Democratic Lawmaker Urges Vote Against President

“It is important as you all know to not only march against the genocide, [to] not only make sure that we’re calling our members of Congress and local electeds and passing city resolutions all throughout our country, it is also important to create a voting bloc – something that is a bullhorn to say ‘enough is enough,” said Tlaib, the first Palestinian American member of US Congress.

“We don’t want a country that supports wars and bombs and destruction,” she added. “We want to support life. We want to stand up for every single life killed in Gaza.”

Tlaib and other activists are urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the party’s presidential primary election next Tuesday rather than supporting Biden or any of his challengers. Activists portray the move as a show of opposition to the president’s handling of the Palestine-Israel crisis. Biden has attempted to express modest criticism of Israel through leaked statements to the press alleging consternation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but the US president has continued to back the country with the frequent provision of financial support and lethal aid.

In December the Biden administration even bypassed Congress to rush an “emergency” arms shipment to Israel, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirming the move was necessary in response to an alleged imminent security threat to the United States. Observers have noted Blinken could be impeached on perjury charges for the dubious claim, which is unlikely to generate opposition given the significant influence of AIPAC and other Zionist groups in US politics.

“This is the way you can raise our voices,” Tlaib continued. “Don’t make us even more invisible. Right now we feel completely neglected and just unseen by our government. If you want us to be louder then come here and vote ‘uncommitted.’”

Tlaib made the statement standing outside of an early voting location in Dearborn, a major hub of the Arab American community in Michigan. Pro-Palestine activists have warned Biden that his unrelenting support for Israel could cost him reelection in November, with Michigan representing a crucial swing state for the president. Former President Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016 with a margin of just 10,700 votes; Michigan has an Arab American population of some 211,000.

Tlaib has faced opposition within the Democratic Party for her championing of the Palestinian cause. In November the congresswoman, one of just three Muslims currently serving in Congress, was censured by the US House of Representatives for her use of the protest chant “from the river to the sea.”

In order to delegitimize pro-Palestine activism, Zionist groups have claimed the phrase is an antisemitic statement intended to express support for genocide of Jewish people. The chant actually refers to the geographic location of Palestinians’ ancestral home between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where Palestinians currently lack full human and political rights. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed and driven out of the area during the Nakba, the violent campaign that marked the creation of the Israeli state.

Tlaib’s colleague Ilhan Omar, who is also Muslim, has likewise faced opposition from party elites for her pro-Palestine advocacy. The congresswoman reported receiving death threats after a highly unusual round of criticism from within her own party after she noted the influence of Zionist advocacy groups in US politics, with her statements also disingenuously cast as “antisemitic.”

Tlaib and Omar are among the more independent-minded members of the “squad,” a group of allegedly progressive and “socialist” members of the Democratic Party. Members of the informal group have typically backed Democratic Party leadership on most major issues, despite occasionally offering symbolic opposition.

The “squad” refused calls from activists to use the reelection of Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker as leverage to force concessions in 2019, with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez claiming those championing the tactic were not “real” organizers. Poor and elderly terminal cancer patients were among the activists urging Ocasio Cortez to adopt the strategy, which was intended to promote increased healthcare spending.

The Democratic Party lost control of the House of Representatives during the 2022 midterm elections after US President Joe Biden failed to enact a minimum wage increase or act on numerous other campaign promises. Nevertheless the United States’ rigid two-party system frustrates activists’ attempts to challenge the party, with third-party candidates lacking the massive sums of money required to successfully compete in US politics.

Studies have found that candidates who spend more money in their electoral campaigns are overwhelmingly favored to be reelected in the United States. Still, the US continuously lectures other countries about “freedom” and “democracy” despite massive levels of corruption within its own political system.

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