One reason Kamala Harris is on the Democratic ticket is because of her identity. One reason Josh Shapiro isn’t on the ticket is because of his.
In March 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden declared that he would choose a woman as his running mate. The following month, after Mr. Biden became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, multiple news outlets started reporting on the “pressure” influential Democrats were applying to ensure that the woman he chose would be Black.
Ms. Harris’s race and gender were not the only reasons Mr. Biden chose her. She served as attorney general of the country’s most populous state and had been a senator for four years.
But it’s disingenuous to argue that race and gender played no role in her advancement.
The matter of identity arose again in this year’s Democratic veep stakes, but in a subtler, more insidious way. In this case, the candidate in question doesn’t possess an identity trait preferred by the left, but one the left increasingly views with suspicion.
Among the possible reasons Ms. Harris chose Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota over Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, according to a report in The Times, was that Mr. Shapiro’s selection could “inflame the left.” And chief among the reasons given for this potential inferno was Mr. Shapiro’s allegedly extreme pro-Israel views. An article in The New Republic called Mr. Shapiro “the one vice-presidential pick who could ruin Democratic unity” and claimed that he “stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine.” A writer for Jacobin, a socialist magazine, labeled him a “genocide apologist.” A group of far-left congressional staffers and the Democratic Socialists of America teamed up to produce an open letter demanding that Ms. Harris “say no to Genocide Josh Shapiro for vice president.”
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While I substantively agree with the article, I disagree with its title (from the source). The Democrats don't have a problem with Josh Shapiro. They have an antisemitism problem.
As an article in the NYT notes, “Democrats’ Unity Convention Has One Giant Exception: The Gaza War” and given the change at the top of the ticket so late it makes no sense to exacerbate the one real substantive are of disagreement. and that isn’t a hornets nest of anti-semitism, it’s a disagreement between those who care more about some civilians than others. The problem is between those who agree with Republicans in giving Israel a blank check and a constituency of Americans who understand the pain of those who care as much about their family members as do those who have family in Israel. And of course there is a minority who believes just about everyone involved has been acting horribly for decades, that no one has clean hands.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, the Democrats are the ones who have put into office the highest ever ranking Jewish leader in U.S. history - the current Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer.
ReplyDeleteI can agree that the LEFT has an antisemitism problem, but it is harder to see how this is an example of the DEMOCRATS having such a problem. Most of the left antisemitism occurs among that end of the left that has such contempt for the Democratic party. Remember when right wing campus protesters started chanting “f*¢# Joe Biden” to taunt the left wing, anti-Israel protesters, and the left wing protesters joined them in that chant?
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