Michigan governor says not voting for Biden over Gaza war ‘supports second Trump term’
Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday
Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.
“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”
Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, also said she wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to the protest vote.
Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress, urged Democrats last week to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s 27 February primary.
Not only that, but it effectively does nothing as Trump will support Israel as well.
It's a primary...
What they're hoping it will do is show the party and Biden that his actions don't follow the value of Dem voters.
The goal is for him to shape up so he doesn't depress turnout and let's trump wins like when he ran against Hillary.
Ignoring the problem and letting the media keep calling Biden "most progressive president yet" will disenfranchise Dems and hurt turnout.
Dem voters aren't Republican voters. Fear isn't enough to motivate them, it works on conservatives because they're statistically likely to have a larger amygdala. Liberals (actual liberals) are more likely to have increased frontal lobe activity that handles empathy and critical thinking.
The main problem is neoliberals are essentially conservatives. They may vote D, but they think like Rs. And without that critical thinking and empathy, they assume everyone else is like them. Like Republicans do.
The result is actual liberals look at both parties, and realize it's not a good thing the same type of people are now running the only two options. Especially when the donations are coming from the same place.
AIPAC for example. They're funding Biden and Republicans who say Trump won, while attacking Dem incumbents who are against genocide.
Because all AIPAC cares about us Israel. They dont give two shits about Biden or America.
And as we've seen with his decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, his position is even more extreme. Everyone who has paid any attention to his position on such matter should be able to figure out what his response to the current conflict would be. He for sure wouldn't even try to reign Netanyahu in but actively encourage further brutalities. That's exactly the "strong man" bullshit Trump adores.
So even if you really dislike Biden's handling of this whole shit show, you better believe that Trump would be even worse. And that's just the foreign politics part of the Middle East, we all know what harm Trump wants to cause to the US itself.
Moving embassy to Jerusalem was bad because it basically spit in the face of Palestinians - but we are literally supplying bombs that are killing Palestinians right now.
One's a spit in the face. The other is a 2,000lb warhead in the face.
Would Trump have done the same? Probably. But we know for a fact Biden did what he did.
Trump absolutely would support Israel AT LEAST as much as Biden does right now. I mean come on, Israel is killing lots of Muslims, that's something Trump can always get behind.
I used the example of the embassy since it's something previous administrations wouldn't have done as they knew it would only unnecessary put oil into the fire. And Biden damn sure knows this as well. Trump, either didn't care or didn't listen.
if i were a muslim i would not vote for biden. i wouldn't vote for trump either.. but definitely not biden
again. we know with 100% certainty biden supports the genocide. even if trump is 95%, that's still better odds
Then you simply didn't pay attention to Trumps attitude to Muslims in general and advocating war crimes without any impunity. Trump absolutely would be worse than Biden in this situation. He for example for sure wouldn't have made Netanyahu drop the complete blockade of food and water. He would have cheered this cruelty on.
i don't know what trump would have done. neither do you. the guy's a bit of a wild card. for example look at russia he's totally down to just drop the ukraine war. meanwhile biden supports prolonging it however long is necessary
i'm not defending trump i'm just saying if i were a muslim and especially if i were a Palestinian i would never vote for biden. it's unforgivable. i support the muslims in michigan. if the democrats want votes, they need to push policies that the people actually want
they can't just expect people to keep voting for them because of the eternal right-wing boogeyman. because it's getting so bad people are actually starting to wonder if maybe the far-right proto fascist is better and that's a piss poor state of affairs for a democracy to be in
What are you talking about? Trump obviously wouldn't support Ukraine. It's really no secret that he's in Russia's pocket. His attitude towards Muslims also is something he's very open about. Not to mention his love for strong-men wanna be dictators like Netanyahu is well known. To think that he would be better for Palestinians is ridiculous. So no, I'm absolutely certain that Trump would have handled this situation much worse and will handle it worse if he gets into office while it's still raging.
Then these people are fucking stupid and don't realise how much they have to loose living under fascism. Especially if their Muslims living in the US! The Israel Palestinian conflict is one thing, to loose democracy at home is something much worse.
that's what i'm saying. he would drop us's support of the war, likely ending the war sooner. so he's not necessarily a war monger. i don't know for a fact he would support israel's war in gaza. maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't i don't know.
we have already lost democracy if we have no choice but to vote for someone. either way you don't really have a choice. see what i mean? trump and biden are different pathways to the same end game. death of democracy
Well yes, in a conflict where he gets orders from Putin to not help, he of course doesn't go to war. But his general attitude to war really isn't a secret. That dude nearly started a war with Iran in his first term for example.
