Fighting to build our tent to win
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Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of attending events and meetings in LA and DC with many Democratic figures (the JDCA Leadership Summit was great!).
My takeaway: there’s an increase in Democratic fighters focusing on different issues and doing so via different mediums that play to their strengths. The new divide in the party has to do with those willing to fight versus playing by rules that no longer exist, not progressive-moderate ideological differences.
Congresswoman Sarah McBride is among the fighters. She gave a masterclass on how we need to bring people in and not push people away as Democrats if we’re ever going to get out of this authoritarian nightmare.
Both at the event and later that day on Pod Save America, she brought up the fight for marriage equality. The success of that movement was predicated on giving people permission to change their minds.
Even if opposing marriage equality is hateful, we knew we wouldn’t win if we just sat there calling everyone who opposed it bigots.
None of my parents or grandparents supported marriage equality before I came out at 14. Is that fair burden on a child? No. Should we have canceled my family 22 years ago? No. Like millions of others, my family’s accepting me pushed them to change their minds for the better.
If we simply focused on being right and shunning everyone else who is wrong instead of changing hearts and minds, I wouldn’t be legally married for over five years.
McBride’s reminder of the marriage equality fight and the dangers of absolutism among our side brought up tough questions. Where do we draw the line?
There’s understandable outrage and profoundly justified schadenfreude we may feel towards Trump supporters now suffering from his ruinous policies. But if they’re willing to work with us to end this madness, we must find a way to welcome at least some of them into the fold, as well as those who sit out politics altogether.
We have to approach this time with humility. Even as Trump plummets in polls, Democrats remain unpopular.
As McBride shared on PSA, we’re losing people who agree with us on 90% of things, but not 10% (many of them cultural issues that have even greater salience impacting her, the first openly-trans member of Congress).
The GOP has no problem welcoming those people who agree with them on that 10%. Over time they start agreeing with the other 90%.
We can stand up for our principles in ways that don’t put others down, but invites them in to join. We have to allow people to change their minds and join us in favor of something better than the past and present.
To bring people in, we have to be for something, not just against Trump.
Speaking of fighting for what’s right, don’t miss this space: Israel reoccupying Gaza will be a strategic and moral catastrophe for the country and the U.S. Starving 2 million Palestinians to death won’t free the hostages. Even the renowned World Central Kitchen had to halt operations.
Despite the openly-genocidal desires of Netanyahu’s coalition members, there isn’t humanitarian aid left to bomb. They openly want to totally destroy Gaza and annex the West Bank.
Even the IDF reports that returning the hostages is the least important war goal.
Demanding this war’s end isn’t controversial in Israel itself. After all, 70% of Israelis want to end the war. People here should no longer fear doing the same in their Jewish communal institutions.
🎗️To most Israelis, the yellow ribbon now symbolizes freeing the hostages by ending the war, not continuing it. What I’d give for people here to recognize and demand the same.
Unlike many (but not all) of the loudest, most vocal opponents to the war, we can demand an end to it without calling for Israel’s destruction. We can do so in a way that brings those who love Israel deeply.
A note for the “but Israelis voted for this government ” crowd on both left and right: unlike Trump running openly on tariffs and dictatorship, Netanyahu didn’t run in 2022 on a judicial coup platform. He and his coalition partners won less than the popular vote. Oct. 7 didn’t happen yet. The chasm between the Israel’s government and its people has never been wider.
Food for Thought
Pete Buttigieg: Why I Sat Down for a Two-Hour Podcast That Recently Hosted Trump: “Going everywhere means seeking out audiences that may have never heard our message at all.”
Democrats, Republicans and Double Standards on Israel and Antisemitism: “Trump appeals to Israelis - especially right wing Israelis - on a very base cultural level. He moved the embassy to Jerusalem and says nasty things about Palestinians and protesters on college campuses. So it doesn’t matter if he does real harm to Israel by giving away its attack plans on Iran, burning important intel sources in Syria, or neglecting to stand up against an antisemitic attack against a Jewish governor….In many ways, appealing to Israelis on cultural issues, while actually harming their national interests is pretty similar to his ability to appeal to working class voters even as he pursues policies that line the pockets of his billionaire cronies.”
Trump’s Inevitable Betrayal of His Supporters: “In other words, by pursuing populist protectionism over free trade, Trump has already betrayed some of his most powerful backers. Few will be sympathetic to the travails of the CEOs, but their workers and customers are also footing the bill for Trump’s economic self-sabotage, and many of them voted for Trump believing he would lower prices, not raise them.”
Trump’s Dumbest Economic Message Yet: “He’s tanking the economy—and blaming your kids’ toy box.”
Hasbara Delusions: When Gaza's Hungry Children Are a 'PR Failure': “What does it say about a society when you can look at a child – sunken-eyed and silent with fear and grief – and decide the real injustice is that she's hogging the spotlight?”
Toward the 2025 Knesset Summer Session: From Destroying Democracy to Building Dictatorship: A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the country’s version of the ACLU (FWIW, ACRI’s run by a Zionist rabbi who is also a lawyer)
Trump’s Virgil Sollozzo Approach to Israel: “Trump’s approach to Israel has been to give it a wide berth so long as it doesn’t mess up other things he has in the works….Israel may think this is a good thing, it is leading to Israeli strategic chaos that will adversely impact the U.S.”
Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times: “Dozens of former leaders say the organizations they once led are being ‘far too silent’”
Don’t look at stock markets. Look at the ports.: “A drop in maritime traffic suggests that the worst is yet to come.”
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