I’m Nonetheless Hoping to Vote for Kamala Harris



Politics


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August 30, 2024

However the hope I felt when she turned the nominee has been curdling into despair over her refusal to permit a Palestinian to handle the conference—and her persevering with silence on Gaza.

Delegates carrying keffiyehs maintain up indicators with the names of people that died within the Gaza struggle on the second day of the Democratic Nationwide Conference on the United Middle in Chicago on August 20, 2024.(Saul Loeb / AFP by way of Getty Photos)

In my first job out of school, in publishing, I realized the significance of flap copy—the textual content that introduces the e book on its cowl.

“Should you get it proper,” my boss mentioned, “you’ll be amazed at what number of reviewers will repeat precisely what you write.”

To my astonishment, this turned out to be true: Should you wrote {that a} novel, say, was an unforgettable saga of three generations of girls, a number of reviewers—not all however fairly a couple of—would describe the novel as an unforgettable saga of three generations of girls.

I considered that lesson rather a lot over the previous week, throughout and after the Democratic Conference.

The phrase on the quilt, on this case, was “pleasure”—and I used to be astonished to see simply what number of items got here out discussing this phrase. I noticed it whooshing previous on social media, together with amongst my associates. I used to be just a little embarrassed, as I used to be at my first job, once I realized how simply individuals may very well be manipulated. However I received it. I personally felt jaded, cynical—numerous years have handed since I graduated from faculty, and I’ve gone by way of too many electoral disappointments to really feel pleasure on the considered most politicians—however I felt reduction when Biden stepped apart. I felt hope once I thought {that a} second Trump presidency started to appear avoidable. And per week in the past I felt optimism: I used to be excited by the number of Tim Walz.

However as the times glided by, the phrase “pleasure” made me cringe increasingly more—and never simply because it was so overused. On daily basis throughout the conference, it turned clearer that nothing was going to be mentioned in regards to the struggle on Gaza. It turned clear that the Democrats, who had been billing themselves because the celebration of anti-racism and inclusion, who even allowed anti-choice Republicans to talk, weren’t going to permit a single Palestinian or Muslim American to discuss a query of life and loss of life. This was notable—given, as Jon Stewart mentioned, that the conference “was solely 4 nights, eight hours an evening.” My optimism turned to amazement once I mirrored on straightforward it might have been to do that. There are dozens of Muslim elected officers within the celebration. There are tons of of individuals they might have discovered to mutter some anodyne, rigorously vetted phrases about “ache” and “peace” and “each side.”

Present Subject

For me and for the tens of millions of People who care deeply about this horrible struggle, this refusal felt like contempt. And the tentative optimism I had felt originally of the week began to curdle into feelings I didn’t need to really feel—like despair, betrayal, rage. I needed to maintain these feelings to myself, as a result of I’m conscious that you simply’re not supposed to specific them when demanding justice for marginalized teams. I bear in mind so effectively how homosexual individuals had been informed to not “screech.” I bear in mind the warnings to girls to not be “shrill.” I bear in mind how typically black individuals are informed to not be “indignant.”

However over the course of the week, that’s how I began to really feel.

Just a little screechy!

Just a little shrill!

Just a little indignant!

And I knew I wasn’t the one one. Nice majorities of Democrats and People are horrified by what is going on in Gaza. Everyone knows that it wouldn’t be taking place with out the help of the administration through which the vice chairman is the second-in-command. Does she dissent from her boss in any manner? If that’s the case, she might need used some language that indicated, nonetheless politely, her distance from him. And if she thought it was too dangerous to specific one other opinion, she may have not less than allowed Palestinian People 4 or 5 minutes. Her refusal tells me the whole lot I have to learn about who she is. And who she isn’t.

