Gretchen Whitmer responds to calls by some Democrats to vote ‘uncommitted’ in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday
Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, pushed back on calls to not vote for Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying on Sunday that could help Trump get re-elected.
“It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that any vote that’s not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term,” she said on Sunday during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “A second Trump term would be devastating. Not just on fundamental rights, not just on our democracy here at home, but also when it comes to foreign policy. This was a man who promoted a Muslim ban.”
Whitmer, who is a co-chair of Biden’s 2024 campaign, also said she wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to the protest vote.
Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat who is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress, urged Democrats last week to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s 27 February primary.
Not only that, but it effectively does nothing as Trump will support Israel as well.
It’s a primary…
What they’re hoping it will do is show the party and Biden that his actions don’t follow the value of Dem voters.
The goal is for him to shape up so he doesn’t depress turnout and let’s trump wins like when he ran against Hillary.
Ignoring the problem and letting the media keep calling Biden “most progressive president yet” will disenfranchise Dems and hurt turnout.
Dem voters aren’t Republican voters. Fear isn’t enough to motivate them, it works on conservatives because they’re statistically likely to have a larger amygdala. Liberals (actual liberals) are more likely to have increased frontal lobe activity that handles empathy and critical thinking.
The main problem is neoliberals are essentially conservatives. They may vote D, but they think like Rs. And without that critical thinking and empathy, they assume everyone else is like them. Like Republicans do.
The result is actual liberals look at both parties, and realize it’s not a good thing the same type of people are now running the only two options. Especially when the donations are coming from the same place.
AIPAC for example. They’re funding Biden and Republicans who say Trump won, while attacking Dem incumbents who are against genocide.
Because all AIPAC cares about us Israel. They dont give two shits about Biden or America.
And as we’ve seen with his decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem, his position is even more extreme. Everyone who has paid any attention to his position on such matter should be able to figure out what his response to the current conflict would be. He for sure wouldn’t even try to reign Netanyahu in but actively encourage further brutalities. That’s exactly the “strong man” bullshit Trump adores.
So even if you really dislike Biden’s handling of this whole shit show, you better believe that Trump would be even worse. And that’s just the foreign politics part of the Middle East, we all know what harm Trump wants to cause to the US itself.
Moving embassy to Jerusalem was bad because it basically spit in the face of Palestinians - but we are literally supplying bombs that are killing Palestinians right now.
One’s a spit in the face. The other is a 2,000lb warhead in the face.
Would Trump have done the same? Probably. But we know for a fact Biden did what he did.
Trump absolutely would support Israel AT LEAST as much as Biden does right now. I mean come on, Israel is killing lots of Muslims, that’s something Trump can always get behind.
I used the example of the embassy since it’s something previous administrations wouldn’t have done as they knew it would only unnecessary put oil into the fire. And Biden damn sure knows this as well. Trump, either didn’t care or didn’t listen.
if i were a muslim i would not vote for biden. i wouldn’t vote for trump either… but definitely not biden
again. we know with 100% certainty biden supports the genocide. even if trump is 95%, that’s still better odds
Then you simply didn’t pay attention to Trumps attitude to Muslims in general and advocating war crimes without any impunity. Trump absolutely would be worse than Biden in this situation. He for example for sure wouldn’t have made Netanyahu drop the complete blockade of food and water. He would have cheered this cruelty on.
i don’t know what trump would have done. neither do you. the guy’s a bit of a wild card. for example look at russia he’s totally down to just drop the ukraine war. meanwhile biden supports prolonging it however long is necessary
i’m not defending trump i’m just saying if i were a muslim and especially if i were a Palestinian i would never vote for biden. it’s unforgivable. i support the muslims in michigan. if the democrats want votes, they need to push policies that the people actually want
they can’t just expect people to keep voting for them because of the eternal right-wing boogeyman. because it’s getting so bad people are actually starting to wonder if maybe the far-right proto fascist is better and that’s a piss poor state of affairs for a democracy to be in
What are you talking about? Trump obviously wouldn’t support Ukraine. It’s really no secret that he’s in Russia’s pocket. His attitude towards Muslims also is something he’s very open about. Not to mention his love for strong-men wanna be dictators like Netanyahu is well known. To think that he would be better for Palestinians is ridiculous. So no, I’m absolutely certain that Trump would have handled this situation much worse and will handle it worse if he gets into office while it’s still raging.
Then these people are fucking stupid and don’t realise how much they have to loose living under fascism. Especially if their Muslims living in the US! The Israel Palestinian conflict is one thing, to loose democracy at home is something much worse.
that’s what i’m saying. he would drop us’s support of the war, likely ending the war sooner. so he’s not necessarily a war monger. i don’t know for a fact he would support israel’s war in gaza. maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t i don’t know.
we have already lost democracy if we have no choice but to vote for someone. either way you don’t really have a choice. see what i mean? trump and biden are different pathways to the same end game. death of democracy
It effectively proves to Democrats that if they support Genocide like Republicans they will never win.
