{"id":48406,"date":"2026-05-23T12:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48406"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:40:10","slug":"its-the-genocide-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/its-the-genocide-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the genocide, stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Posted in Politics and Movements: US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DNC finally released its long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris\u2019s failed presidential campaign, and it doesn\u2019t mention Gaza. The Democratic leadership\u2019s refusal to acknowledge the party\u2019s shift on Israel could spell another defeat in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by\u00a0Michael Arria<\/a><\/strong> May 22, 2026 (therealnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US President Joe Biden and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris wave to members of the audience after speaking at a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This story originally appeared in Mondoweiss<\/a><\/em> on May 22, 2026. It is shared here with permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) finally released its long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris\u2019s failed presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rollout was highly on-brand for the Democratic establishment. The 192-page document<\/a> seems slapped together, is full of typos, and was released only because CNN obtained a copy. In an accompanying note, DNC Chair Ken Martin said the report didn\u2019t meet his standards, but that it was being released \u201cbecause people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the report has further eroded that trust by omitting some big, obvious reasons why Harris lost. Concerns about Biden\u2019s age and his inexplicable decision to run for reelection are barely mentioned, and there\u2019s virtually no analysis of the Democratic policies that might have helped propel Trump to another victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one were compiling such a list, support for the Gaza genocide would presumably be near the top, but the issue is not mentioned once<\/em> in the massive report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll recall that Harris never distanced herself from Biden on this question. In her first interview after becoming the nominee, she maintained the party line on Israel, reciting the usual claptrap about the country\u2019s right to \u201cdefend itself.\u201d Asked point-blank whether her foreign policy would differ from Biden\u2019s at all, she said it would remain the same<\/a>. That is to say, the United States would continue to send weapons to Israel while the country carried out a genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of months later, she reiterated her position on The View<\/em>, telling<\/a> the hosts that she couldn\u2019t think of anything she would do differently. Although later in the interview she said that, unlike Biden, she would put Republicans in her cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the Harris campaign, Palestine advocates called on the former Senator to shift her position and take a firm stance against Israel\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy taking a strong stand against Netanyahu\u2019s authoritarian policies, the Biden-Harris administration can unify the Democratic Party and regain the trust of key voter bases, including young people, Arabs, and Muslims,\u201d read an open letter<\/a> to Harris from the Not Another Bomb coalition to Harris at the time. \u201cThis decisive action will reinforce the administration\u2019s commitment to democracy and human rights, contrasting sharply with the far-right extremism embodied by Trump and his supporters. It sends a clear message that the Democratic Party stands for peace, justice, and the protection of all people, thereby strengthening the coalition needed to secure victory in the 2024 elections and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Democratic National Convention that August, the Uncommitted Movement pushed for a Palestinian speaker to be included. \u201cThe difficulty in approving even a single Palestinian American speaker among the dozens of speakers on the convention stage sends a troubling message to our anti-war voters, suggesting they aren\u2019t truly included in this party,\u201d explained a statement from the organization\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The request was denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s inaccurate to say the campaign simply ignored these issues. On the contrary, they leaned in from the opposite direction, embracing hawkish former House member Liz Cheney<\/a> and sending Rep. Ritchie Torres<\/a> to Michigan, the state with the highest percentage of Arab Americans, to tell voters that Harris would stand with Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a certain kind of centrist pundit who likes to wax sarcastic about the 2024 election and point out that Trump is also an ardent supporter of Israel. The inference is that people concerned about Gaza accomplished nothing by voting against Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this brand of snark often presupposes that people fed up with the genocide actually voted<\/em>. Yes, some people backed Trump because they irrationally believed that the guy currently bombing Iran was antiwar, but the actual number of people that foolish is presumably negligible. Much hay is also made over the Green Party, but Jill Stein got fewer than 900,000 votes and thus had no discernible impact on the ultimate result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest stories of the 2024 race is how many people stayed home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most telling fact in this race is the drop in voter turnout,\u201d wrote Mitchell Plitnick days after the election, pointing out that Harris netted millions less votes than Biden did in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheories will emerge, but the cause of Harris\u2019 disastrous failure will forever be debated,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cStill, there are good reasons to believe the Middle East in general and Gaza in particular played a significant role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNobody is going to get excited about the \u2018politics of joy\u2019 and \u2018endless brat summer\u2019 when they\u2019re watching a kid raising his hands while he\u2019s being burned to death attached to an IV,\u201d political consultant Peter Feld told<\/a> me at the time. \u201cIt pretty much puts an end to any of the vibes that they were trying to run on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you can explain this election without explaining the non-voters, and I think some of the post-election polling that\u2019s come out and attempts to explain it by talking to voters is going to miss this story,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t spoken to non-voters, you haven\u2019t explained the election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insofar as polling exists on this issue, it backs up the assertions of Plitnick and Feld. A January 2025 YouGov survey found that 2020 Biden voters who stayed home in 2024 cited Gaza as the top reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need further proof that Gaza hurt Harris at the polls, just look at what\u2019s happened since November 2024. Israel critics are prevailing<\/a> in Democratic primaries, and groups like AIPAC have become<\/a> entirely toxic, and support for Israel has plummeted to historic lows amid the war on Iran. A recent NBC News poll<\/a> found that just 32% of U.S. voters view Israel positively, which is down from 47% in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to overstate the incompetence of the DNC, but leaving this kind of stuff out of the \u201cautopsy\u201d report certainly feels like much more than oversight. Officials formerly connected to Biden and Harris are openly admitting as much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important is what\u2019s missing, what they\u2019re not releasing,\u201d Harris\u2019s former communications director, Ashley Etienne, told<\/a> Politico<\/em>. \u201cIt feels like what the DNC is doing is cherry-picking the parts of it that it wants to actually release, that [are] less problematic for the party going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an oversimplification to say Gaza is what cost the Democrats the election. There are multiple factors in every presidential race, and many of them have nothing to do with foreign policy. However, ignoring the genocide\u2019s obvious impact on voters is malpractice and suggests that Democratic leadership could be poised to repeat the same mistakes in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How Democrats helped clear Trump\u2019s path back to power<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

US, Israel \u2018going Gaza on Iran\u2019 as death toll tops 500 amid new massacres<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s US-backed assault on Gaza set stage for collective punishment in Cuba, AOC says<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Michael Arria<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Michael Arria<\/strong> is a reporter who covers labor and social movements. He’s also the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC<\/em>.More by Michael Arria<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted in Politics and Movements: US The DNC finally released its long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris\u2019s failed presidential campaign, and it doesn\u2019t mention Gaza. The Democratic leadership\u2019s refusal to acknowledge the party\u2019s shift on Israel could spell another defeat in 2028. by\u00a0Michael Arria May 22, 2026 (therealnews.com) US President Joe… Continue reading → <\/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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48407,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48406\/revisions\/48407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}