All due respect, your politics are rooted in a different age than the one we’re currently in, and I don’t think your examples are apt comparisons.
Your post tells me you simply misunderstand the protestors’ goals. Many of them will vote for Kamala, which apparently you can’t fathom. How could they protest her and vote for her?
If the anti-genocide movement is silent, there is NO ONE in this country who will speak out for the Palestinians. I know that you know that Democrats would love to avoid the topic altogether.
1. My politics is rooted in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. I do not think so much has changed. I certainly haven't seen anything in today's politics that is unfamiliar to me. Trump and social media have changed things to some extent, but it's lazy to say, "you're old, you don't get it."
2. I was commenting on the specific interview I posted, and in particular the last paragraph of that interview when the organizer of the uncommitted movement expressly stated her motivations. And she said very clearly that she won't encourage people to vote for Kamala unless there's a change of position.
3. There are plenty of people who will speak out for the Palestinians. In fact, many have. On the ZZLP, there were arguments raging. Dozens of posters were made plenty aware of what was happening.
There were protests all through the streets of many cities last year. Peaceful protests, tinged with some anti-Jewish harassment, but overall enough to raise everyone's awareness.
4. These protesters are the ones who don't get it. Israel handed them the public relations victory on a platter. The entire world was sympathetic to the victims in Gaza. And then these lunatic radicals started burning American flags, shouting Hamas slogans, whatever. Maybe Iran is paying them, who knows.
The goal of any protest movement is, first and foremost, to connect with people. You have to make it seem like your cause is their cause. Look at how the civil rights movement did it. They knew it wouldn't be easy to recruit white people to protest
on behalf of black people. So instead, they framed the movement as an integral part of the American dream. They were asking white people to protest
on behalf of America, on behalf of our ideals of freedom and equality.
There weren't nearly as many gay rights protests, especially in the 1980s -- in part because they didn't need protests per se. They just started coming out of the closet, and encouraging other gay people to come out, and then everyone could see that gay people were their friends, family and neighbors. So the movement for gay rights sold its underlying proposition as
don't hate your neighbors just because who they love and also a bit of the protest on behalf of America.
Protest movements need to get the public to identify with their cause.
The Palestinian protest movement has done exactly the opposite. It has repelled people. It has made people think, "gee, I guess my options are support Israel or support Hamas" and anyone with a brain knows how Americans are going to come out on that. And to make it worse, the protesters are acting like terrorists. "Uncommitted" is the political equivalent of suicide bombing.
