It shows the importance of this one issue over everything else, to these voters, how greatly it overshadows.
I’ve been doing a lot of hard thinking on this problem, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
Basically, it’s impossible to come up with a position that supports both. The middle ground compromise (hate war, two state solution, Israel should stop but also has a right to defend itself) doesn’t get enough of the Jewish vote (too hard on not letting Israel defend itself adequately or getting hostages freed, from their POV) but also not enough of the Muslim vote (too easy on Israel after committing war crimes as per ICC and various UN body rulings).
Instead, Harris should say her views are evolving but she needs to hear from voters more. She is willing to support both the pro-Israel and the pro-Palestine positions, but will defer her decision until a post-election referendum.
The US doesn’t have a system for national referendums, but I’m sure she can get the Census Bureau to up with one via Executive Order.
Then, the referendum just asks eligible folks what their views are. Since it’s not an official vote, we can have non-citizens responding too (since many non-citizens such as green card holders or work visa holders pay taxes, I feel this is reasonable). Harris then simply obeys the mandate given by the referendum.
In the mean time, these folks who were holding out on Harris previously can now vote for her with a clean conscience and also put their energy into getting the vote out for the upcoming referendum!
It shows the importance of this one issue over everything else, to these voters, how greatly it overshadows.
I’ve been doing a lot of hard thinking on this problem, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
Basically, it’s impossible to come up with a position that supports both. The middle ground compromise (hate war, two state solution, Israel should stop but also has a right to defend itself) doesn’t get enough of the Jewish vote (too hard on not letting Israel defend itself adequately or getting hostages freed, from their POV) but also not enough of the Muslim vote (too easy on Israel after committing war crimes as per ICC and various UN body rulings).
Instead, Harris should say her views are evolving but she needs to hear from voters more. She is willing to support both the pro-Israel and the pro-Palestine positions, but will defer her decision until a post-election referendum.
The US doesn’t have a system for national referendums, but I’m sure she can get the Census Bureau to up with one via Executive Order.
Then, the referendum just asks eligible folks what their views are. Since it’s not an official vote, we can have non-citizens responding too (since many non-citizens such as green card holders or work visa holders pay taxes, I feel this is reasonable). Harris then simply obeys the mandate given by the referendum.
In the mean time, these folks who were holding out on Harris previously can now vote for her with a clean conscience and also put their energy into getting the vote out for the upcoming referendum!