• Zaktor
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    3 months ago

    Outside groups somehow universally guaranteeing support support and only then being allowed to join the political process is just not how things work. And they’re not putting a random person or even the group as a whole on stage. It’s a particular person with a reputation and incentives to not make an enemy of the Democratic party and future president.

    This fear that they’re likely to go rogue, or that such a risk would always outweigh the benefits is not realistic, and massively downplaying how important it is to heal this rift. This is the single serious issue weighing on both youth support and the support of critical populations in swing states. Pretending like nothing needs to be done to resolve that is a foolish strategy.

    At the same time, frankly, among the people most likely to actually vote (those 65+) support is incredibly favourable to Israel, even during this conflict.

    This “old people are the only people who vote” meme is just completely disconnected from reality. Old people vote at higher rates, but they were only around 25% of the total number of votes cast in 2020. Around the same number as 18-34 (40M vs. 38M). And they tend to be biased toward Republicans, while 18-34 is strongly Democratic. Chasing voters who aren’t likely to support you while alienating those who are is something with “negligible possible gains” and “huge risk”. Avoiding it is a “no brainer”.