From “the black cloud” of Vietnam that caused the Democrats to lose in 1968 to that of Gaza on Kamala Harris’ current campaign

“Welcome to the belly of the beast.” This is how Waleed Shahid greets, in reference to Washington DC, headquarters of the US federal government, which has it in its power to continue facilitating, or not, the weapons with which Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza for more than a year. Waleed Shahid is a Democratic strategist who has recently participated in the Uncommitted National Movement – ​​not to support the Democratic nomination of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because of their support for Israel – and has been a spokesperson for Justice Democrats for six years, when he played a key role in the launch of the Green New Deal campaign and the election of progressive representatives of the left wing of the Democratic Party such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Summer Lee. Shahid was a senior adviser to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s election campaign and worked for Bernie Sanders in 2016.

With barely a week left until the US presidential elections, Shahid reflects on a key element that the Democratic community is going through: the Israeli genocide in Gaza. “For more than a year there has been an alliance of progressive Democrats, Muslim Democrats and young Arabs who have been pushing for a change in the White House policy on sending weapons to Israel,” explains Shahid: “And nothing has changed substantially in the last year, neither by Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris. “There is a lot of desperation among core voters in the Democratic Party, and this deeply affects Vice President Harris because it diminishes enthusiasm for her campaign among the communities that formed Biden’s coalition in 2020 and are no longer driving Harris’ candidacy.”

Vice President Harris plans to hold a large electoral event this Tuesday on the esplanade of the National Mall, in Washington DC, right between the White House and the Washington Monument – ​​the obelisk. And, right there, the pro-Palestinian movement has called for a protest.

“On October 29, Kamala Harris will give her campaign speech final argument on the Ellipse of the White House, right in the belly of the beast “We are mobilizing to demand an immediate arms embargo and an end to the US-backed genocide,” the call reads: “The Democratic Party and the Biden-Harris administration have the power to impose an arms embargo and immediately stop the genocide in Gaza, but they refuse to do so. The US is directly responsible for the suffering, and we refuse to allow Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration to exploit the pain for political gain as Election Day approaches. Instead of responding to its base, 60% of which supports an arms embargo, the Democratic Party is multiplying its support for a Zionism drifting towards fascism. Join us at the Washington Monument to send a message to the establishment democrat”.

Shahid acknowledges being “deeply concerned about the way in which the vice president’s position of continuing to unconditionally provide weapons to Benjamin Netanyahu is alienating her voters.”

And, meanwhile, Donald Trump at his rallies appeals to Muslims and Arab Americans, saying: ‘Look at Kamala Harris, she is aligning herself with Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, some of the most warmongering and anti-Muslim political figures in recent history.’ .

He Democratic mayor of Dearbornthe first American city with an Arab majority, announced last week that it will not ask for support for Harris: “I am not going to support anyone, not even my party’s candidate (…) Let everyone vote according to their moral conscience. When we see the genocide, many faces that appear there in Gaza are not unknown to us in Dearborn, they are our family and our friends. That is why I have taken this position.”

Can Harris lose over the Palestinian issue?

“I’m very afraid of that,” Shahid confesses: “That possibility scares me a lot, I know people in my community, among my friends, that this is the first time that they are not going to vote Democratic. I don’t know if it’s a big enough number, but I think it will have an impact. These elections will be close, they are 50-50, and the Democrats need every vote, but they are not fighting for the vote of certain communities, of certain groups, of people who care about what is happening to the Palestinians and the Lebanese ”.

Shahid has no hope that any gesture will be made in the last final stretch of the campaign: “His campaign team has made a mathematical and political equation according to which there could be more reaction from voters and donors if he openly criticized arms transfers to Israel , and that she has more to lose than gain by doing that. “He has made a decision and I don’t think it will change in the next few days.”

Why is the United States always so committed to Israel? “There are two main reasons,” reflects Shahid: “One is the well-organized presence of pressure groups, like AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Council, which mobilizes a large number of voters and donors and politicians to ensure that if you question the “Unconditional sending of weapons and diplomatic support to Israel would put his political career at risk, which has happened to some people in American politics.”

“And then,” he continues, “the second reason is geopolitical, and it has to do with the fact that in the United States and in the US foreign policy establishment, Israel is seen as a key strategic ally in the Middle East in the military sphere. , financial, commercial… But, above all, it is a political issue: there is a very well-organized community and interest groups that want to ensure that no Democratic leader can win political office unless he adheres to the position of AIPAC, one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party’s political campaigns.”

Parallels with Vietnam

The movement that has been taking place in the US since October 7, 2023 against the unconditional shipment of weapons to Israel, together with the request for a ceasefire “is probably the largest movement against war since 2003, when the invasion of Iraq, or since the 60s, with Vietnam,” explains Shahid: “Obviously, they are a little different issues, because then there were Americans who were being sent to the front abroad. But yes, one of the reasons the Democrats lost the election in 1968 was because many young people did not want to vote for the Democratic Party because it was in favor of the Vietnam War.”

The parallel is also seen in that while Joe Biden will leave a legacy related to “some of the greatest economic reforms in recent American history,” he will also be marked by “supplying weapons to Israel for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”

“There is a parallel with what happened with President Lyndon Johnson in 1968,” explains the Democratic strategist: “When the Democrats were the party of great social, economic and racial change in the United States. But he also had the black cloud of Vietnam hanging over his head. I see some parallels there. The other parallel is that in the same way that most Americans today see the Vietnam War as a failure and see the Iraq War as a failure, maybe in 10 or 20 years everyone will realize the current mistake. .

Electoral campaign without a country idea: “Two famous people fighting each other”

“One of the most unfortunate things is that if you asked most Americans what Kamala Harris’ vision for the country is, they wouldn’t be able to say it,” Shahid acknowledges: “Beyond the fact that she wants to protect the right to abortion. I’m not saying Kamala Harris doesn’t have a vision, and if you go to her website, there are a ton of policies on child care, climate change, and criminal justice reform. But that’s not the way the media and everyone is covering this campaign. It is covered as if they were two celebrities who are fighting each other, instead of two people with different visions of the country and different political recipes. And when democracy doesn’t work, then corporations, billionaires, people like Elon Musk, can do whatever they want because there’s no one to hold them accountable.”

The promoter of the Uncommitted National Movement states about the role of the media: “I don’t think they cover the elections very well. They cover them by saying that Trump said this and Kamala said that. Not like: ‘The number one issue for most Americans is healthcare. What are your positions on healthcare?”

The electoral forecast is that it will take time to know the result, and it will not be the same if Harris or Trump wins: “I don’t think we will know on election night who has won. It might take a few days, but I hope Kamala wins. I think it’ll be a close victory, but right now, based on the number of people I know who aren’t voting for her mainly because of Gaza, I’m pretty scared about whether there will be enough voters, but I think she’ll win narrowly. In that case, Donald Trump will not recognize defeat and a constitutional crisis will open.”