled.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Folks are committed, as far as I can tell, to voting third-party, or leaving it blank, or writing something in. And then there are other folks that, on a day-to-day basis, they\u2019re reluctant Harris voters or they flip-flop between that and deciding they\u2019re not going to do it \u2014 they\u2019re going to vote third-party or something of that sort. The picture that I\u2019m getting is that voters are pretty committed to this idea that they want to vote against genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Meghan Watts, North Carolina, graduate student<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not very sure. I am probably between Harris and maybe [Jill] Stein at this point. Waiting on Harris to take a firmer stand on the genocide in Gaza and the expansion of that into Lebanon and parts of the West Bank as well. I\u2019ve seen a recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/watson.brown.edu\/costsofwar\/files\/cow\/imce\/papers\/2023\/2024\/Costs%20of%20War_US%20Support%20Since%20Oct%207%20FINAL%20v2.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a>&nbsp;saying that our tax dollars have funded about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.calcalistech.com\/ctechnews\/article\/hktyrfiekl\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">70 percent<\/a>&nbsp;of this current genocide, so that\u2019s an alarming number. I\u2019m not sure what the odds are, maybe they\u2019re slim, but I\u2019m holding out hope that she might call for an arms embargo and that it happens as immediately as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even aside from this genocide, it\u2019s been difficult to get Harris to take a firm stand on other things I\u2019m concerned about like trans rights; having some sort of meaningful,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/24\/immigrants-migrants-language-harris-trump\/\">humane<\/a>&nbsp;immigration reform; and taking a stand on climate change. I\u2019m a parent of trans kids in a state where right now they\u2019re able to get gender-affirming care, and in a recent interview where Harris was asked whether she supported the rights of trans individuals, her<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AbVPee2UdJk&amp;ab_channel=NBCNews\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;response<\/a>&nbsp;was \u201cI believe we should follow the law,\u201d which is concerning. In many states, they\u2019re actively antagonistic to trans people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We absolutely do not want a second Trump presidency. However the lines have been a bit blurred between what exactly is the difference between Harris and Trump on particular issues,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/11\/kamala-harris-debate-immigration\/\">such as the border<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 probably the difference is in degrees of what they\u2019ll do, not necessarily that they\u2019ll do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Maryam Hassanein, Arizona, the first Muslim American appointee to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/democracynow\/p\/C89nErHx8X5\/?img_index=2\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">resign<\/a>&nbsp;from the Biden administration over the war in Gaza<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of right now, I\u2019m still debating what I\u2019m going to do come Tuesday. For me, it\u2019s between Harris and then third-party, probably Stein. I\u2019ve voted Democrat for as long as I\u2019ve been eligible to vote. The reason that I\u2019m still debating whether to vote for Harris is really because of that history of mine, also conversations about the likelihood of a third party\u2019s chance to win. But at the same time, I\u2019ve been hesitant to put my support behind Harris-Walz because of their unwillingness to denounce genocide, unwillingness to indicate that they would do anything differently than what the Biden-Harris administration has done in regard to Israel-Palestine policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m seeing they are kind of shifting right on certain policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Something I\u2019ve seen from the Harris-Walz campaign is that in an attempt to make up for [lost] progressive voters, for voters on the left, I\u2019m seeing they are kind of shifting right on certain policies, like a bit of a harsher immigration policy than is normal for a Democrat. Also not necessarily an amazing climate policy given the accelerating climate crisis. The Gaza issue is affecting other issues.<br><br>Being Muslim, I was at one point excited to join an administration that had the most Muslim appointees. But then just seeing everything unfold, I recognized it really doesn\u2019t matter how many Muslim appointees you have, if you are causing so much harm to Muslims in other parts of the world. It\u2019s a face-value, surface-level type of inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen debates play out in groups I\u2019m in, and I think the main point is \u201cHey, we just don\u2019t want Trump in office.\u201d And while I completely understand that, I think that there is also an incredible danger to just support Harris because of that, because then it kind of sets the precedent that, \u201cHey, it\u2019s OK that you can do all these bad things. We\u2019re gonna still vote for you because we just don\u2019t want the other person at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Reem Abuelhaj, Pennsylvania, organizer with No Ceasefire No Vote PA<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m a Palestinian American. I\u2019ve lived in Philadelphia my whole life. I voted Democrat in every Penn election since I turned 18, but for the first time, I\u2019m finding myself in the position of being unable to cast a ballot for the Democratic nominee for her ongoing support of Israel as it continues its genocide in Gaza.