If Democrats want to bend over backwards to appeal to a small minority of AIPAC voters, they will lose all their other voters.
Oh, it has nothing to do with AIPAC VOTERS. It’s ALL about AIPAC DONORS.
Big difference…
It’s both. Dems want to appeal to voters that are brainwashed by AIPAC.
There is also a Zionist minority in America that will only vote for a Zionist president and Dems are so afraid to lose them that they will throw away every single moral value they have to appeal to them.
But if the Dems aren’t shown that they will lose more voters by kneeling for AIPAC than they will gain, the Dems will not be incentivized to clean up their act. In fact Dems will only become more extreme in their Zionism because they know that people will keep voting for AIPAC anyways.
Biden still has a shot to win voters back by actually managing to get recognition for a Palestinian state implemented. But he’s just dancing around that subject as long as possible and it doesn’t look like he’s serious in any way.
There are more AIPAC dollars than there are AIPAC voters, but then I guess that’s always the inherent problem with our political system:
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/12/pro-israel-pacs-poised-to-spend-big-to-unseat-progressive-members-of-congress-in-2024-election-cycle
https://thepoliticswatcher.com/pages/articles/congress/2023/12/7/aipac-donations-congress-members-unveiling-influence
The top three israeli money recipients being Democrats, and the top being Biden, is not a great argument to vote Democrat though.
If Biden tanks Israel where do you think that money is going to go?
Biden is the most willing to sell out to israel. Which is why Biden is getting that money. I must say that the Dems are very cheap too, they sell their souls for a few million dollars.
“If I don’t do it somebody else will” is the default excuse for any crime. This excuse only works if enough people keep believing in it.
“Let’s (literally) destroy democracy so we might be able to save the Democratic Party”.
Did you miss all the great speeches at CPAC?
Do you not understand what “primary” means?
A meaningless formality since 2012.
“Let’s literally commit Genocide so Biden doesn’t have to run another 4 years”.
Trumps rise to power is a direct consequence of the DNC sabotaging every attempt of real progressives like Bernie that could have actually fixed issues.
It creates both voter apathy and it enables right-wingers to point to the deteriorated standards of living under Biden and blame Biden for it (and biden pulls out another 15 Billion for israel) (cue someone linking me how people working 3 jobs is good for unemployment)
If Biden wins now the unrest and support for right-wing authoritarianism will only grow.
2016
If bad Dems keep winning the right will only grow stronger.
If Biden wins this time #Hitler2028 is a plausible reality as Biden is doing nothing to address any real problems and only gradually making things worse. Further bolstering Republicans.
The only way I see Biden winning this election is a) Trump has a stroke B) they throw Trump in jail
The polls are clear, people are growing increasingly tired of Biden. Trump was one of the most unpopular presidents in history - and Biden is even more unpopular.
We’re fucked either way, like you said. Biden wins and the unrest is delayed and will blow up even stronger later on. Put Trump in jail and that unrest will be amplified tenfold. Look what happened when Hitler got out of jail (or Lula in Brazil for a more recent example) If Bifen loses, we of course have our proto-fascist.
Honestly I admire Trump for both his ability to absolutely dominate the GOP, even when the big donors are directly against him and his perseverance and dedication to do literally anything in his power to win.
I don’t know how he still has such a fire inside him at his age.
He only beat Haley 60-40 in SC. Media talks about his big primary wins, but they’re not really showing a politician that has really consolidated his party, especially as a virtual incumbent. He’s probably the only Republican Biden could beat, and Biden is conversely the only Democrat Trump could beat. Yet on we march to a repeat general election between two candidates most people don’t like.
to be fair, that’s probably one of the worst performing states for him because it’s Haley’s home state
Look at what happened at the primary in Nevada. He was removed from the ballot so he told his supporters to not go out and vote. What happened? Over 60% voted “none of these candidates”
Nikki Haley lost to “none of these candidates”
if you look at the polls for the republican primary: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/
trump is >75%
that’s domination, especially considering a) desantis got more funding AND was polling better at the start of the campaign season and b) nikki haley picked up that funding after desantis dropped out
the establishment republicans are desperate to get rid of trump but he’s like a tick that won’t go away
He wasn’t removed from the ballot, he chose to remove himself because the party rules said candidates had to do that to compete in the caucus that would actually choose electors. “None of the above” were just Trump votes, which falls in line with a candidate who should be doing better for his name recognition and history.
He can be solidly above 50%, assuring a primary win, and still not be demonstrating that he’s consolidated his party. He won his 2020 primaries with 94% of the vote.