But my guess would be because so many in the US were happy with retailiatory genocide and it took quite a long time and many Palestinian deaths for their opinions to shift (which has finally now happened)
This isn’t really true. Only a month after the Al-Aqsa Flood, support for Israel was 50% among all USAmericans and only 36% among Democrats. That tells us the Democratic base was opposed to the genocide almost from the very beginning, and though it took the rest of the US a little longer by the following March a majority of Americans opposed it.
The function of the Democratic party is to demobilize and discipline their base, not actually represent them or their interests.
Your first link supports my statement - the majority of US citizens supported Israel’s military action (50% support, 45% disapproved)?
By March 2024, well into the most gratuitous parts of the genocide - and after four months of respected authorities and institutions worldwide had been quoted in hundreds of news articles denouncing it as genocide, 58% still said that Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas were valid, while only 22% said Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel were valid (vs 49% claiming it invalid) and the majority agreed that “Israel’s conduct during the war has been acceptable” (38% vs 34%)..
I read “so many were happy” as implying something larger than an slim majority - not a 5 point margin that immediately shrank.
And there’s a clear difference between Israel losing support and Hamas gaining support, so I’m not sure why you’re bringing that up. It’s not like Democrats had to come out in support of Hamas or Palestinian resistance to capture the growing anti-genocide movement’s votes. All they needed to do was stop giving military support to Israel once the tide turned a few months into the war.
Democrats chose to lose because they’d rather not be in the government than be forced to turn their backs on Israel. The only fix I see for the problem is new blood in the party - the old guard have to go, because they’d rather die than stop supporting Israel.
This isn’t really true. Only a month after the Al-Aqsa Flood, support for Israel was 50% among all USAmericans and only 36% among Democrats. That tells us the Democratic base was opposed to the genocide almost from the very beginning, and though it took the rest of the US a little longer by the following March a majority of Americans opposed it.
The function of the Democratic party is to demobilize and discipline their base, not actually represent them or their interests.
Your first link supports my statement - the majority of US citizens supported Israel’s military action (50% support, 45% disapproved)?
By March 2024, well into the most gratuitous parts of the genocide - and after four months of respected authorities and institutions worldwide had been quoted in hundreds of news articles denouncing it as genocide, 58% still said that Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas were valid, while only 22% said Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel were valid (vs 49% claiming it invalid) and the majority agreed that “Israel’s conduct during the war has been acceptable” (38% vs 34%)..
I read “so many were happy” as implying something larger than an slim majority - not a 5 point margin that immediately shrank.
And there’s a clear difference between Israel losing support and Hamas gaining support, so I’m not sure why you’re bringing that up. It’s not like Democrats had to come out in support of Hamas or Palestinian resistance to capture the growing anti-genocide movement’s votes. All they needed to do was stop giving military support to Israel once the tide turned a few months into the war.
Democrats chose to lose because they’d rather not be in the government than be forced to turn their backs on Israel. The only fix I see for the problem is new blood in the party - the old guard have to go, because they’d rather die than stop supporting Israel.