Sorry the Genocide Is Starting to Inconvenience You
Elected Democrats are desperate to talk about anything else, even as Israel's war on Gaza shows no signs of stopping.
An interesting news item comes to us from Axios, the Capitol Hill news site funded by expense accounts. What’s the “Scoop:” you ask? Democrats—including those who somehow aren’t embarrassed to call themselves progressives—would really like to change the topic from “Gaza this, genocide that.” It’s boring, pick a new topic!!!!
Via Axios, with my annotations in brackets and bold:
The progressive movement's intense, zero-sum focus [Ah yes, the classic “zero-sum” game of “one side wants to keep doing the genocide and the other is dying in the genocide”] on the war in Gaza since Oct. 7 is wearing on some of its Capitol Hill allies, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The tension played out this month when Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) floated a statement in support of pro-Palestinian campus protesters.
The proposal, which has not been previously reported, faced pushback from several senior members of the caucus, multiple sources familiar with the discussions told Axios.
Ultimately, the statement did not go out.
What they're saying: "The CPC Executive Board discusses a wide range of issues. Recently, at the request of E-Board members, the E-Board invited in the ACLU and Bend the Arc to discuss their perspectives on the campus protests with members," a CPC spokesperson told Axios.
"Like on many other topics, [How the CPC gets things done: Start by acknowledging that your caucus discusses “many” topics and similarly fails to even put out a statement after those discussions] a statement was discussed and proposed, but given that summer vacations [Oh no, not your summer vacations!!! Again, it’s insane that a mention of members’ going on cruises to Mexico while people are dying every day made it into this statement.] had started and the complexities of the situation, the chairwoman decided not to move forward."
The story goes on to quote—anonymously, of course—two lawmakers, one of whom told the outlet that putting out even a mere statement would have been “really dumb politically ... why wade into this when it seemed to be dissipating? There's no upside, there's just nothing but misery and crossfire.”
Tellingly, that lawmaker almost certainly meant “misery and crossfire” in the abstract sense, unlike the misery and crossfire that Palestinians have been subjected to, in a very real way, for the last seven months, but also for many, many years before that.
The on-the-record quotes from our elected officials—you know, the guys who very much need us to vote for their team come November—are no less telling, or damning.
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