<br><br>I\u2019m in community with a lot of people who feel similarly to me, who feel backed into a corner. We\u2019re terrified of another Trump presidency. We know that another Trump president, he would be disastrous for our communities, but we\u2019re people of conscience when it comes to the ballot. This is a time of incredible grief and fear and desperation. In my case, people I love fear for the lives of their family members in Gaza, and we feel we have to continue to put pressure in every way we can while we have this moment of leverage with swing-state voters to push the Biden-Harris administration to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thing I don\u2019t want to lose here is how many more people will be killed between November and January if the Biden-Harris administration continues this policy of unconditional support to Israel. If they don\u2019t take action before Election Day, then the next question is, how do we continue to mobilize while the Biden-Harris administration is still in office? That\u2019s a critical period of time, when we\u2019re going to see thousands of more people in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon be killed if the administration does not take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cThis is about this election, and this is also about the future of elections and of democracy in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s our assessment that with efforts like this in key swing states, it will no longer be possible for the Democratic Party to put forth a presidential candidate who is promoting a policy of unconditional support to Israel to carry out genocidal violence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is about this election, and this is also about the future of elections and of democracy in the U.S.&nbsp;We\u2019re representing a movement of voters who are concerned, not only about Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party and the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s continued support of a policy that is extremely unpopular among their electorate, but also concerned about what other issues we might see on the ballot in the future that 80 percent of Democratic voters strongly oppose, that are in violation of U.S. and international human rights law, but that the Democratic Party feel that they can continue to promote despite the mass dissent of their base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-anti-trump-voters\"><strong>The Anti-Trump Voters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Usama Shami, president of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, Arizona<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has been very difficult. I\u2019m going to hold my nose and vote for Harris, knowing that a third-party vote, at the end of the day is basically: If you vote for a third-party candidate, then Harris loses and Trump is gonna win. That\u2019s something that I don\u2019t want to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cIf you vote for a third-party candidate, then Harris loses and Trump is gonna win. That\u2019s something that I don\u2019t want to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at the community as a whole, they\u2019re conflicted, and some of them are voting for a third-party candidate because they\u2019re sick of the two-party system and they\u2019re thinking about maybe doing this for the future, having a viable third-party option in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look, if I were living in California or New York, I wouldn\u2019t have a hesitation to cast a vote for a third party, or if I were in Texas for example, because you know it\u2019s not gonna make a difference. Five percent in California is not going to split the election. But we live in a swing state and every vote counts, and at least I want to have a clear conscience that, even if Trump wins, I was not part of the reason that he won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2016, when Trump made the announcement that he was going to institute a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2016\/05\/05\/hate-crimes-rise-along-with-donald-trumps-anti-muslim-rhetoric\/\">Muslim travel ban<\/a>, our mosque was vandalized. He made the announcement during the day; in the evening, somebody came and took a huge rock and broke the office window at the mosque. We had people shooting [at the mosque]. So for me, I can see the impact of his words \u2014 a lot of people don\u2019t see that. The day after he was elected, we got people calling the mosque and leaving messages that our time is limited here in the U.S., and there is a new sheriff in town. So we don\u2019t need more of this crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t blame people for voting third-party, although in my mind they\u2019re misguided, but I don\u2019t blame them, because you have people that either know people that died, or have family that they lost in Gaza, or people that are enraged by what they\u2019re seeing daily on TV. I can see how it makes people despair that things will change, so I don\u2019t blame people for looking for a third-party candidate, looking for a different alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">MOST READ<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/02\/trump-russia-putin-election\/\"><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/02\/trump-russia-putin-election\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AP24283746378534.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/02\/trump-russia-putin-election\/\">The Trump Campaign\u2019s Ties to Russia Were No Hoax<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/02\/trump-russia-putin-election\/\">James Risen<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/voters-election-harris-trump-israel-gaza\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/voters-election-harris-trump-israel-gaza\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181197523-e1730490483388.