No! One candidate has already tried to overthrow an election he lost, the other didn't and has been very outspoken for his support of democracy. If that's really your take away from that then I really have no idea what you did in the last decade. You certainly didn't payed attention to what's going on.
it's not because he gets orders from putin. it's because he sees the writing on the wall that the war is over and he's trying to get on the right side of history. the war will inevitably end with russia seizing territory. once that happens he can say "i told you so" and seem like he's a peacemaker.
and he can say "why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ukraine when they are going to lose anyway?" or "why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars while americans are struggling to make ends meet"? or "why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars supporting a war that is actively raising inflation across the globe, hurting americans?"
he doesn't actually give a shit one way or the other - trump has no ideals or principles. but he's betting that the public opinion against the war will sour soon. and if you look at the polls, that's what is happening. americans are slowly losing their appetite for the ukraine war (republicans at a faster rate, but we're seeing democrats too get war fatigue)
his anti-war stance is one of political opportunism. other politicians would do the same if they weren't beholden to lockheed martin and friends. trump doesn't give a shit about anyone and is willing to throw anyone under the bus and that works to his advantage
the assassination of Soleimani was honestly criminal and stupid and basically ruined any chances for rapprochement with Iran and to top it off Trump killed the Iran nuclear deal. so yeah, i understand and agree with you here
but compare and contrast that situation with what's going on right now. we're 100x closer to war with Iran than we were under Trump. we've intercepted hundreds of missiles and missiles from iranian backed regimes. americans have already died from these attacks. we had to send two aircraft carriers to the middle east - something we didn't even do during the invasion of Iraq
i'm not denying that he tried to overthrow the election.
but what is the difference to me if I can't vote versus I can only vote for one guy? there's no functional difference. either way, i have no voice. in that case, maybe it's better it be trump because it's more honest. we're becoming an oligarchic dictatorship regardless of who we elect
Not sure if you're just so damn cynical or are knowingly are pushing Russian propaganda.
But damn dude, Trump and quite a few top Republicans is balls deep into Russia's pockets. That's the reason that they suddenly are actively taking Russia's point of view. Something that 20 years ago never would have been possible.
And sorry, but if you think that the US becoming a full fledged theocratic oligarchic dictatorship than what it is right now then you really didn't think through what that would mean to you and those you love. Their plans regarding abortion and pregnancy prevention alone should be more than enough to point you in the right direction.
I'll admit I am pretty cynical but I have arrived at my positions with reason and lots of reading and analysis. It's not out of the blue and it's not partisan. I don't really care about neither Trump Biden or Russia. I was born in South America in the 90s and grew up in the US as an illegal immigrant and became legal under Trump (citizen now under Biden). I have a different experience of this country compared to you. I also have exposure to different language media that isn't as heavily manipulated on certain topics and exposure to different geopolitical viewpoints.
I think that Putin is a naturally ally for Trump because they are similar strongman leaders. But I do not think that Trump and Co. are beholden to Russia like you claim. Remember that Trump was willing to send weapons to Ukraine that Obama was not - out of fears of potentially angering Russia.
It was Paul Manafort for example who was involved in Ukraine collecting and spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money in order to influence Ukrainian democracy away from Russia and towards the US. A Trump ally.
There's a lot more to this discussion I can share with you if you're curious.
As for your last part - I support abortion and think it's absurd that we are going backwards in time and repealing something we figured out in 1974.
But tell me honestly man - do you believe if Biden were to be elected (which at this point is becoming increasingly unlikely if you are watching the polls) - do you think he will manage to bring abortion back?
It effectively proves to Democrats that if they support Genocide like Republicans they will never win.
If Democrats want to bend over backwards to appeal to a small minority of AIPAC voters, they will lose all their other voters.
Oh, it has nothing to do with AIPAC VOTERS. It's ALL about AIPAC DONORS.
Big difference...
It's both. Dems want to appeal to voters that are brainwashed by AIPAC.
There is also a Zionist minority in America that will only vote for a Zionist president and Dems are so afraid to lose them that they will throw away every single moral value they have to appeal to them.
But if the Dems aren't shown that they will lose more voters by kneeling for AIPAC than they will gain, the Dems will not be incentivized to clean up their act. In fact Dems will only become more extreme in their Zionism because they know that people will keep voting for AIPAC anyways.
Biden still has a shot to win voters back by actually managing to get recognition for a Palestinian state implemented. But he's just dancing around that subject as long as possible and it doesn't look like he's serious in any way.
There are more AIPAC dollars than there are AIPAC voters, but then I guess that's always the inherent problem with our political system:
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/12/pro-israel-pacs-poised-to-spend-big-to-unseat-progressive-members-of-congress-in-2024-election-cycle
https://thepoliticswatcher.com/pages/articles/congress/2023/12/7/aipac-donations-congress-members-unveiling-influence
The top three israeli money recipients being Democrats, and the top being Biden, is not a great argument to vote Democrat though.
If Biden tanks Israel where do you think that money is going to go?
Biden is the most willing to sell out to israel. Which is why Biden is getting that money. I must say that the Dems are very cheap too, they sell their souls for a few million dollars.
"If I don't do it somebody else will" is the default excuse for any crime. This excuse only works if enough people keep believing in it.
“Let’s (literally) destroy democracy so we might be able to save the Democratic Party”.
Did you miss all the great speeches at CPAC?
Do you not understand what "primary" means?
A meaningless formality since 2012.
"Let's literally commit Genocide so Biden doesn't have to run another 4 years".
Trumps rise to power is a direct consequence of the DNC sabotaging every attempt of real progressives like Bernie that could have actually fixed issues.
It creates both voter apathy and it enables right-wingers to point to the deteriorated standards of living under Biden and blame Biden for it (and biden pulls out another 15 Billion for israel) (cue someone linking me how people working 3 jobs is good for unemployment)
If Biden wins now the unrest and support for right-wing authoritarianism will only grow.
2016
If bad Dems keep winning the right will only grow stronger.
If Biden wins this time #Hitler2028 is a plausible reality as Biden is doing nothing to address any real problems and only gradually making things worse. Further bolstering Republicans.