It’s a symptom of not being able to put things in perspective. Democrats are generally not racist or antisemitic to even a fraction of a degree as the republican base, but it’s all equal. It’s another form of their defense of Trump’s lying - “all politicians lie”.
Therefore, that he lies at an infinitely higher rate about infinitely more important issues (like the election he lost bigly) can be defended because Biden lied about his grades or some horseshit.
If democrats have a “Jewish problem”, republicans have an apocalyptic issue with blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ people, women. And hey, women isn’t a big deal, it’s only half the population after all. Maybe I’m just a crazy dem, but sometimes this stuff is astonishing. Republicans won’t even acknowledge there’s way more people in the party who use “pro-Israel” as a front for their anti-Muslim hatred than there are pro-Palestinian protesters in the democrat party.
Aye of course antisemitism exists on the left, it's sadly not contained to the right wing - although again conflating that with pro-Palestinian protesters is problematic, a number of those protestors are also Jewish.
Bernie Sanders doesn't support such protests because he's anti-semitic ... obviously. If we conflate Israel with Jewishness, that's eerily similar to the anti-Catholic bigotry we also still see ("oh your Catholic, therefore you must be loyal to the non-American Pope" which is why JFK had to give his famous speech on the subject) and basically anti-immigrant anything. The "you're not really an American", you're an X-American where the X isn't viewed as a celebration of our diverse origins but with suspicion that you're really still an "X". That said, just like I've seen people dismiss any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism I have likewise seen anti-semites dress up their anti-semitism as "just criticizing Israel and being pro-Palestinian". You then look at their other statements, their "friends", and realize, nope, that's just anti-semitism. Context matters. That's why Sanders also stressed the continued need to condemn anti-semitism as well because ... people on the left who celebrated Oct the 7th? Yeah fuck those guys. Basically the US Nazis are having a fucking field day. They get to (occasionally physically) attack Jewish and Palestinian Americans and Leftists and occasionally co-opt various groups dumb enough to include them.
But yes completely agree on your larger point that while these problems exist on the left, the right is a complete clusterfuck of whatever bigotry you can imagine and then some. That's not an excuse for the left to not improve, but when it comes down to it, there isn't much of a comparison between the two.
I’d like them to take a microphone to a Trump rally and ask the random redneck what the difference is between a Jew and a Muslim, or why they are pro-Israel.
Someone did that ... and the evangelical response was ... uh ... something else. Basically they support Israel because they view a Jewish State in Israel as a sign of the end times, which remember they want and view as a good thing. So basically they view at as necessary to support Israel so Jesus can come back and send them all straight to heaven and the rest of us to hell. Charming.
On balance, I think Walz brings more to the ticket than Shapiro would have. Walz has been a governor longer, he was in Congress (where he was ranked the 7th-most bipartisan House member), and his 24 years in the National Guard will count in his favor. He supports gun rights, but also favors common-sense regulation. Most of all, he comes across as someone who can be trusted and isn't, you know, weird.
Even though it's unfair, Shapiro's status as a Jew would have itself become an issue, but his time may come.
I dunno, I don't think it would've. While Bernie Sanders never got the nomination, it never came up (which is another reason why the "Democrats, especially the leftist ones, have a Jewish problem" is so fucking stupid). Then again, for the 2016 general election ... especially against Trump? Yeah it probably would've then. But uhhh ... then in the Venn diagram of people who have a problem with Shapiro being Jewish and Harris' skin color and being a woman, that's not quite a circle but I doubt she would've lost much additional support over choosing Shapiro as VP had she done so. Shapiro running for president in (hopefully) 2032? Yes he'll face those problems in the General. With the primaries though it'll be the age old problem of how to unite the various fractious factions in the Democratic Party and how well he is able to do that will yes in depend in part on what is happening with Israel in 8 years. Sadly.
The dems don't have a jewish problem, they have a Gaza problem - as does everyone except Netanyahu. He NEEDS it for his political survival, doing his best to torpedo any possible opening or ceasefire.
Gaza is intractable, and can easily blow up the fragile party unity, so they won't touch it with a ten foot pole. I can't fault them on that.
Yup. And it has to be said, as valuable as this discussion is ... it's a complete tangent from why Walz was chosen. Reportedly Walz and Harris were immediately simpatico while Shapiro wants to wait to run for president himself. It 8 years he'll be 59 and hopefully for him very well positioned to run.
I think the fact that we've talked about it at great length in this thread proves that point. Even if it's a discussion on if you believe it matters or not to voters, it's still something being talked about.
Of course there is some irony in hoping not having him on the ticket would remove that subject from the table and yet people are still talking about it.
Well for that reason I think it's a bit circular, especially if we're referring to the Primary vs General. It's being talked about because the Republicans are attempting to weaponize Shapiro being Jewish as a manufactured attack on Harris and Democrats which of course people rightly point out "that this is stupid", but then they point to the resulting "discussion" as proof that it's important and needs to be discussed. It's an age old tactic of distraction and works shockingly well.
The weakness of democracy when split down the middle, it’s fucked up.