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/voters-election-harris-trump-israel-gaza\/\">\u201cEvery Choice Is Loss\u201d: Voters on Their Decision Amid Genocide in Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/voters-election-harris-trump-israel-gaza\/\">Jonah Valdez<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/lancaster-pennsylvania-fraud-election-deniers\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/lancaster-pennsylvania-fraud-election-deniers\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/PA-commissioner-stop-the-steal-edit.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/lancaster-pennsylvania-fraud-election-deniers\/\">Top Election Official in Pennsylvania\u2019s Lancaster County Hobnobs With Election Deniers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/11\/01\/lancaster-pennsylvania-fraud-election-deniers\/\">Jacqueline Sweet<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Jesse Myerson, New York, community organizer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I live in New York, so it doesn\u2019t matter who I vote for because of this ridiculous antidemocratic Electoral College system we have. But I have been offering to coach people who live in [swing] states who are struggling with their vote, and the coaching that I would give people who live in those states is to hold their nose and vote for Harris in order to defeat Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The side that I\u2019m on in this election is against Trump, and I wish there were a better way of defeating him than electing Harris, but given that that\u2019s the only viable pathway to defeating Trump, that\u2019s the least horrific option I think we have. And I stipulate that I would never presume to counsel a Palestinian American voter to vote that way, because I fully understand why that sort of tactical calculation is not necessarily available to people who are losing dozens of family members or are at risk of doing that any day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing that the Biden administration, with no note of dissension from Harris, has been financing and materially supporting this genocide in Gaza is just a bridge too far for so many people, and I can fully understand that. That makes perfect sense to me. If people want to write in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/06\/25\/israel-hind-rajab-child-killing\/\">Hind Rajab<\/a>,\u201d or vote third-party, or abstain from voting for president on grounds that it\u2019s unconscionable to vote for g\u00e9nocidaires, I might not share their theory of change or their power analysis, but I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m in any position to tell them that\u2019s a wrong way of going about things. It\u2019s good to have principles and political convictions and to have lines that beyond which you will not go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s necessarily my role to tell people how to vote. I think it\u2019s my role to tell people how I am thinking about the election and hope that that\u2019s persuasive to people.<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/israel-palestine\/\">Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think there are several conceivable things to say. One is that the people who are most directly carrying out that genocide and who are seeking to extend that genocide to the West Bank and to expand the borders of Israel, sometimes to parts of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, and beyond, which is to say [Israeli Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich, [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir, the ultra-right, which are the ruling coalition in Israel \u2014 they all want Trump to win. And so do, you know, Nazis and neo-Nazi adjacent billionaire figures like Elon Musk. They all want Trump to win, and for me, it\u2019s sufficient to want to deny them that victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whoever wins, Trump or Harris, we\u2019re going to have to continue to be courageous and inventive and organized to figure out new ways of trying to end this genocide. But if it\u2019s Trump, the onslaught of attacks that his administration is going to unleash against queer and trans Americans, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, Jews, anyone whose reproductive rights are under attack, anyone who\u2019s on the front line of climate catastrophes \u2014 those are going to require that we play defense on a whole host of issues, and that is going to reduce the capacity that we have for fighting against this genocide. And honestly, given the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zeteo.com\/p\/project-esther-the-right-wing-group-trump-palestine\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Project Esther plans<\/a>, there\u2019s going to be even more direct attacks on the movement for Palestinian human rights than there are right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The possibilities for forward motion, slim as they would be under Harris, would be completely obliterated under Trump, and force such a defensive posture that I think we would just lose ground in huge incomprehensible ways.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cThe possibilities for forward motion, slim as they would be under Harris, would be completely obliterated under Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Then generally, there are a small number of elected officials in Washington, D.C., who support an<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/30\/israel-arms-embargo-lebanon-progressives\/\">&nbsp;arms embargo<\/a>, and all of them are Democrats and none of them are Republicans. And so would we want them to be junior partners in the leading coalition, or would we want them to be the opposition within the opposition, which is to say, relegated to the most marginal position in Washington, D.C.?