Activists from around the country told The Intercept that they will advocate for an anti-war agenda at the convention in August and withhold their vote in November unless an adequate candidate steps up, listing policy priorities such as support for a permanent ceasefire and standing up to the pro-Israel lobby as it intervenes in Democratic primaries. Even as the Biden campaign insists that he will not step aside, many Democrats appear to be lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate, with some Democratic governors being floated as well.

“My number one criteria for any candidate is opposing the genocide in Gaza,” said Saad Farooq, an uncommitted voter in Massachusetts. Farooq said it was unlikely that the Democratic National Committee would select any candidate who took a stance against Israel’s ongoing war, and that he would support Green Party candidate Jill Stein if she were to appear on the ballot in Massachusetts.

Will Dawson, an uncommitted voter in Washington, D.C., named several factors that could get him to switch his vote from the Green Party’s Stein to another politician. First on his list is a promise to call for an immediate ceasefire and fighting the influence of the pro-Israel lobby and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Congress.

“This candidate would also ideally work toward pulling further away from the Israeli colonial project over time, with the goal being repealing our absurd financial support, ending the foreign interest agency of AIPAC, and pushing for a nation-wide boycott a la [South Africa] during their apartheid,” Dawson wrote.

The candidate would also have to push to reform the Supreme Court, he added. “The candidate would have to promise to both push for justice impeachment, and expand the courts,” Dawson said.“If a replacement candidate met both of these requirements, I would absolutely consider switching my vote from Jill Stein. Hell, I might even knock doors/canvass for them!”

  • fubo@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Nothing is improved by Trump being elected; for Gazans , for Israelis, for Americans, or anyone else.

    • MisterD@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      If Trump gets elected, he’d show Israel what real genocide looks like.

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Yeah anyone who is uncommitted because of Gaza, either was never gonna vote, or is lying to pollsters and is manipulating polls.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Which is why we need to run a candidate with a shot of beating trump…

      It’s too important of an election to let Joe have one more go out of nostalgia.

      It would be easiest for everyone if he stepped aside, but he’s not willing to.

      • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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        It blows my mind that people can argue that Trump is the worst possible outcome for our country and the world, and then follow that up with “we need a candidate that can beat Trump”. If everyone knows what is at stake (democracy), how is Biden not capable of beating Trump? Do people think that not voting, or voting 3rd party is going to somehow keep Trump out of the white house? Anything but a vote for Biden (or whoever ends up on the ticket opposite Trump) is who everyone needs to vote for, or they have chosen Trump and doomed us all.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Do you think it’s easier to convince 10s of millions of voter’s minds?

          Or get Joe Biden to understand that polls show people don’t want him and that the best thing he can do to prevent trump is step aside.

          Seriously.

          • bobburger@fedia.io
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            5 months ago

            Please provide some evidence to support your claim that the best thing Biden can do to prevent Trump getting elected is to step aside.

            • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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              The post-debate Data for Progress poll tested the odds of eight Democrats who have been floated as possible alternatives to Biden, including Vice President Kamala Harris and multiple Democratic governors. Biden’s self-proclaimed advantage is tempered by the lack of name recognition — so far — for the other options. Aside from Harris, prospective voters were so unfamiliar with these Democratic leaders that between 39 and 71 percent* *of respondents said they hadn’t heard enough about them to have an opinion. Even so, each potential candidate performed the same or even better than Biden.

              From this article and Link to the poll

              • bobburger@fedia.io
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                You kind of buried the lede there:

                Overall, these results show that voters continue to be concerned about Biden’s age — but there is not yet clear evidence that an alternative nominee would significantly outperform him against Trump in a head-to-head matchup.

                That’s evidence that some candidates poll similarly to Biden.

                That’s not evidence the best thing Biden can do to stop Trump from becoming president is drop out.

                • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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                  Didn’t really bury it because I don’t agree with that analysis and it’s not part of the poll.

                  If they’re polling similar to him with 39%-71% of the people not knowing who the candidate is that means their floor is where Biden is.

                  • bobburger@fedia.io
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                    …it’s not part of the poll.

                    That quote comes directly from the poll you linked.

                    …that means their floor is where Biden is.

                    That’s a specious conclusion you’re jumping to because it supports your biases. With out more information it’s more likely that once the respondents know who the candidates are the overall responses will fall in line with the population averages and the candidates polling results will be the same as they are now.

                    All we can confidently conclude for now is “39%-71% of people polled don’t know who the candidates in the polls were”.

          • irreticent@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I can’t say for certain what caused the injury, but I’m sure we can all agree that there is an injury.

      • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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        Oh look. Same person who shows up at any anti-Biden post trying to convince people not to vote for Biden, but stops just short of saying they want Trump to win.

        Let’s see all your “genocide Joe” type of comments directed to all the GOP members in Congress who happily support Israel’s efforts.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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      or if Biden is elected

      maybe a few miniscule scraps will make to the people but nothing progressive or meaningful

      our lives are worse than four, eight, twelve, sixteen, or however many four years you want to go back our lives get worse every election no matter who wins

      some of have waited our whole lives for a change with parents and grandparents who have done the same

      • newnton@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Tell that to my friends who’s parents weren’t allowed to get married until our lifetimes or who’s great grandparents were classified as 3/5ths of a person

          • newnton@sh.itjust.works
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            And we didn’t abolish slavery for 89 years after declaring independence. We can absolutely agree change is usually painfully, unnecessarily, terribly slow but it does happen, requiring time, work, and sacrifice

            our lives are worse than four, eight, twelve, sixteen, or however many four years you want to go back our lives get worse every election no matter who wins

            Is what I was replying to and it’s objectively false.

            An important caveat is that positive societal change is absolutely not inevitable, generations have fought to improve the injustices of their times and we must carry on their legacy lest we allow their sacrifices to be in vain

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              I getcha.

              Yeah, the necessity of our current times seems to be following that 80-year generational cycle…

              What’s sad to me is how all of this has seemed inevitable since at least as far back as the DNC boosting Trump and conspiring against Bernie in 2016. I couldn’t have guessed the form it’d take, but I knew that our Von Hindenburg Moment was on the way since the '08 crash got followed up by the astroturfed Tea Party pulling Republicans to the right while Occupy Wall Street went nowhere at all.

              What’s scary is that I still can’t see even a vague outline of the future past 2025. I wouldn’t even bet we’re having elections in 2028, much less what Trump will do with the new criminal immunity for presidential acts and a supreme court majority in his back pocket.

              Nobody’s coming to save us, so it’s up to us to save each other.

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              I getcha.

              Yeah, the necessity of our current times seems to be following that 80-year generational cycle…

              What’s sad to me is how all of this has seemed inevitable since at least as far back as the DNC boosting Trump and conspiring against Bernie in 2016. I couldn’t have guessed the form it’d take, but I knew that our Von Hindenburg Moment was on the way since the '08 crash got followed up by the astroturfed Tea Party pulling Republicans to the right while Occupy Wall Street went nowhere at all.

              What’s scary is that I still can’t see even a vague outline of the future past 2025. I wouldn’t even bet we’re having elections in 2028, much less what Trump will do with the new criminal immunity for presidential acts and a supreme court majority in his back pocket.

              Nobody’s coming to save us, so it’s up to us to save each other.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            They weren’t fully on board until after Obergefell, when they started taking credit for the courts doing what they were too timid to do via legislation.

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              I.E.; not actually leading the charge for human rights, following along only when not doing so would have hurt their standing, and taking credit for reluctant half-measures implemented through the courts (and overturned just as easily by current courts) rather than having put in the effort to amend the bill of rights or at least to pass a federal law while they had the chance.