You’ll typically hear that overseas coverage is just not a precedence of People. Which may be true of some overseas coverage points, however what most individuals on each aspect of this subject perceive is that Israel-Palestine is just not actually overseas coverage. Everyone knows that this struggle is made in America: On Monday, Israel acquired its five hundredth cargo of bombs from america. We all know what number of billions of {dollars} in assist we ship Israel, with out the slightest restriction. We’ve got all seen the horrifying footage of faculties and hospitals and refugee camps blown up, and everyone knows the place the bombs are made. And now we have additionally seen a Democratic administration—the identical administration through which Kamala Harris is the vice chairman—refuse to undergo even the rhetorical motions of condemning this unbelievable horror.

We all know that Palestine is an American downside. It’s not like Rwanda, say, or Bosnia. You possibly can say that america may have stopped these genocides, however not that america induced or supported them. We weren’t truly sending billions of {dollars} to the Hutus or the Serbs. We weren’t handing out machetes in Kigali as we’re handing out 2000-pound bombs to Israel. Slobodan Milosevic was not, like Benjamin Netanyahu, getting standing ovations in america Congress.

We additionally know that Palestine is an ethical downside that goes to the center of who we’re—or who, on the conference, we had been pretending to be. It’s a downside that asks a harsh query: Do the ideas to which the Democrats pay such joyous lip service, the ideas that go to what we had been at all times informed was our nation’s very motive for current, truly imply something? In spite of everything, it’s not as if we didn’t hear about these ideas on the conference. We heard rather a lot about freedom. We didn’t hear rather a lot about what which may appear to be for the Palestinians, or what number of extra many years they’re anticipated to attend for it. We heard, advert nauseam, that Trump broke the regulation. We didn’t hear a lot about how Israel’s fixed defiance of worldwide regulation—most not too long ago, of a damning verdict from the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice—makes a mockery of the whole thought of regulation and justice. We heard rather a lot about feminism, in regards to the “glass ceiling” confronting highly effective girls like Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. We didn’t hear an excessive amount of in regards to the girls of Gaza. We heard about “saving democracy.” We didn’t hear a lot about bringing democracy to a trapped inhabitants that has no citizenship, no vote, and no civil rights.

It’s not that individuals didn’t need to speak about these items. It’s that they weren’t allowed to.

All that was allowed was “pleasure.”

However pleasure was not the emotion I noticed.

I noticed self-righteousness, heartlessness. I noticed individuals denouncing racism whereas cheering individuals accountable for the deaths of tens of hundreds of people that had been killed as a result of they belong to a different “race.” I noticed a lady who insists that she be allowed to complete her sentences forbidding sure individuals to talk. And once I noticed that callousness and cynicism, I wasn’t certain what I used to be speculated to really feel. However one factor was certain: aAt the beginning of the conference, I used to be planning to vote for Kamala Harris. I hadn’t needed my very own conference bounce—the cautious hope I felt originally of the week—to show right into a lead balloon.

Now? I’m nonetheless open to voting for her. There may be nonetheless time for her to earn the votes of individuals for whom this struggle is just not a aspect subject. As a result of nonetheless a lot they attempt to shut down our voices, the Palestinian trigger is just not—can by no means be—a overseas trigger. It’s our trigger, and we aren’t going away simply because we’re ignored. The vice chairman can’t depend on silencing individuals, or talking of Palestinian struggling solely within the passive voice. At a sure level, she goes to have to handle this subject. I hope that when she does, she and the entire Democratic Occasion can really feel a deeper sense of pleasure: the enjoyment that comes from embracing a simply trigger, and from proving that freedom and democracy will not be simply empty phrases.

Can we rely on you?

Within the coming election, the destiny of our democracy and elementary civil rights are on the poll. The conservative architects of Venture 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian imaginative and prescient throughout all ranges of presidency if he ought to win.

We’ve already seen occasions that fill us with each dread and cautious optimism—all through all of it, The Nation has been a bulwark towards misinformation and an advocate for daring, principled views. Our devoted writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.

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Thanks,
The Editors of The Nation

Benjamin Moser

Benjamin Moser is a Nation contributing author. His most up-to-date e book, Sontag: Her Life and Work, received the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2020.

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