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I only offer these thoughts from a place of profound sorrow and powerlessness and desperation. I\u2019m terrified of the fallout of Trump and Project 2025 and Project Esther, and as somebody who is visibly Jewish at a glance in public because of my garb, I think that every neo-Nazi\u2019s favorite president coming to power personally endangers me. I am desperate to defeat him, and poll after poll in crucial swing states has shown that the best way that Harris can ensure that happens is by supporting an arms embargo\u2014 a measure supported by the vast majority of Democrats, a majority of Jews in America, a majority of voters overall. And the fact that she has refused to do that \u2014 and Biden, of course, as well \u2014 I experience as a profound betrayal, a searing, searing betrayal and clear statement of a willingness to sacrifice my safety, the safety of all those other groups targeted for violence and repression by Trump\u2019s coalition, in the interest of continuing to support the Israeli Trump \u2014 which is Netanyahu \u2014 and his fascistic genocidal regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there\u2019s simply not a good option. This coaching that I offer is, like, really scraping the bottom of the barrel of the lesser of two evils. But that\u2019s the predicament we find ourselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-third-party-approach-or-opting-out-entirely\">The Third-Party Approach, or Opting Out Entirely<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>John Harris, Georgia, graduate student and organizer with No Peace, No Peach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will not be voting for Kamala Harris, even though I\u2019m typically a Democratic voter. At this late hour, we have not seen policy change. We don\u2019t expect to see policy change. And so I am acting in accordance with that pledge that we outlined. I haven\u2019t yet decided if I\u2019m going to vote for the third party or simply leave the top of the ticket blank and just vote down-ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have no illusions that I am in the majority of people in my community. I would say a lot of folks out of fear of another Trump presidency are voting for Kamala Harris. Based on everything Trump has said and his explicitly fascist rhetoric, I can\u2019t fully blame them. The reason that I and the organizers of No Peace, No Peach went the way we did was to hopefully provide some sort of alternative between the approaches \u2014 either eschewing the Democrats altogether immediately, or saying that we should just try to work under the nicer genocidal regime.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t blame people personally for wanting to try and mitigate harm. Trump\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/09\/12\/trump-springfield-haiti-cats-dogs-racism-immigration\/\">rhetoric around immigrants<\/a>&nbsp;and trans rights are abhorrent. His&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/10\/11\/abortion-supreme-court-amy-coney-barrett\/\">actions<\/a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/07\/17\/jd-vance-trump-project-2025\/\">affect abortion rights<\/a>&nbsp;have been catastrophic and lethal for many women and children across the country. But I just don\u2019t see anything from the presidency of Joe Biden or even Barack Obama that gives me any confidence that the Democrats, even in power, would do anything to mitigate harm, other than just not press the gas pedal to the floor. I will likely be responding to the outcome the same way regardless of who is elected. And that\u2019s with continued organizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Nerdeen Kiswani, New York, organizer and founder of Within Our Lifetime<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not voting for either of the major presidential candidates for both the Republican and Democratic Party, not voting for Kamala or Trump. I might abstain or do a write-in, but I think abstaining, doing a write-in, or voting third-party is all pretty much a protest vote at this point, which is something that we\u2019re seeing trending a lot in the Arab, Muslim community and among people who support Palestine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t believe either choice represents what the people want, which is an end to the genocide, and I think that the Democratic Party has made it clear that they will continue to arm and fund the genocide of the Palestinian people. And so I can\u2019t in good conscience give them my vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cConstantly voting for the so-called lesser of two evils just paves the way for the greater evil.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I think for the Republican Party and Donald Trump, it goes without saying: He\u2019s also been racist toward the Palestinian, Arab, Muslim community, even using \u201cPalestinian\u201d as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/06\/28\/presidential-debate-trump-palestinian\/\">a slur<\/a>&nbsp;a couple of months ago. But Kamala is also running to the right of Trump on many things, saying that she wants to be tougher on the border than he was, saying that she wants a more \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/08\/27\/kamala-harris-dnc-military-lethal\/\">lethal<\/a>\u201d U.S. military. Constantly voting for the so-called lesser of two evils just paves the way for the greater evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either way I feel like a lot of people after the election are just going to disappear when it comes to Palestine, especially if the Democratic Party wins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can\u2019t rely on the supporters of either party to be long-term