One Year to the Election: Biden Wars Blow Dem Party Apart

I’ve been expecting this. The Democratic Party is splintering before our eyes. The cause: Joe Biden’s numerous wars. 

I watched on Fox News some of the Saturday pro-Palestinian protest in Washington, D.C. It reminded me of the left-wing demonstrations I reported on 40 years ago when I was a journalist there. Most marches then were against Reagan’s nuclear arms buildup. One of the marcher groups was Women Strike for Peace, founded by far-left Rep. Bella Abzug, remembered for wearing colorful hats.

The new protests combine some of that old-time leftism with the new pro-Palestinian activism. Chants included, “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” meaning no more Israel. Here are some screen shots I took.

This first girl said she was from the University of Massachusetts and shouted against “endless imperial wars.” Notice on the right of these broadcasts, even on pro-Israel Fox News, are simultaneous pictures of the bombing of Gaza by Israel. The TV news shows know wars sell, so they have to report on the current action.

This second girl attacked Israel as a “genocidal apartheid state” and demanded people “challenge imperialism.” She brought up Haiti, Congo, Palestine and Sudan as victims of imperialism.

This third girl said she was one of the Tampa 5, who were arrested for protests, and she’s part of Tampa SDS. I can identify her as Lauren Pinero. She said it was a revival of the “historical” Students for a Democratic Society, a big leftist group from the 1960s and ’70s. Its most famous member was Tom Hayden, the scion of a wealthy Detroit auto executive, later a California state senator and serial hubby to Jane Fonda.

Tampa 5 Girl shouted against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sending arms to Israel: “Hey DeSantis, you will see, Palestine will be free.” But she, like most of the speakers, also blasted the president: “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” And here was a chant linking the old SDS movement, the current pro-Palestine movement and the open-borders movement: “From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go. From the border to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The BLM, Antifa and other leftist movements are blending into the pro-Palestine movement. Another speaker, for whom I don’t have a picture, was a black man who attacked “Genocide Joe” and brought up Nelson Mandela, saying Israel was like South Africa, an “apartheid state.” He also said Israel was a “settler colonial project” and demanded “the end of settler colonialism in Palestine.”

“Settler colonialism” is a leftist buzzword of recent years. It means settlers conquered a land and exterminated the locals. Examples include the United States, Australia and of course Israel. 

The leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, supposedly anti-racist, in this article curiously is nonchalant about what happens to the settler colonialists – which in America would be anybody not an American Indian – should “justice” be imposed:

WHAT IS SETTLER-COLONIALISM?

We can begin by defining settler-colonialism as it relates specifically to Indigenous peoples of North America. The goal of settler-colonization is the removal and erasure of Indigenous peoples in order to take the land for use by settlers in perpetuity. According to Laura Hurwitz and Shawn Borque’s “Settler Colonialism Primer,” “This means that settler colonialism is not just a vicious thing of the past, such as the gold rush, but exists as long as settlers are living on appropriated land and thus exists today.”

Historically, the settler-colonial agenda involved committing genocide by murdering Indigenous peoples (see Manifest Destiny, the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and the Wounded Knee siege of 1970, the Sand Creek Massacre, King Philip’s War and countless other conflicts). That agenda also meant stealing land through treaties that were later broken or ignored (see the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the history of the Lakota and the unceded Black Hills). Students should understand that the United States couldn’t exist without its settler-colonial foundation.

Settler colonialism differs from other kinds of colonialism, where the locals are not largely exterminated, as with the British Raj in India.

This is just ideology. Any glance at history shows conquests occur, and indeed still are occurring. The conquerors then establish a New Order with themselves at the top. They also decide what happens to the conquered. The treatment varies. The Ottomans didn’t exactly treat my ancestors in Transylvania well, but I don’t have anything against American citizens who are Turks.

Muslims, Arabs, Gen Z turning on Biden

PBS headlined Nov. 1: “For Arab Americans around Detroit, a sense of betrayal after U.S. response to Israel-Hamas war.” This is Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s district. 

The story: 

While President Joe Biden announced his administration will provide $100 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, his visit to Tel Aviv and the subsequent request for a $105 billion defense package – a funding request that includes more than $14 billion in aid for  Israel – drew swift condemnation from Arab Americans across Metro Detroit. Coupled with consistent messaging and backing for the state of Israel during this war, some Arab American community members said they felt betrayed and sidelined, especially after the president promised “a seat at the table” for the community while campaigning for office.

USA Today headlined Nov. 3: “Biden is getting squeezed over Israel-Hamas war. Will it cost him the White House?” The story:

WASHINGTON – Two days after a Democratic Jewish group launched an ad praising President Joe Biden as a steadfast friend and supporter of Israel, the president was challenged at a Democratic Party fundraiser about his approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

“Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” said the woman, who identified herself as Jessica Rosenberg. “Palestinians and Israelis have died. Please explain to me why.”

Biden is getting increasingly squeezed within his own party by those who want him to stand strong behind Israel after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and those warning that the Palestinian people are at risk of annihilation.

Radicalized Gen Z

Then there’s Generation Z, the youngest voting cohort, those in their 20s (born roughly 1998-2012). They’ve been radicalized their whole lives by Biden, Democrats, and the far-left K-12 and university systems. The three girls I highlighted above all are Gen Z. 

Forbes reported Oct. 31:

But almost half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 side with Hamas on many issues surrounding the dispute; almost a third of them deny that any of the militants shot, raped or beheaded Israelis during the attack—despite evidence to the contrary.

Mark Penn, Co-Director of the Harvard CAPS / Harris poll and Stagwell Chairman and CEO, spoke to Forbes about the findings. “A lot of people who are out there demonstrating don't really support what Hamas’s objectives are,” says Penn. Many have simply conflated Hamas with Palestine and don’t even know that Hamas is committed to destroying the state of Israel.

“Rebellion has been has been typical at the university but we are seeing something very different,” says Penn. “Young people are in an information envelope of their own.”

“I've rarely seen an issue that is more generationally-focused than party-focused in the last few years,” says Penn, who cites social media as a possible factor in explaining the polarized views.

Kids these days. They’re all on TikTok. Which I can’t stand, or understand. Now, imagine trying to explain TikTok to Joe Biden. He’s so old he’s not even a Baby Boomer (born 1946-64), but was born in 1942, part of the so-called Silent Generation (1925-1945). 

2024 Election Already Crazy

These anti-Biden Gen Z, Arab, Muslim, BLM, Antifa etc. Democrat voters hate Biden. And they’re unlikely to go for Trump. But they could stay home, or vote for a Third Party candidate, such as Bobby Kennedy Jr. or Cornel West.

That well could give Michigan, Minnesota – home of Rep. Ilhan Omar – and other states to Donald Trump. Who could be elected from jail.

John Seiler blogs at johnseiler.substack.com