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CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHOICE WE MAKE IN NOVEMBER  
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Dr. James J. Zogby
October 21, 2024
Washington Watch
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_ This isn’t a normal election. My community has been deeply
traumatized by the genocide in Gaza and now the devastating war on
Lebanon...Explain how punishing Vice-President Harris and enabling
Donald Trump to become president will end the genocide... _

Photo: Fox 5 New York,

 

This presidential contest has generated an intense debate within the
Arab American community. If it were a normal election year, I’d be
out in the field urging my community to vote for Democrats. I’d be
warning Arab Americans that we needed to do everything we could to
stop Donald Trump from re-entering the White House. I’d remind them
of his racism, xenophobia, and anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric.
I’d point to the danger he poses to women’s rights, civil rights
and civil liberties, the environment, health and safety protections in
the workplace, health care, academic freedom, civil discourse, and the
Constitution. It would be, as we say, “A slam dunk.”  But
this isn’t a normal election. 

My community has been deeply traumatized by the genocide in Gaza and
now the devastating war on Lebanon. They are justifiably furious at
the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce U.S. laws that
could rein in Israel’s unconscionable and illegal actions, and
accuse them of enabling Israel’s impunity.  

Given this, there’s been a significant decline in Arab American
support for Democrats, an uptick in support for the GOP, and many
saying that they want to punish Democrats by voting for a third-party
candidate. I, too, feel this pain and am torn as to how to move
forward. I wish it were different, but it just isn’t. 

However, I have some questions for those
who rightly hold this Democratic administration responsible
for genocide and want to punish the Democratic nominee for
president. When they say they are voting their conscience by
supporting a third party, I ask them to explain how punishing
Vice-President Harris and enabling Donald Trump to become president
will end the genocide—especially as we have allies in the
progressive side of the Democratic Party who support and have been
working with us to advance our foreign and domestic policy concerns
and will be with us to pressure a Harris White House? Meanwhile, the
party of Trump is dominated by hardline hawks who have little or no
concern for Palestinians or our civil rights. Or how voting for
parties that have been around for decades and struggle to gain even 1%
of the vote will advance anything other than helping elect Donald
Trump? Or how turning our backs on all of the groups who have been
our allies in the struggles for our civil and political rights and for
a just foreign policy adds up to “voting
one’s conscience”? 

It reminds me of a lesson I learned from the late Julian Bond in the
aftermath of the 1968 election. A decade ago, I wrote a reflection on
that lesson. I ask you to consider it again: 
 

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_It was 1968 and the US was reeling from the Vietnam War, urban
unrest, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Senator
Robert Kennedy. _ 
 
_In the wake of voter opposition to the war, President Lyndon Johnson
had been forced to end his reelection bid in favor of his Vice
President Hubert Humphrey. _ 
 
_All of this was in the air when Democrats met for their convention to
formally nominate Humphrey. On the first night of the convention,
there was a fight over whether to recognize the all-white Georgia
delegation or the mixed black and white delegation led by a young
Georgia civil rights leader Julian Bond. The mixed delegation won a
partial victory. On the second night, the convention wrestled with an
effort to amend the platform to oppose the continuation of the war.
Bond was a leader in this fight too. The amendment lost. _ 
 
_On the third night, when the convention met to nominate Humphrey’s
vice-presidential running mate, the anti-war delegates proposed Bond
to run against the party leaders’ hand-picked choice, Senator Ed
Muskie. When the party leaders couldn’t silence the anti-war
opposition, they brought in the police who were televised beating
delegates who were chanting Bond’s name. _ 
 
_On the final day of the convention, after Humphrey and Muskie gave
their acceptance speeches, Julian Bond came on stage and in a show of
unity held up Humphrey’s and Muskie’s hands. Many young activists,
like myself, were devastated. _ 
 
_A few years later, I got to know Julian Bond, and asked him why he
did that and told him how let down I had felt. In response, he told me
that there were two types of people. Those who looked down at the
evils of the world and said, “I’m going to stand on my principles
because it’s got to get a lot worse before it gets better.” Then
there are those who say, “I’ve got to get to work to see if I can
make it at least a little bit better.”_ 
 
_He told me “I’m with the second group because if I took the first
view, I’d be allowing too many people to continue to suffer while I
maintained my purity and refused to do anything to help.  At the
convention, it wasn’t Julian Bond versus Ed Muskie. It was Hubert
Humphrey versus Richard Nixon, and I had to make a choice as to who
would help make life at least a little bit better.”_ 
 
_I never forgot that lesson and am challenged daily to apply it. It is
the reason why I have so little patience for ideologues from the right
or the left. _ 

_They often miss the muck of the reality in which most of us live and
the tough, and often less-than-perfect, choices with which we are
confronted in the never-ending challenge to make life a little bit
better—whether in the struggle for human rights, improvements in the
quality of life, or the provision of security for those who are most
vulnerable_

_[DR. JAMES J. ZOGBY is President of the Arab American Institute.]_

James J. Zogby 
[email protected]
 

* 2024 Elections
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* Arab Americans
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Kamala Harris
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* Donald Trump
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* MAGA
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* GOP
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* Democratic Party
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* Fascism
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* Palestine
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* Israel
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* Lebanon
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* Biden Administration
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* U.S.-Israel military aid
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* 1968 Election
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* Richard Nixon
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* Julian Bond
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* Gaza
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* voting
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