advocates for the Palestinian struggle. So I think it\u2019s on those of us who come from oppressed communities to band together to support each other to organize face to face. Imagine if all of the millions and billions of dollars that are pumped into electoralism are actually put back into our communities. The effort and resources and canvassing that even with people who don\u2019t have money, you know, all the time and energy they give to the Democratic Party \u2014 imagine we gave that time and energy to people who are directly suffering from American imperialism and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Kafia Haile, Georgia, a former university professor and Spelman graduate who voted for a Democrat every year since 1998<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m voting for Jill Stein. It\u2019s because my red line, the thing I care about most is Palestine. And that the U.S. should not be arming Israel when we know very clearly that Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine and with U.S. support is going after people in Lebanon and Iran and Syria. I hoped for more from Harris \u2014 I was hopeful because she\u2019s a Black woman. I recognize that as a Black woman, we have experienced so much oppression in this country that it should make us all more empathetic to what Palestinians are going through. But there\u2019s a quote from Ruha Benjamin, a college professor who attended my alma mater, Spelman College, and she said, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=javaZtuESR4&amp;ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black Faces in high places are not gonna save us<\/a>.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter what their race is; we should be paying attention to their actions and policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially what I saw were Black women in my community quietly telling each other that we weren\u2019t going to vote for Harris. I think it\u2019s because we wanted to be supportive of a Black woman, but also we were concerned that if we said something negative publicly about her, then that would draw racists out who would decide that they could start saying something racist because she\u2019s already being attacked by her community. But then the voices started to get louder, and there were more. I\u2019m in my 40s, and I\u2019m calling for an arms embargo. And I think that within my age group \u2014 as a college-educated, middle-class, Black woman in our 40s \u2014 this is who the Democratic Party expects to vote for them without question. But I had a conversation with another friend of my age, another Black woman, and she said, \u201cIf you vote for Harris, can you look a Palestinian in the eye?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Dan Sheehan, Wyoming, author and editor at Literary Hub, immigrated from Ireland<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not voting for Kamala Harris. Personally I think the idea of voting for somebody who was a part of an administration that presided over a genocide and fully endorsed those policies and has made it clear that she\u2019s not going to break from those policies is abhorrent. I think I consider what\u2019s happened in the last 13 months to be the greatest atrocity of my lifetime. And from a moral standpoint, it feels impossible to cast a vote for her.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said that, I live in Wyoming. I\u2019m conscious of the fact that I have the luxury of taking a moral stand in a state which is deep red. A large part of me thinks that if I was in a swing state, I still wouldn\u2019t be able to do it. I think I have waited and waited and waited for some small indication from the Harris camp that there would be a change in policy coming, or that they even have enough respect for the Arab American community to take their grief seriously, and I haven\u2019t seen that. But if I was in Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Wisconsin, I honestly wouldn\u2019t be able to tell you for sure, whether or not on the day I would pull the lever for Harris. It\u2019s a very dark and depressing situation that the person who has been part of an administration that has presided over a holocaust of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/07\/oct-7-anniversary-year-israel-gaza-war-dead\/\">children<\/a>&nbsp;is the morally superior candidate of the two, and I think that\u2019s probably the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think there\u2019s no doubt that Trump will make things worse for vulnerable Americans, and I don\u2019t want to see those people, most of whom object strongly to what\u2019s happening in Gaza, punished. So if I was in a swing state, it\u2019s certainly possible that I would end up voting for Harris.Share<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonahvaldez\/\"><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/jonahvaldez\/\">Jonah Valdez<\/a><a href=\"mailto:jonah.valdez@theintercept.com\">jonah.valdez@theintercept.com<\/a>@jonahmv.05on Signal<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonahmv\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@jonahmv<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Progressive Americans opposed to Israel\u2019s U.S.-funded war in Gaza face a difficult choice: whether or not to vote for Harris. Jonah Valdez November 1 2024, 4:01 p.m. (TheIntercept.com) Protesters wave flags and banners while Kamala Harris speaks on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29, 2024.&nbsp;Photo: Amid Farahi\/AFP\/Getty Images&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/04\/every-choice-is-loss-voters-on-their-decision-amid-genocide-in-gaza\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37445"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37446,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37445\/revisions\/37446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}