After the Election...

With just a few days before the election, progressives remain deeply divided.  There are some on the left who won’t vote for Harris out of anger with the Biden administrations’ response to the Israeli assault on Gaza.  They take a moral stance, that Biden is responsible for funding and not stopping the genocide.  It’s a position that I respect, but do not share.  There are many of us who care deeply about justice for Palestine, who deplore genocide, but who make a different strategic decision: that a second Trump administration is too great a danger to risk.  That is my position, also worthy of respect, and shared as well by many Muslim organizations and many prominent activists, including AOC and Bernie Sanders, who has more reason than most to be angry at the Democratic leadership. 

At this point, it seems unlikely that Biden will change his position on Palestine in the next few days, nor that Harris will make the statement we are all longing to hear from her.  It also seems clear that Netanyahu wants Trump to win, and has no incentive to agree to a ceasefire as long as he can hope that Trump will take the helm and give him carte blanche to complete the annihilation of Gaza, expand the war, and annex the West Bank.

We need to shift our thinking from arguing with each other, to how we come together to organize after the election.  How can we best open up political space and increase political pressure on politicians to stop Israeli human rights abuses, end the war, bring the hostages home, and establish a path toward freedom and self-determination for Palestine—the only true foundation for peace and security for Israel?

Great organizing has already been done on this issue by so many groups.  But we have yet to build a movement broad enough and deep enough to wield the power we need to stop the atrocities.  More needs to be done.

The Harris campaign has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people over the last three months to get involved in politics, supporting candidates, canvassing, making calls, sending texts, writing postcards.  If Harris wins, these supporters will be energized and enthused, and many will be ripe to be mobilized to work for justice for Palestine.  It might be wiser to consider how to do that, rather than castigating every Harris voter as a genocide enabler.  We hate genocide, and we care about Palestine, but we prefer not to live under a Chrysto-fascist dictatorship headed by an unhinged, vengeful narcissist with a known track record of Islamophobia!  We also care about teenagers bleeding out in the parking lots of hospitals because they were denied care in the E.R., about soldiers dying on the battlefield in Ukraine, about the lives and dignity of people of color, immigrants, queer and trans folks and women, and about the ravages of hurricanes, drought, floods, and the irreversible damage to the life support systems of the earth, which cannot withstand a Trump regime undoing the small progress we have made and proceeding to ‘drill, baby drill!’  We share the goal of ending the war and establishing justice in the region, but we have made a different strategic choice as to how to reach that goal.

What leverage will we have after the election?  If Harris wins, the Democrats will want to accomplish their goals and their agenda, and for that, they will need public support.  We will have the leverage of public opinion, of massive numbers of people raising their voices and demanding change, if we do the work to make it happen,

There are many ways, large and small, to use that leverage.  Organizing is all about getting other people to do things.  So find things you can do, and get a bunch of people to do them with you,

Here are a few ideas:  I hope others will have more and better ones!

If you vote for Harris, send her and Biden a note: “I voted for Harris in spite of the Biden  administration’s support for the Israeli assault on civilians, destructions of hospitals, universities and critical infrastructure, targeting of aid workers and campaign of starvation and deprivation against the entire population of Gaza.  If Harris wins, I expect her to uphold American and International Law, stop funding this genocide, end the expansion of the war to the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran, and let Israel know that our support is conditioned on a real path to Palestinian self-determination.” 

If you don’t vote for Harris, (although if you’re in a swing state I sincerely hope you will), at least make your protest visible by sending something similar.

Connect with the many groups who are already doing work around this issue in your area, and find out how you can support them.  Organize a group of your friends to go to demonstrations together, to support students who have been arrested or suffered academic consequences for taking a stand, to fundraise for organizations, or get involved in many other ways.

Organize teach-ins as we did way back in the days of the Vietnam War, to educate the public on the issue.  Write articles, letters to the editor, social media posts, etc.

Biden issued an ultimatum on October 13, giving Israel 30 days to allow more aid into Gaza and stop the bombing of civilians or he would cut off funds.  Pressure him to really do it!

Organize an affinity group—a small group of friends committed to taking action together, educating one another, and decide together what you can do and where you can make an impact.

We could, on a national scale, organize a Pledge of Resistance as we did in the ‘80s to forestall a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, where activists all over the country pledge to commit or support civil disobedience.

If you belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, organize dialogues, presentations, statements from your faith community, or other actions.

Come up with your own creative ideas and tactics!

All of this will be possible under a Harris administration and, I believe, can be effective.  As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, it works if you work it!  Or as Harris herself says, “When we fight, we win!”

Under a Trump administration, our organizing will have to take a more grim and desperate turn.  We’ll be strategizing about how to protect our immigrant friends and neighbors from round-ups and mass deportation, how to counter the waves of blatant racism, misogyny and homophobia his election will amplify, and more.  The movement will likely shrink to the most committed and least intimidated, and we may well find ourselves facing unchecked violence and repression.  Meanwhile, the carnage in Gaza will continue and spread, and we will have no leverage to stop it.

Personally, I prefer the first option.  I understand the agony, the moral outrage and revulsion at the war in Gaza.  If you’re in California or New York, you can indulge that morality.  But if you’re in a swing state, I would urge you to expand it, to consider the full scope of the possible consequences of your choice, and to vote strategically.  However you vote, remember that the election is only the beginning.  Peace and justice for the region, for the world, will depend on what we do afterwards.

(The image above are Oak’s brilliant Wave Goodbye to the Patriarchy hankies on the Reproductive Rights altar at this year’s Spiral Dance)